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
Some time ago a motor mail van was coasting down a Kentish hill on a
dark night, and at a bend of the road, the bright lights of the motor
revealed a dark object lying right across the roadway. The powerful
brakes were quickly applied, and the vehicle was pulled up just in time
to avoid an accident. The obstacle was a railway sleeper, which had
apparently been placed there by some miscreant with the idea of wrecking
the mail. Several men were seen disappearing across the fields skirting
the road when the motor stopped.
On another night a shot was fired at the same motor coach, only narrowly
missing the driver, for the bullet passed through the glass window at
his side. Both outrages are supposed to have been the work of the same
persons, who had some grievance against the motor. They were perhaps
making a last stand on behalf of their friends the horses. Country folk
are conservative above all other people. The horse and cart is to them
almost the divinely appointed means of transit, and to attempt to
overthrow it is sacrilege. All other forms of locomotion are distasteful
to the true countryman. “How did you like foreign parts?” asked a
Kentish farmer of his labourer, who had been across to Boulogne. “Furrin
parts was all right,” replied the labourer, “but that boat! Give me
'orse and cart, sir.”
One night a motor mail driver suddenly pulled up at what appeared to be
an ordinary walking-stick lying across the road. On approaching nearer,
to the consternation of the driver it glided rapidly away. The guard
simply said “Snakes,” and this was the explanation.
The only light along the road for a great part of the way is that
afforded by the motor's own lamps. Wonderful effects on the eye are
often produced between lamplight and darkness, and commonplace objects
often assume uncanny shapes and sizes. A number of heaps of stones
intended for road-mending purposes had lain alongside a certain road for
weeks. One night a motor van driver was startled by what appeared to be
one of these heaps rising suddenly and approaching the coach. His heart
went into his mouth, and he applied his brake, ready for a struggle with
animated stones. And then to his relief—he was not anxious for
miracles—an old white cow looked into his face; she had strayed on to
the road; he had mistaken her for stones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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