FOREWORD
No other branch of the Federal Government furnishes employment to so many men as the postal service, particularly that branch of it in which letter carriers and clerks are used. In every city vacancies occur frequently, by reason of death, resignation or transfer, and the prospects of employment are always good for intelligent young men of studious habits. To secure an appointment in the postal service, as in other fields of labor, one must prove his fitness for the job desired. Uncle Sam requires that this shall be done in an open competitive examination, and usually there are hundreds, in the large cities thousands, competing in the same examinations. Taking New York City as an example, the annual appointments to each position average between 200 to 300, while the eligible lists usually contain 1,000 to 1,500 each. From this it will be seen that only a small percentage stand any show of appointment. Those that do succeed are the men who took pains to prepare themselves for the test by a careful study of the subjects required. The purpose of this book is to help the candidate to “brush up,” to direct him in self-improvement, and point the way by which any person of ordinary intelligence, willing to devote his leisure moments to study, can pass a good examination and get within striking distance on the eligible list.
CHAPTER I.
CRADLE DAYS OF THE POSTAL SERVICE.
No Branch of the federal government more strikingly illustrates the wonderful growth and extension of Uncle Sam’s business than the Postal Service. Its history is the history of the commercial and industrial development of the nation, for it has kept abreast, so far as supplying the means of quick and reliable communication is concerned, of the onward march of progress. It ought to be the desire and the aim of every man and woman who purposes to take up the postal service as a life career, to know something of its history, its gradual evolution. Only in this way can they form a just estimate of its relative value in the scheme of government, and without such knowledge they will be merely perfunctory human machines, void of that close personal attachment so necessary to success in any undertaking.
A review of the history of the postal service in America has all the interest and charm of an old romance dealing with the life and customs of a bygone age, particularly when depicted by one whose heart and soul is wrapped up in the service, by one whose career in itself is the best proof of what studious habits, devotion to duty, and loyalty to the department can do for a man in the postal service. That man is Edward M. Morgan, Postmaster of New York City, who, starting as a letter-carrier in 1873, came up through the ranks, grade by grade, until he was entrusted with the management of one of the two largest post offices in the world.
Beginning of the Postal Service.
Mr. Morgan in speaking of the history of the postal service says: