Part 11 (1/2)
Recently many valuable dogs were poisoned in different parts of the city, and a suggestion appeared in the newspapers that the postmen might be urged to const.i.tute themselves amateur detectives for the discovery of the miscreants, on the ground that they enter every garden and knock at every door throughout the length and breadth of Bristol, and that at early morn and late at night as well as by day. The postmen are public spirited, but it is hardly likely that they would go considerably out of their way for the purpose, considering the risks which they run from dogs and the annoyances to which they are subjected to by them. The postmen have to face the snappish terrier and the ferocious-looking bulldog. Not infrequently they get bitten, and more frequently get soundly abused if, for their own protection, they belabour a dog occasionally, or give it a taste of their belt for want of a better weapon of defence or offence. Reciprocity would demand that if the postmen look out for dog poisoners, the owners of dogs on their part should take the utmost care to keep their dogs properly secured when known to be dangerous or to have a special dislike to the public servants in blue. The bold announcement given on the pillar of a gateway of a residence in a fas.h.i.+onable suburb of Bristol, ”Beware of the bulldog,” is not calculated to give confidence to the postmen who have to deliver the letters. One poor dog, well known in the city, fell dead in Small Street; and as the dog had just been seen to visit the Post Office, and even to drink from a Bristol Dogs' Home trough standing in the portico, it was a.s.sumed by the many spectators of the poodle's sad death that he had come to an untimely end through drinking poisoned water from the Post Office trough. The vessel was therefore confiscated by an over-zealous supporter of the Dogs' Home, and the water was subjected to a.n.a.lysis, but investigation proved that it was innocuous, although from an examination it transpired that the dog really had died from poison, which had, however, been taken in meat.
A London firm made indignant enquiry as to why a letter had been returned to them through the Returned Letter Office, seeing that it was addressed to a well-known and distinguished baronet living near Bristol.
It turned out that the right hon. gentleman was himself the cause of the return of the letter, as he read the contracted words ”Rt. Honb.,” in a line preceding his own name, as the name of ”Robt. Hunt,” a person who lived near his mansion, and he gave the letter back to the postman with the foregoing result. In 1847 a letter indicative of the times, with the following superscription, as noticed in the post:--”To the Post Office, Bristol, Somersets.h.i.+re, England, 115 miles west of London, this letter is to be delivered to the Ladey that transported Jobe Smith and 2 others with him near Bristol.” Members of the public complain from time to time in indignant terms respecting the loss of letters in the post, but in very many instances they afterwards write in meeker strain to say they have discovered the missing letters--in most unlikely places in their homes.
At a dinner given by officials of the Bristol Post Office, the Dean of Bristol bestowed praise on the postmen for success in conveying ill-addressed letters to their destination. Dr. Pigou cited their performances in his own case. He had been addressed as Pigue, Picken, Pigon, Pigour, Pickles, Peggue, Puegon, Ragou, and Pagan. That ”Ragou”--not being a name beginning with ”P”--should have reached him, he thought could only be explained as the result either of a flash of inspiration or of the recollection of previous ”hashes” of his name; but ”Pickles” evidently got home on the mere strength of its initial letter, and though, as he complained, it is hard lines to be addressed as ”Dr.
Pagan” after having been thirty or forty years in orders, the written word would much more nearly resemble his real name than several of the other addresses which did find him. ”The Head Gamekeeper, the Deanery, Bristol,” was, of course, mysterious. The letter contained a circular advertising wire netting for pheasants, rabbits, and hares; and when the Dean replied, pointing out that the only s.p.a.ce available on his premises--an area of 30 ft. by 40 ft.--was too small to rear pheasants in, he received, a further circular recommending a trial of ”our dog biscuits.” Occasionally, also, the local postmen meet with letters so peculiarly addressed as that for ”Mr. ----, Oction her and Countent, Corn Street, Bristol,” and another for ”Chowl, near Temple,” intended for ”Cholwell, near Temple Cloud.” The postmen collect, too, letters peculiarly addressed to other places.
There are still a few postmen veterans in the Bristol Post Office who are toiling on long after having exceeded their ”three score years.”
Doubtless these aged men excite sympathy as they are seen on their daily rounds, and the thought presents itself to the public mind that the Post Office is harsh to make them labour when so far advanced in years. Such is not the case, however, as the men, unfortunately not being ent.i.tled to pensions, have been allowed to continue to perform their duties long after pensionable established men would have been retired, either willingly or compulsorily, under the regulations which now call for a Civil servant's retirement to be considered his reaching the age of sixty years. These old worthies are not Post Office short-service men; but, as their good conduct stripes testify, they have for long years served their Queen and country.
J. S., one of these life-long toilers, who worked as an uncovenanted postman for many years, commenced his career in the navy. When fifteen years of age (1844) he joined the gunnery s.h.i.+p _Excellent_ at Portsmouth, Captain (afterwards Admiral) Chade being then in command.
After serving two years, he was transferred to the old _Conway_, then engaged in putting down the slave trade in East African waters; and after three years on board that vessel he went to the brig _Helena_, and was with her in the West Indies for several years. In about 1854 he was pa.s.sed to the _Britannia_ for Mediterranean service. While sailing from Gibraltar to Malta, S. met with a serious accident. Being considered a smart young man, he was ordered by the captain to a.s.sist another ”A.B.”
to rig the topgallant yard-arm. While thus at work he fell from the maintopmast cross-trees into the main rigging, again to the main chains, and then overboard--a drop in all of 120 feet. A boat was lowered promptly, and he was soon picked up, but he was in an insensible condition. It was found on examination by the s.h.i.+p's surgeon that his skull was fractured. He went into hospital on arrival at Malta, and there he remained six months. Shortly after the accident, the _Britannia_, which was the Admiral's flags.h.i.+p, was ordered to the Crimea (1855), and not only did the seaman who took over S.'s gun meet with his death by the sh.e.l.ls from the fortifications at Sebastopol, but the whole of the gallant tars fighting on the starboard side of the s.h.i.+p were killed. S. was taken to London on board the _Growler_ (Sir Charles Wood), the first steamer he had ever seen, and was incapacitated for two or three years, but fortunately he obtained a pension on having to leave the navy. He was engaged in private life till 1878, when, at the age of 49 years, he was given Post Office work, on which he was employed for twenty years, and, indeed, until he again came to grief through an accident when on duty at Christmas, 1898. On this occasion he was knocked over by a cart in Victoria Street, which ran into the parcel handcart S. was wheeling, and which sent him flying into the mud and his parcels all about in the road. This put an end to his Post Office career, and the old man, with disabled body from his first accident and somewhat impaired faculty from the latter, has now sunk back into seclusion, and it is hoped that he may end his days in peace. Except for three weeks' illness caused by influenza, he was never away on sick leave out of his twenty years of Post Office service. Not once was S.
late at work. He was, he says, always out of bed at 3 a.m., and so punctual was he known to be that the remark was often made when he entered the office, that ”We know what time it is without looking at the clock.” On leaving the Post Office service this year (1899) a small gratuity was awarded him.
S. T., although in his 71st year, managed up till quite recently to perform Post Office work for a few hours daily. From early boyhood up to his 22nd year, T. was engaged at shoemaking in this city; then he enlisted and served as gunner and driver in the Royal Horse Artillery for three years. Having obtained his discharge from the army, he acted as policeman on the Great Western Railway for a few months. At the time of the Crimean War, T. again enlisted, this time as a seaman and gunner in Her Majesty's Navy. He was disabled in action and discharged with a life pension. For the next twenty-seven years he followed his former occupation of shoemaking and rounding, working for about twenty years for one firm in this city. When 53 years of age, he first obtained employment in the Post Office, working for a few hours daily, and receiving 10s. per-week. He is a member of the Crimean and Indian Veterans' a.s.sociation.
A Bristol Post Office benefit society was established in March, 1861. It became the Bristol Letter Carriers' Sick Benefit Society in 1862, and was carried on under that t.i.tle up to 1890 when it ceased.
Early in the year of 1896, the remains of the late Thomas Rutley, one of the oldest of Bristol postmen, were interred at Greenbank Cemetery.
About one hundred postmen, headed by the Post Office band, were in attendance to mark their sympathy, and respect to his memory. The Rev.
Moffat Logan conducted the service. Such a mark of respect is not always accorded to deceased Post Office servants. The writer recollects on a bright summer day having attended the funeral at Highgate Cemetery of one of the oldest and most respected superintendents in the Post Office, London. The good man was so much liked by those who served under him that he had gained for himself the name of ”Honest John,” yet there was only one other official besides the writer to stand by his graveside.
The postmen have a military band, composed of thirty members of their own staff. The primary object is to advance the art of music in the Post Office, and, secondarily, to provide concerts in the open s.p.a.ces in Bristol for the benefit of the public. A grand concert is given by the band every year, which is usually attended by some 3,000 of the inhabitants, attracted chiefly by the popularity of the Post Office and by the fame of artistes so eminent as Madame Ella Russell, Madame f.a.n.n.y Moody, Mr. Plunkett Greene, and others, who have from time to time been engaged.
The ”D” Company of the 1st Volunteer Battalion Gloucester Regiment is composed almost exclusively of members of the Bristol Post Office. For three years in succession, (1894-5-6), this company won the first prize in the drill compet.i.tion and also first prize and challenge vase in the volley firing compet.i.tion. The company challenge bowl and first prize, and the brigadier's cup and third prize in the Western District of England, were also won by the company during the same period. For many years the Bristol Post Office has had two out of the nine representatives of the battalion competing for the Queen's Prize. The company has also been well represented in all the battalion and county shooting matches. Of the eight battalion signallers, five are Post Office men, who have on several occasions held first place in the Volunteer service annual examinations.
The postmen of Bristol maintain for the winter months two of the old veterans who are under the auspices of the Crimean and Indian Mutiny Veterans' a.s.sociation.
Mr. Goodenough Taylor, one of the proprietors of the _Times and Mirror_ newspaper, has kindly given a Ten Guinea Challenge Cup, to be raced for by Bristol postmen who use bicycles in connection with their Post Office business of delivering and collecting letters. The cup has to be won three years, not necessarily in succession, before it becomes the postman's sole property. The terms under which the compet.i.tion for the cup is held are as follows, viz.:--”Compet.i.tors to be postmen of any age or rank; appointed, unestablished, auxiliary, or sub-postmaster's a.s.sistant, of not less than two years' service, who have never won a prize in public compet.i.tion. Compet.i.tors to be certified as having in the course of the preceding twelve months, under official sanction or direction, ridden 150 miles in the execution of their official duties, or to and from the office when attending duty. The race to be a handicap race of two miles, to take place on the Gloucesters.h.i.+re County Ground or other enclosure during each year. The postmaster, a.s.sisted by experts in the Post Office service, to be the handicapper. The handicap to be framed on points of age, physical ability, and regard to be had to the weight or kind of bicycle to be used in compet.i.tion.” Postman Newman, of Coalpit Heath, was the winner this year (1899).
The postmen have a library, consisting now of some 700 volumes. It was started in 1892. The writer made an appeal through the local press for gifts of books to form the nucleus of a library for the postmen and telegraph messengers attached to the Bristol Post Office. This appeal was liberally and promptly responded to by the residents of Bristol and Clifton. Warmest thanks are due to the newspaper proprietors for their kindness in inserting paragraphs relating to the subject, as, but for their powerful co-operation in the matter, the movement could not have been brought to a successful issue. A well-known literary gentleman at Clifton gave eighty volumes, Mr. Harold Lewis, B.A., showed his interest in the movement by the donation of 200 copies; and Mr. J. W. Arrowsmith has frequently given fifty volumes at a time. The postmen themselves manage the library, and contribute small sums weekly towards its maintenance and further development.
CHAPTER XVI.
POST LETTER BOXES: POSITION, VIOLATION, PECULIAR USES.
The three hundred and fifty pillar and wall letter boxes are placed at convenient points, regard being had to the wants of the immediate neighbourhood that each has to serve--to approach by paved crossings, to contiguity to a public lamp, to being out of the way of pedestrians and as far removed from mud-splas.h.i.+ng as possible. At the same time, the inspectors endeavour to place the boxes so that they may be an attraction, rather than an eyesore, to the spot where erected.
The sign of ”The Pillar Box” has been given to a public-house before which a Post Office box stands. Occasionally the Post Office letter boxes are greatly misused. Some little time since a woman in Bristol was savage enough to drop oil of vitriol, nitric acid, and other dangerous fluids into the boxes. She even poured paraffin into the letter box at a post office, and dropped an ignited match in after it. A conflagration was only averted by the fortunate circ.u.mstance of the postman clearing the box just in time to extinguish the commencing fire. The woman's determination is evidenced from the fact that her hands were severely burned by the strong acid she used; but, notwithstanding this, she continued night after night to carry on her dastardly work. She was found out after much anxious watching, and having, on trial, been found guilty, she was sentenced by a lenient judge to six months'
imprisonment. She would a.s.sign no reason for her incomprehensible behaviour even when asked by the judge in court. Not infrequently, mischievous children place lighted matches, rubbish, etc., in the Post Office letter boxes, and in the letter boxes of private houses and warehouses. The Post Office officials are always on the alert to discover the delinquents. It is desirable also that the public, in their own interests, should call the attention of postmen and the police at once to any case in which they may observe letter boxes being tampered with. It may not be generally known that offences of this kind are punishable by imprisonment under the Post Office Protection Act.
A remarkable case was that of a servant who was a somnambulist, and who for some time wrote letters in her sleep, night after night, and took them to adjacent letter boxes to post. Sometimes she was fully attired, and at other times only partially so. As a rule, the letters were properly addressed, but the girl did not always place postage stamps upon them.