Rada Press

The Story of Communication:

Mail—Fascinating Facts

One ancient Persian king killed messengers who brought bad news.
The Greeks were not the only people to use runners as message bearers. The Incas and the Mayas used them, too.
The youth who fell dead reporting the victory at Marathon spoke only one word, the Greek word for victory: “Nike!”
The Romans employed to search for spies who used the mails were called “curiosi.”
The word “mail” comes from the metal bags used by medieval couriers to protect letters. Knights wore coats of mail.
Before postage stamps the receiver of a letter often paid most of the fees. The cost could be quite expensive.
In the Middle Ages, rival postal services sometimes fought each other.
During American colonial days, it was often cheaper to send a letter to England than to another colony.
Noah Webster was a postal detective before he compiled the first American dictionary.
To foil highwaymen, colonial Americans sometimes sent half a bank note. When it arrived safely, they sent the other half.
News of the Declaration of Independence took 14 days to be published in Boston newspapers.
The battle of New Orleans was fought six weeks after the signing of the treaty that ended the War of 1812. Blame slow news delivery.
Colonial-era postmen earned no salary. They lived by selling the letters they delivered.
Pigeons were the fastest communications system before the telegraph and radio were invented. In some places they still are.
For decades, mail drops at the southern tips of Africa and South America were used by passing ships to send letters onward.
Out of fear of slave uprisings, a law in 1802 limited mail carrying to free white men. Abolitionists sent pamphlets by mail.
Before the railroad, mail from the East Coast to the Pacific went by ship to Panama, by mule wagon across the Isthmus, then north by ship.
An ad for Pony Express riders specified: “Orphans preferred.”
A Pony Express rider changed horses eight to ten times.
In medieval Europe, a franchise to run a postal service was called a “farm.”
Before postage stamps, people sent empty envelopes to friends who looked at them but refused to pay to receive them. Why? The news was coded on the envelope.
Before postage stamps, a few Englishmen were allowed to use the mails at no charge. Some took advantage. Among the items: 30 dogs, a cow, and two laundresses.
Some English aristocrats opposed introducing postage stamps and postal reform because they did not want commoners using the mails.
A century ago, one of the hottest political battles in Congress was over free postal delivery to rural areas. Another was over parcel post.
As an experiment, a cruise missile, with its nuclear warhead replaced by mail, was fired from a submarine. It hit its target in Florida. The letters were delivered.

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