The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government departmentBennett, Edward
History
The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government department
Bennett, Edward
Postal service -- Great Britain -- History
A postmaster in applying for stores once inquired “whether anything can
be done for a cycle postman who has ridden through the seat of his
trousers.” An auxiliary appearing in private trousers was taxed with the
disappearance of the official pair. He explained that after a shower of
rain he had hung them on a fence to dry, and had subsequently found that
they had been eaten by cows. Another postman was asked to return his
uniform, and he had rather a painful story to relate. “Sir, the postal
stores sent for the last light overcoat and cape Saturday last. I am
sorry to say that a little axedent occur to the coat in the wintry wett
weather; while my Mrs. was drying the coat her tail caught fire and was
damage and then I was oblige to cut her three quarters size and find her
very useful in the mornings of fine weather.” Evidently a resourceful
postman.
There are, I believe, 1800 sizes and variants of the ordinary tunics for
postmen. The man must have an original shape indeed who cannot be fitted
from the stock in hand. A curious physiological fact has been discovered
by the clothiers of the Department. The further north one goes the
bigger become the heads of his Majesty's postmen. The heads of the
Glasgow postmen are the largest in the Kingdom, and knowing this we are
not surprised to learn that the _Postman's Gazette_, the able journal
devoted to the interests of the postmen, is published in Glasgow and
edited by a Glasgow postman. I may also note that the feet of the
Glasgow telegraph boys are the largest boys' feet in the Kingdom.
The Post Office service includes nearly 3000 postwomen. They get a
rather smart waterproof outfit: official leggings, even shakos are not
refused, but most ladies prefer to wear their own hats.
The Russian Postmaster-General recently drew up a regulation that all
ladies employed in the Postal Service must wear a feminine edition of
the rather smart uniform which is worn by the male officers. It is
described as having “blue piping at the sides and button-holes and
metallic badges. The coat used by both sexes will be much the same,
except that the ladies' sleeve will be wide and fashionable.” The
Continent is always in advance of us in the matter of uniform.
The number of postwomen has increased lately, probably on account of the
migration of men to the towns. For it is in the more distant and
sequestered districts that the postwoman is to be found, and this
explains the fact that one remembers so rarely to have come across a
lady on her postal round. One of these ladies, Mrs. Elizabeth Dickson,
retired in 1908 after having walked 129,392 miles in thirty years. Her
walk was between Melrose and Gattonside in Scotland. She had not once
been late on duty, and had only been absent on sick leave for fourteen
days. She was sixty-eight before she found the daily tramp of 13½ miles
too much for her strength.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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