In a pamphlet giving a brief history of the postal service, compiled by Mr. Stanley I. Slack during the administration of Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith from which a few general facts are taken relating to our early postal history, appears a statement that use had been made of the following works--Journal kept by Hugh Finlay, 1773-74, Brooklyn, 1867. Joyce “History of the British Post Office; The Early History of the Colonial Post Office by Mary E. Wooley; Leech and Nicholson’s History of the Post Office Department, Washington, 1879, and the contributions of the Postal History of the United States by C. W. Ernst of Boston in Vols. XX, 1895, and XXI, 1896; Journal of the Postal Union.” As none of these authorities have been consulted in the publication of this work, or access had to any of them for such purpose, this explanation is made so that if anything from the above mentioned publications appears herein, drawn from Mr. Slack’s pamphlet, the necessary acknowledgment might hereby be made and due credit given. INDEX TO ITEMS OF INTEREST Annual readjustment salaries, 93 Claims for stamps lost by burglary, 95 Credit marks for rural carriers, 97 Cost, country-wide extension rural delivery, 97 Difference in dispatch parcel post matter, 93 Department force at Washington reduced, 97 Eligibles, fourth-class postmasters, 93 Expenditure rural delivery by periods, 98 First Postmaster General to sit at Capital, 94 Gain to Department in fractions of a cent, 94 Increase rural carriers’ pay, 96 Longest mail route, 93 Longest star route, 93 Loss to Government by low money order rate, 95 Mails first carried on steamboats, 98 Number of counties having rural service, 93 Names of postmasters mentioned in 1857, 95 Number of postmasters affected by order of President, 96 Per capita expenditure for postage, 94 Patronage 100 years ago, 94 Period of greatest activity, rural service, 99 Post routes, rural delivery maps, 95 Postal employes in public service, 97 Paper baling machines, 99 Postal curiosities in National Museum, 99 Postmasters by classes, 93 Postage stamp sale, 1916, 94 Railroads declared post routes, 98 Rural carriers separated from service, 1915-1916, 96 Rates of postage, 1816 to 1853, 96 Revision of rural service, 98 Shortest postal route, 93 Salary increases, rural carriers, 99 Saving money by motor repairs, 98 Sale postage stamps, 1916, 94 Total railroad mileage, 1830, 96 Window delivery service, 97 When the Department was moved to Washington, 94 * * * * * * Transcriber’s note: --Obvious errors were corrected.