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THE MAILS-THE NEWSPAPERS-POSTAGE STAMPS AND
ENVELOPES-THE QUILL PENS-THE
OLD CURRENCY.
IN the early
days the mail was carried
between the different offices in the outlying
districts by post-boys on horseback.
On the leading or post roads this work was done by
the stage-coach, a shrill blast from the horn which the driver carried
giving notice of its approach. The coaches engaged by the Government for
this purpose bore the name, "Royal Mail," and most of them had the British
coat-of-arms emblazoned on their sides. The post-offices were confined
mostly to the towns and villages. These being few and far between, many of
the people in the country districts had to go miles for their mail. As,
however, there were but few newspapers sent through the mails at that
time, and comparatively few letters written, it was not necessary to go to
the office very often. When anyone in a neighborhood called at the office
for their mail, they generally got the mail for the whole neighborhood.
Postal rates were very high in the early days, the
charge at one time being according to the distance sent, the cost of
sending a letter to a far-off place often amounted to as much as half a
dollar. Fifty years ago it cost seven cents to send a letter anywhere in
Canada, and a York shilling or more to the Old Country. You may depend
upon it, when people had to pay so much for sending a letter by snail,
they did not write or trouble the mails more than they could help. Letters
were frequently sent by travellers from one place to another. Again,
people living long distances apart made a practice of visiting each other
periodically, and in that way kept track of each other, or word was
brought to them of their friends by others. The writer was told that in
one place in the country, where the post-office was in a private house, if
the post-boy left mail for any of the neighbors a flag was hung up to
notify them.
The Newspapers.
Although the printing press was invented centuries
ago, it is only within the last one hundred years or less that the spread
of the newspaper has become universal. Now there is scarcely a home among
intelligent people that the daily or weekly paper does not enter. This has
been due to many favorable causes—popular education, the railways, cheap
postage, improvements in the printing press, etc. Popular education has
given everyone a chance to learn to read and write, and in fact education
has been made compulsory. The railways furnish quick and cheap means of
transportation. The telegraph flashes news from remote parts, cheap
postage has made it possible for the poorest in the land to have all the
reading matter they want sent to them at a trifling cost, and the
improvements in the printing press have reduced the cost of printing
wonderfully. In the early days any paper or magazine that came into the
house was treasured, read and re-read, and then given to the neighbors to
read. The first post-offices being few and scattered, and the postal rates
high, the newspaper was usually distributed by the publisher, who sent a
man around on horseback to deliver the paper to the subscribers.
Oftentimes a box was nailed to a post or the fence near the road, into
which the paper was dropped. To save expense, sometimes six or seven
neighbors would club together and subscribe for a paper, the subscriber
living on the main road receiving it first, and who, after reading it,
passed it on to one of the others. Sometimes it was left with persons
along the route appointed as agents.
Postage Stamps and Envelopes.
Those of us living at the present
day often wonder why it is that we enjoy so many privileges that our fore-
fathers did not possess. We do not claim superior intelligence. The only
explanation we can offer is that they lived in the conservative period of
the world's history, when changes by many were considered wrong and of the
devil, while we live in a period when progress of any kind is welcomed.
Sixty years ago, even, the people in Canada did not have stamps and
envelopes. They wrote their letters on one side (sometimes three sides) of
a sheet of letter paper, folded the paper, then wrote the address on the
unwritten side and fastened it with sealing wax. People did not write so
many letters in those days—in fact, there were any number of people who
could not even write their own names, as shewn by the number of marks that
are to be seen attached to such documents as wills, deeds, etc. Then,
again, it cost considerable to send a letter by mail. We are indebted to
Rowland lull, of England, for introducing cheap postage. His attention was
called to the matter by seeing a servant girl take a letter from the
postman, carefully look it over, and then return it, on the plea of not
being able to pay the postage. The letter was from a brother of hers in a
distant place. By the postmark, and certain other marks on the outside of
the letter, she knew where her brother was and how he was situated.
Rowland Hill, in spite of her protest, paid the postage and handed her the
letter. After the postman had departed she told Mr. Hill of the
understanding between her brother and herself. This incident led to the
establishment of the postal system of England on a new basis and the
issuing of the first postage stamps, in January, 1840, a penny carrying a
letter to any part of the British Isles. This system was soon adopted by
all the colonies, as well as other countries, the first postage stamp
being issued in Canada, in 1851.
The Quill Pens.
Steel pens are a comparatively
modern invention. It is not much more than seventy-five years or so since
they were introduced. Previous to that time the writing was all done with
the quill pen made from the quills or large feathers taken from the wing
of the goose. People usually kept a bundle of these on hand for use in
making pens. Sometimes they would be taken out when plucking the geese,
but usually they were gathered when the geese shed their feathers, the
quills being found scattered around the yard. They were then boiled in
water to remove the oil and make them hard and pliable.
All that was necessary in making a
quill pen was a good sharp pen-knife, in fact this was how the name
pen-knife originated. Many persons in the olden time were quite expert
penmen and some of them who had always been accustomed to use quill pens
preferred to still use them even after the invention of the steel pen.
Until quite recently, points made from quills were kept for sale in some
of the stationery stores. The ink the old folks used was made at home in
various ways. One kind was made by boiling the inner bark of the soft
maple in water and adding a little copperas to the solution. Nut galls and
copperas were also frequently made use of for making ink. These
old-fashioned, home-made inks were good and durable, the writing in some
of the old letters and documents written a century ag& being as distinct
to-day as when first written. Before the days of blotting paper it was
customary, especially among students and professional men, to keep a box
of fine sand* on the desk before them, to dust on the paper after it had
been written on, so as to dry up the ink quickly. The ink-well always had
small holes in it for inserting the quill pens in when not in use. It may
not be inappropriate here to introduce the words of a famous riddle on the
THE QUILL PEN.
In youth exalted, high in air,
Or bathing in the waters fair,
Nature to form me took delight,
And
clad my body all in white.
My person tell and slender waist,
On
either side with fringes graced,
'Till me that tyrant, man, espied
And dragged me from my mother's side
No wonder now I look so thin
The tyrant stripped me to the skin,-
My skin he flayed, and hair he
cropped,
And head and feet my body lopped,
And with a heart more
hard than stone
He picked the marrow from my bone!
To vex me more
he took a freak
To split my tongue and make me speak
Riddle me this
before next week.
The Old Currency.
The first official currency in
Upper Canada was the Halifax currency (i s. d.), the decimal system not
being adopted till 1858. In the United States the decimal system was
authorized by the Federal Government in 1793. Previous to that time there
was what was called the Colonial currency, each State having a money
system of its own, adopted when it was a colony of Great Britain. It was
some time after the authorization of the Federal currency, or dollars and
cents, however, that its use became universal, the old currency to which
the people were accustomed being still employed to a greater or less
extent in ordinary transactions. A person travelling from Boston to New
York a century and a quarter ago was obliged to compute in the currency of
the different States through which he passed. Among the people of Canada
living along the border, as well as among the emigrants from the United
States settled in other parts of the province, the New York currency
(N.Y.C.) was used considerably in the fore part of the century and in some
places until the middle of the century. The dollar was also made use of
quite frequently, it being customary to reckon so many York shillings (12˝
cents) to the dollar. The penny of the New. York currency was equivalent
to our present cent, but the name "copper" was generally used then instead
of cent. It was not until 1820 that the Halifax, or Provincial currency,
became at all general, private and store accounts being mostly kept in New
York currency previous to that time, public and school accounts only in
Halifax currency. In Halifax currency the pound was equivalent to $4.00
and the shilling to 20 cents. In New York currency the pound was
equivalent to $2.50, and the shilling to 12˝ cents. Much of the trading in
the early days was done by barter, i.e., by exchanging farm produce for
store goods. Logs were exchanged for shingles, and lumber and whiskey for
grain, for money was generally in scant circulation. Previous to
Confederation there was no silver coinage in Canada. The silver in
circulation was British and foreign (British mostly). The British coins
most common were the six-pence and shilling pieces. Considerable United
States silver was also in circulation. There were also a few Mexican,
Spanish and French coins. The present Canadian cent was preceded by the
Canadian Bank penny and half-penny tokens, usually called "coppers," as
well as the British penny and halfpenny piece.
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