as to conceal the writing, and sealed with wax usually. The postage was collected on delivery. In 1854 the rates were reduced considerably, but all other features retained. In 1855, the writer, then a boy, was left temporarily in charge of the post-office at Slate Hill, which then paid the postmaster, a storekeeper, about $10 a year percentage. He then kept a store and the keeper of the office was considered a help to the store trade. A woman came in and asked if there was a letter for her. There was. She asked how much postage was due on it. There was eighteen cents. Then she asked to look at it. The verdant young man handed it to her. She opened it, glanced over the contents, then handed it back, saying, "I won't take it. There's nothing in it worth the money." The postmaster when informed of the incident later, said, "Boy, next time don't you hand out the letter till they hand over the money." In 1852 the postage was reduced and a little later envelopes came in fashion. The Middletown, Unionville and Watergap Railroad was completed from Middletown to Unionville, June 2nd, 1868. That changed mail arrangements throughout the three towns. Slate Hill, Johnsons, Westtown and Unionville got a daily mail. Waterloo Mills, Denton and Bushville were abandoned, and Ridgeberry and South Centerville were supplied from Slate Hill. The railroad is now known as the New York, Susquehanna & Western, under control of the Erie. The increase in the amount of mail matter handled has been wonderful, and the offices which once had their mail matter carried on a two-wheel sulky twice a week easily, would now require a team of horses and a big wagon to move it every day. The 4th and 5th days of January, 1835, were remarkably cold days and that winter was a terribly severe one. We have no thermometer records for our three towns of those days, but in New York City it was 5 degrees, in Newark 13 and Elizabethtown 18 degrees below zero for both days. In 1857 the 23rd of January was a remarkably cold day, the thermometer standing at 23 below in the early morning, 17 at noon, and 12 at night, when it began to snow and a deep snow came. Orange County gave 3,541 votes for Van Buren and 2,242 for Harrison for President in 1836. The local option law in our three towns has resulted in a continual no-license majority for about twenty-five years in Wawayanda; occasional no-license in Greenville and Minisink. The result of the election in 1907 gave no-license a majority in Minisink.