The Telegraph Instrument Room, Bristol Post Office. From a photograph by Mr. Protheroe, Wine Street, Bristol.The Telegraph Instrument Room, Bristol Post Office.From a photograph by Mr. Protheroe, Wine Street, Bristol.
The well-ventilated and well-lighted telegraph instrument room is on the upper floor, and extends from end to end of the building. In it there are 102 telegraph instruments of various kinds in use, viz.: 5 A.B.C.'s, 19 double-plate sounders, 30 sounders, 28 duplexes, 5 quadruplexes, 5 Wheatstone sets, 7 repeaters or relays, 2 concentrators and 1 hexode. Divested of technicalities, it may be said that telegraphing on the A.B.C. instruments is effected by alphabetic manipulative keys, which are depressed by the fingers of the left hand of thesender at the same time that a handle is turned with the right hand, and a corresponding effect is produced on the dial plate of the receiver. The double-plate sounder is read by sound from two small metal hands striking right and left against two pieces of metal. In sending, the working is by means of keys manipulated by the hand. The sending upon the sounder instrument, which is that chiefly used, is done by a small key with handle being depressed and released according to the dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet. The signals by which messages are received and read by the ear are produced by a bar of soft iron striking upon a steel point placed between two coils of wire. With the A.B.C., double-plate sounder, and sounder, only one message can be sent or received on the wire at one time; but the duplex sounder instruments are so constructed that two messages can be sent on the wire—one in each direction—at the same time. Double-current duplex instruments are in use for telegraphing to busy towns such as Plymouth, Exeter, Cardiff, Swansea, &c., &c. The quadruplex consists of two duplex sets upon one wire. Upon these circuits two distinct messages may be sentsimultaneously from each end. The hexode has six instruments at each end of a single wire, enabling twelve clerks to operate at the same time—six at each end,—and thus admits of a single wire doing so much work as six wires worked with the ordinary sounder instrument.
At times of pressure when race meetings are going on, or during the cricket and football seasons, the ordinary methods of working are supplemented by extraordinary means, thus: the duplex working between Bristol and Manchester is augmented by Manchester connecting there a Bristol wire with a Newcastle wire: Newcastle in like manner further connecting the line with Glasgow, Glasgow with Edinburgh, Edinburgh with Dundee, and Dundee with Aberdeen. Then at the Bristol end, instead of working by means of the ordinary keys, Wheatstone working is resorted to, viz.: the messages instead of being "keyed" are "punched," the punching process being performed by means of iron punching sticks upon an apparatus called the "perforator." The sticks are rapidly worked by skilful operators upon three steel keys, which, when struck, mechanically draw a strip of white paper tape,at the same time perforating holes which indicate signs in accordance with the Morse alphabet system. These slips thus "punched"—which, by-the-by, very much resemble the perforated slips used in connection with the organette instrument—are passed through a Wheatstone "transmitter," and buzzed through so rapidly that 400 or 500 words can be sent in a minute. The signals are simultaneously reproduced upon blue slips in the form of dots and dashes at Manchester, at Newcastle, at Glasgow, at Edinburgh, at Dundee, and at Aberdeen. The message recorded on the slips is broken off at about every hundred words to form a "press" page at the receiving offices for writing up by the telegraphists, a large number of whom can be employed on the work at the same time. When this process is resorted to the battery power for the wire has to be greatly increased. The repeater instruments are worked in like manner, except that the system is permanent instead of occasional. The concentrator is a recent invention, and is used for the purpose of economising force and apparatus, and of minimising delay and table space. By its means the wires for eighteento twenty offices, which use the same form of telegraphic instrument, are led into a special switch-board, and each wire as it is required is "switched" through to a telegraph instrument, at which a clerk is ready to send or receive the message. Thus the telegraphist is "fed" by the operator at the concentrator, and has to send a message to any one of the thirty towns instead of, under ordinary working, to only three or four towns.
In place of over 700 batteries with 3,500 cells of the Bichromate, Daniel and Leclanche type in use at the Bristol telegraph office for many years, a system of accumulators or storage batteries has been brought into operation. The power for charging the accumulators is generated on the spot by a Crossley's gas engine driving a dynamo. The accumulators number 250, and each has seven divisions. The hexode instrument between Bristol and London requires a voltage of 400 dry cells. There are two complete sets of accumulators, each with separate connecting wires to the instrument room. One set is in use at a time. The system of accumulators has been introduced for the purposes of economy and saving of space.
It may be interesting to the uninitiated to learn that in telegraphy the earth plays the part of a return wire; thus the circuit between Bristol and Birmingham is rendered complete by earth. The wires connected with the two towns indicated are brought into the test boxes at the respective places, and there connected to a single wire at each town which finds earth by means of a zinc plate buried some twelve feet in the soil near or under the Post Office buildings.
Occasionally when people have been out for a drive or a cycle ride, and their eyes have been delighted with the grand scenery to be found around Bristol, they look, as they journey homewards, to the Government poles and to the many wires therefrom suspended, and wonder which are telegraph wires, which are telephone wires, where they all lead to, and between what points messages are sent and conversations held. Such travellers returning to Bristol by way of Almondsbury would see the wires on the one side (telegraphs), which run from Bristol to Falfield, Newport, Cardiff, Swansea, Gloucester, Liverpool; London to Swansea, Newport, and Cardiff; Birmingham to Exeter; Plymouth toLiverpool; and (telephones) Bristol to Birmingham, Gloucester, Cardiff; and on the other side of the road (telephones) Horfield, Fylton, Almondsbury, Newport, Cardiff, Gloucester and Birmingham. In some instances there are two or three wires for the same place. The telegraph, and telephone wires cross and recross each other at frequent intervals along the road, and the whole sets of wires cross from side to side of the road between Fylton and Almondsbury.
Alternative routes for the wires are adopted where practicable, so that in case of a break-down on one line communication may be kept up on the other.
By way of illustration of such alternate routes, it may be mentioned that the two wires from the Head Post Office in Small Street for Swansea run underground to Stapleton Road, at which point they are brought above ground and diverge, one running to Wee Lane, thence to Ashley Hill, Horfield, Almondsbury, Alveston Ship, Falfield and Berkeley, up to the Severn Bridge; and the other branching off at the end of Stapleton Road, and carried along the Fishponds and Chipping Sodbury roads nearly to Yate, and down the Tortworth road to just beyondFalfield, where it joins the other Swansea and South Wales wires, and passes over the Severn Bridge into Wales.
The telegraph and telephone wires in this district are chiefly erected and maintained by soldiers of the Royal Engineers. Sixteen military telegraphists, members of the Royal Engineers, are attached to the Bristol Post Office, and kept in training for telegraph service with the army. Twelve of them are now—November, 1899—in South Africa on active service, in connection with the troubles in the Transvaal.
In the great hurricane which occurred in January, 1899, the telephone and telegraph wires radiating from Bristol were blown down in all directions. In consequence Bristol was entirely cut off from direct telephonic communication with Birmingham for 21 hours, and had only one wire instead of two for 9¼ hours; from Bath for 18 hours, and had only one wire instead of two for 5½ hours; from Cardiff for 18 hours, and had only two wires instead of three for 10½ hours; from Weston-super-Mare entirely for 24½ hours; from Taunton for 28½ hours; from Exeter for 27 hours; from Sharpness for 26 hours. There was only one wire instead of two to Gloucesterfor 26¼ hours, to London for 6 hours, and to Newport for 20¾ hours.
The trunk telephone lines were more or less interrupted for a week, caused by the working parties engaged on repairs.
The telegraph wires for the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, Monmouth, Warwick, Shropshire, Worcester, Wilts, Devon, Cornwall and Lancashire were those chiefly deranged.
It is believed that there is only one telegraph cable in the Bristol district, and that cable does not belong to the Postmaster-General. It crosses the river Avon at a point adjacent to Pill and Shirehampton, and was used by the Commercial Rooms in connection with reports of the arrival of vessels. Up to the time of its introduction, as already stated, "warners" were employed. The last of the old running "warners" were Gerrish and Case. These men lived at Pill, and on hearing news from pilots-men of the arrival of a ship in the Bristol Channel they started off on foot to Bristol andwarnedthe merchants and wives of sailors of the vessel's arrival in the Channel, getting, of course, fees for their trouble,—a guinea from the merchants, and so on,down to the shillings of the sailors' wives,—and fifty years ago these fees were willingly paid, and the heavy postages too. The runners were men of some little mark.
The Post Office at Avonmouth, a Bristol sub-office, is much used for telegraph purposes by persons on board vessels passing up and down the Kingroad in the Bristol Channel. The Bristol Corporation placed outside the port a large white notice board with "TELEGRAPH OFFICE" painted upon it in black letters, to attract the attention of mariners. The messages are chiefly received from vessels with cargoes consigned to Sharpness, which in neap tides have often to lie in the roads for days.
Telegrams for vessels lying in Kingroad are often taken out by boat at midnight or in the early hours of the morning. This is often in consequence of the tide not serving, or being too strong for the boatman to go out at seasonable hours.
Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, is connected with the mainland by a submarine cable, which is considered to be one of the most perfect of its kind. Letters for Lundy, from Bristol and elsewhere, are carried across by boat from Instow once a week. Thenearer small islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm have cable telephonic communication with Weston-super-Mare. The telephone, which is carried into the Weston Post Office, is rented by the War Office Authorities, who allow the islanders the use of it. Letters from Bristol for the Flat Holm are conveyed by way of Cardiff. The island is rented from the Cardiff Corporation by a farmer who resides upon it. His son, who lives in Cardiff, daily visits the island in a yacht, and conveys the letters for the Trinity House officials and residents. For the Steep Holm, Bristol letters are sent from Weston-super-Mare; the services to the island being tri-weekly—Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,—and are performed by a contractor, who goes across on behalf of the War Office. The Steep Holm is inhabited by military men only. In a manuscript of 30th March, 1825, it is described as "Stipe Holme." One of the first serious efforts in connection with the plan of telegraphing through space without connecting wires was conducted between the diminutive island of Flat Holm and the shore, a distance of about five miles; and between Penarth and Brean Down, a distance of nine miles. An interesting illustrationof the system of wireless telegraphy was given, under the direction of Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R.S. (now Sir W. H. Preece, K.C.B., F.R.S.), at the Clifton College conversazione, held in honour of the learned British Associates during the meeting of the Association at Bristol in 1898.
The telegraph staff have seldom had their skill and smartness more thoroughly tested than on the memorable Monday evening in February, 1893, when press messages of great length relating to the introduction of the Home Rule Bill were sent over the wires. Twenty minutes after Mr. Gladstone rose to speak in the House of Commons the first instalment of the special summary of his speech reached this city. The conclusion of the summary was received at two minutes to 7. The verbatim report commenced to arrive at 4.49, and the last instalment reached the Bristol Office at 8 o'clock. The total number of words in the messages sent to Bristol was nearly 40,000.
During the early potato season telegraphing is very brisk with Jersey. Bristol is the only large office besides London which has direct communication with the island. Some idea may be gatheredof the extra labour entailed on the telegraph service from the fact that in the month of June, 1899, no fewer than 20,904 telegrams passed between Bristol and Jersey, the normal number being only 5,800 monthly. Five or six telegraph operators are usually sent during the season to Jersey from Bristol.
In Bristol about 700 firms use abbreviated telegraphic addresses.
The telegraph money order system, started in 1889, is exhibiting marvellous developments in the local service.
The express letter delivery service, which came into operation in 1891, is very useful to the public. By means of this agency the Post Office distributes by express messenger 300,000 letters and parcels annually. Of that number Bristol contributes 7,000 services. Bicycles and tricycles are now delivered for the public from any telegraph office in Bristol and district by special messenger at a fee of 3d. per mile, without any charge for weight. The messengers are not permitted to ride upon the cycles, except by the permission of the senders, but will wheel them up to a distance of three miles.
An express delivery messenger has been used, ere now, for the convoy of a traveller from point to point in a town unknown to him or her. The Post Office is often required to assist even more closely in the domestic relations of life. Recently a gentleman from America wrote to the Clifton Post Office to enquire whether a certain near relative of his could be found, as he was very anxious to see her before return to America. He enclosed a shilling stamp for a reply by telegraph, and begged for urgency. The relative was found and her address given. The applicant's ardour to see his relative cooled, or his stay in the country was abridged, for instead of paying the proposed visit, he begged the Post Office officials to expend five shillings, which he sent, in the purchase of cut roses for his relative. Of course, this was outside the round of Post Office duties, but the clerks obligingly attended to it, with the aid of a telegraph messenger who was off duty at the moment.
Occasional mistakes are not to be wondered at when people write illegibly. Through the improper formation of the capital letter, D, in the proper name Dyster, has in telegraphing been turned intoO, and the name made Oyster, with the result of misdelivery of the telegram to a firm of fishmongers having "Oyster" as an abbreviated address. It must have been extremely painful to an anxious parent to receive a telegram summoning him to a nursing home far distant, in terms that his "sow was worse," and begging him to come at once; the telegraphist having made the slight mistake of transcribing "w" for "n." The gentleman who sent a telegram to his town house in the West End of London asking that his covert coat might be forwarded to him was no doubt considerably astonished when his butler returned the telegram to him by post asking for an explanation, and he found that the text of it was "Pigs,9⁄3,8⁄9, and 8/-." The error was occasioned in connection with the use of multiple addresses for a bacon-trading firm's telegrams. In another instance a curious complication resulted through imperfect spacing on the part of the signalling telegraphist, thus:—A telegram written by the sender as "To ----, Fore St., Northam, Bideford. Be in attendance Public Offices," was transcribed thus:—"To —— forest, Northam, Bideford. Be in atten dance Public Offices," and, owing to the number of words counting the same as the number signalled, the inaccuracy was not discovered until a repetition had been obtained from the office of origin on application of the addressee. It was printed in a Midland newspaper that at the presentation of a sword of honour to the Sirdar the Common Councilmen attended in their "margarine gowns," and, of course, the error of using "margarine" for "mazarine" was put down to the carelessness of the telegraph clerk. A telegram was sent indicating arrival at 8 Mostyn Crescent, in a favourite North Wales town. At one stage in transmission "Mostyn" became converted into "mostly," and at the next office of transmission "Crescent" became "pleasant," and the telegram when delivered read "Arrived 8 mostly pleasant." The Prime Minister who had informed his audience that "there was no prospect of an immediate general election, that they had a working majority, and the Government was of good cheer," would not have been pleased had he seen that the last word in the telegram posted up in the Bristol Commercial Rooms had been transcribed as "of good cheek."
A telegram, "Have arranged for Sunday. Dening," with the first two words struck out, and "arrangement complete" substituted underneath, was handed in at a telegraph office by a well-known and much respected Bristol clergyman. At the forwarding office the message was unfortunately read "For Sunday Dinning arrangement complete," the erasure and addition not having been properly understood and the proper name misspelt. At the delivering office the message again suffered alteration, and became "For Sunday dining arrangements complete." It may readily be supposed that the addressee was somewhat astonished at the peculiar text of the message.
The following is from the BristolTimes and Mirrorof February, 1893, and has reference to a little inaccuracy on the part of a telegraph assistant employed at a Bristol sub-post office. The incident itself is correctly reported:—"Garraways, 12 o'clock. Dear Mrs. B.—Chops and tomato sauce. Yours Pickwick," settled the hash of a well-known character; and a wire, "Going to Bath to meet girl. Not back to dinner," had, very nearly, a similar effect on the domesticrelations of one of the smartest solicitors in our city. The telegraph has had, in its time, much to answer for, "but never aught like this." When Puck said: "I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes," he little thought what mischief he might do. It was only the other day we read how a stray dropped line destroyed a horse, killed a cow, and cut off the head of a nigger; but these accidents were a trifle compared with what might have happened if the message first quoted could not have been explained. The learned gentleman it appears has a brother, by name Gilbert, familiarly known in the circle as "Gil." The latter, having business in Bath, wrote asking his relative to dine with him at the "Christopher." The learned advocate at once accepted; but, being a thoroughly domesticated man, telegraphed to his better-half: "Going to Bath to meet Gil; not back to dinner." Then came in the "cussedness" of the wire which substituted "girl" for "Gil," and hence the temporary ructions when the happy husband, having succeeded with his latchkey, sought repose.
The telegraph messengers in uniform employed in the Bristol district number about 160. They have a literary institute, a drum and fife band, hold swimming classes, etc. That there is need of night classes may be inferred from the following specimens of telegraph messengers' orthography and syntax:—
(1) "Supt, Sir, I will try to be more careful in the pass. Yours obed, H. P——."
(2) "Supt, Sir, I having asked where the message was ment for and they told me to go up the road where I should see a chemist shop where I should find it about there and I having could not find it I asked, a gentleman which he said it was farther up the road and I left it with cotton the undertaker which he said it was quite right.—G. H——."
(3) "Supt, sir, I will try to be more extint in the future as this is the truth.—M. T——."
(4) "Supt, Sir, I much regret not returning my report But I left it home in my other Pocket in my overcoat which is home drying which was wet through on Saturday last. Yours obed H. E——."
The institute was inaugurated at a public meeting at the Colston Hall on the 1st December, 1892, which was attended by a large and influential gathering of citizens. Upon the platform were the Mayor of Bristol (Mr. W. R. Barker), who presided, the Very Rev. the Dean of Bristol (Dr. Pigou), Mr. Charles Townsend, M.P., Rev. R. Cornall, Mr. R. C. Tombs (the postmaster), Mrs. R. C. Tombs, Dr. Lansdown, jun., Miss Synge, Miss Pollock, Messrs. John Harvey, Arthur Baker, E. G. Clarke, H. Lewis, C. H. Tucker, R. L. Leighton, W. H. Lindrea, J. R. Bennett, E. Sampson; also Messrs. A. J. Flewell (superintendent of the telegraph department), W. H. Gange, J. Robertson, J. S. Gover, J. J. Mackay, H. T. Carter (superintendent of the postal department).
It was explained that the telegraph messengers were engaged at from thirteen to fourteen years of age, and the lessons they had learned at school had chiefly been supplemented by a knowledgeacquired in the streets. The object was to counteract street influences by providing elementary instruction, recreation, and interesting literature. There was no desire to educate the boys to such a pitch that Jack would think himself better than his master, but to take care that they should not degenerate. It was announced that the hours of labour had just been reduced from sixty-two to fifty per week, which would be a great boon to the boys. It was further stated that a private appeal had been made, not in vain, to a few of Bristol's most generous citizens, and that through their kindly aid, with subscriptions from the members of the staff and the grant which it was hoped to earn from the Education Department, the institute would be carried on without pecuniary embarrassment. The description of the institute's work was as follows:—
1. The institute would be open to the telegraph messengers and to junior officers of the postal and telegraph service, the charge to each member to be one penny per week.
2. The institute would be carried on in a room at the General Post Office.
3. In connection with the institute an evening school would be held, the educational session to last from October to May. An annual examination of the members of the classes would be held.
4. In addition to the three elementary subjects,—reading, writing, and arithmetic,—classes would be arranged for the study of Scripture, geography, drawing, composition, and shorthand.
5. For the purpose of recreation certain games would be provided.
6. In connection with the institute there would be a library, which had been formed by means of books generously given by the citizens of Bristol.
7. The library would be open to any established or unestablished officer of the postal and telegraph service at a slight subscription per month.
8. A penny savings bank would also be started.
The Chairman said he gladly consented, to preside that evening, because the object of the meeting was one in which he took deep interest, and one which he felt sure would commend itself to a very large number of his fellow-citizens. He thought he might say that everything connected with the postal service was peculiarly interesting to them all, andanything they could do to ameliorate the lot of those who daily rendered them such important service they would be very glad to do. He thought it would not be well to make the movement too "goody" in its character, or too educational, so he was glad to see that there was a lighter side to the scheme.
Mr. Charles Townsend, M.P., Mr. Arthur Baker, Mr. Harold Lewis, Miss Synge, and members of the postal and telegraph, staff, also spoke.
Then, the Dean of Bristol addressed the telegraph messengers, and said he really should have been disappointed if he had not been invited to attend the meeting. It was a pleasant part of his privilege in ministering in Bristol to be asked to take a share in such an interesting gathering as they were holding that evening. One of the best features of this institute was that it would assist them to put their leisure to the most profitable use.
The educational work has been progressing steadily ever since its inauguration, and much good has resulted from it to the messengers.
Ever ready to give their countenance to entertainmentsfor the benefit of the community, their Graces the late lamented Duke, and the Dowager Duchess, of Beaufort, as their first public act after coming to reside at Stoke Park, near our city, attended a concert at the Redland Park Hall, which was held for the purpose of benefiting the funds of the Telegraph Messengers' Institute. Later on, May 21st, 1898, they were kind enough to attend an annual meeting and a prize distribution at the Colston Hall. The late Duke, who presided on the occasion, said it was a great pleasure to him to be present. He had witnessed a good deal of the care and discipline with which the Post Office messengers were looked after. Like everybody who had a great deal of correspondence, he had the privilege of having the services of the best regulated Post Office in the world. They also had in this country the privilege of being able to use the best regulated telegraph service. They might be perfectly sure that if a man wanted to send a telegram, when once he put it into the hands of the postal officials, however ill-written or badly addressed it might be, it was very probable that the telegram would reachits destination. Those who had a good deal of correspondence were deeply indebted for the splendid organisation of the Bristol Department. They were also very much indebted to the telegraph clerks, who deciphered the scrawls handed them, and who transmitted the messages. They were deeply indebted also to the boys for the way in which they refrained from stopping to play marbles, and did their duties with great zeal, and delivered their messages at the proper places and to the proper persons. They would understand that they were Government officers, and that they had to discharge important duties. He could personally say that those duties were thoroughly well carried out in the city of Bristol and its neighbourhood.
The Duchess of Beaufort then distributed the prizes, after which a telegraph messenger presented Her Grace with a basket of choice flowers.
The Bishop of Bristol addressed the lads, and urged them to do their duty thoroughly when on duty, and to enter heartily into healthy play when off duty. In doing their duty they should remember one or two things. They might be charged with the delivery of a message which was a matter oflife or death; it might be one regarding which thousands of pounds depended; or it might be one of little importance. But, whatever it was, it was not for them to enquire, but to deliver the message with punctuality and promptness. Having spoken of the discipline and training telegraph boys received, he observed that of all telegraph boys, for punctuality, steadiness, courtesy, and politeness, the Bristol boys were about the best. He urged them also to live pure lives and observe complete honesty, that they might become worthy citizens of whom the country might be proud. He was glad to hear the name of the lady (Miss Pollock) who conducted the scriptural class so cordially received, which showed that the lady and her work had taken hold of the hearts of the boys. The excellence of their work as boys, and as men, and the enjoyment of their lives, in the best sense, depended upon their becoming God-fearing. He should be pleased to give a prize in connection with the Scripture class.
The letters of the Bishop, written with reference to the occasion, should not be left unchronicled. They ran as follows, viz.:—
"Church House,Dean's Yard, S.W.,May 10th, 1898.
"My dear Postmaster,—I am speaking at Bath on the afternoon of the 20th, and am engaged to stay the night. But I think your proposal so important that I am writing to my host, Mr. S., to ask if he has engaged friends to meet me. If he can excuse me, I will, if all be well, come to you and say something.
"Yours very truly,G. F. Bristol."
"The Athenæum,May 12th, 1898.
"My dear Postmaster,—I have arranged to return to Bristol on the evening of May 20, and if all be well can be with you. Send me a card of place and hour.
"Yours very truly,G. F. Bristol."
The following extract from a letter in which His Grace wrote concerning the meeting, is indicativeof the interest which he took in matters affecting the postal and telegraph services of Bristol, viz.:—
"Stoke Park,Stapleton, near Bristol,21st May, 1898.
"Dear Mr. Tombs,—I must write you a few lines of thanks for the very pleasant evening you gave us last night. Both the Duchess and I enjoyed it very much. I was remarkably struck with the appearance of your boys: such nice, clean, smart-looking youths. What a difference drill makes to lads! They have already a smart—soldierlike, I should call it—appearance, and I am sure it tends to sharpen their minds as well as to straighten their bodies.
"Believe me to remain,Yours truly,Beaufort."
The messengers little thought as they listened to the Duke's encouraging words, addressed to them on the occasion of the meeting, that they wouldbefore a year had passed away be sending a modest, humble, but loving tribute, in the form of a wreath, which was thought worthy to be suspended over the pulpit in Badminton Church at the Duke's obsequies, in juxtaposition with a wreath of mammoth proportions sent by the officers of the 7th Dragoons (the Duke's old Regiment).
The Bristol telegraph messengers have cause to remember that bright Saturday afternoon in 1895 when, preceded by their drum and fife band, they marched out to Burfield, Westbury-on-Trym, the country residence of Sir (then Mr.) R. H. Symes, the Mayor of Bristol. They were there enabled to have a few hours of recreation and pleasure, and to forget the busy hum of the city with its turmoil and heat. Following the excellent example, Mr. Arthur Baker, of Henbury, and other country gentlemen have invited the boys out on Saturday afternoons, to encourage them to keep banded together for good purposes, and to maintain thatesprit de corpswhich is so necessary in a body of youths drawn together after the manner of the Telegraph Messengers' Class.
A most memorable occasion was that in 1897,when the messengers were inspected by Lieutenant-Colonel MacGregor, of the 24th Middlesex R.V.C., London. They mustered at the Post Office, and, under the direction of Inspectors Mawditt, Appleby (late 29th Regiment and sergeant-major Scinde Volunteers), and Cook (late Royal Marines), and headed by their drum and fife band, marched to the Artillery Drill Ground in Whiteladies Road where, in presence of many visitors, military and civilian, they were put through manual exercises, physical drill to music, and then reviewed on the parade ground. In the speeches which followed the boys were complimented on their efficiency and smart appearance. It was on this occasion that it was announced the Postmaster-General had obtained the sanction of the Treasury for a grant of money in order to encourage telegraph messengers' institutes and drill in the large towns. Under this scheme, prizes for proficiency in drill and general good conduct are awarded—a system which has since been found to work admirably.
The extent of the Bristol postal establishment in 1775 may be gleaned from the reply given by the Postmasters-General to a memorial complaining that there was only one letter carrier for the delivery of all the letters received in Liverpool. The answer was that only one letter carrier was maintained in any provincial town, including the premier city of Bristol, and that they did not think themselves justified in incurring for Liverpool the expense of another. An additional Bristol postman was, however, appointed between then and January, 1778. In 1792 there were four letter carriers at Bristol, but only two appear to have been allowed by the Department, the other two being employed as extras, and provided for, probably, by an extra charge on the letters delivered. The Bristol letter carriers were not supplied with uniform clothing until 1858. Then, a hat and coat once yearly,and a waterproof cape once in two years, were given to them. The uniform clothing was not supplied to the auxiliary letter carriers. Bags or pouches for the men to carry for the protection of the letters were at that time provided.
In 1859 the postmen wore scarlet uniform and issued out from the Post Office three times daily to traverse the length and breadth of the city in the distribution of letters. In 1899 the "men in blue" sally forth six times every day.
In the postmen's department there are now seven inspectors and three hundred and seventy postmen. The delivery of letters in the town district is made from the head office. There is a branch delivering office at Clifton, but those at North Street and Phippen Street were long since abandoned. In the Bristol postal district, sixty years ago, there were fewer than 20,000 letters delivered in a week, or about 1,000,000 in a year—a number now nearly reached in a week. The letters delivered annually from the Central Post Office number 31,000,000; from the Clifton Post Office, 6,250,000; from the suburban offices and rural offices, 7,300,000. It is a noteworthy fact that the letters posted in Bristolfor delivery within its own limit form 27 per cent. of the total number, which percentage is only surpassed at two or three of the large cities of the Kingdom. Six deliveries of letters and five deliveries of parcels are made in the city, with ten collections. The average number of persons to whom letters are delivered by each postman in Bristol (city) is 1,800. There are 666,536 parcels delivered annually. To each of two firms are delivered more than one quarter of a million letters annually, equal to one hundredth part of the total number of letters delivered.
The distances from the head office to the extreme outward terminal City and Clifton delivery points are as follows:—Westbury Park, 2½ miles; Horfield Barracks, 3 miles; Ridgeway, 2½ miles; Barton Hill, 1¾ miles; Arno's Vale, 1¾ miles; Totterdown, 2 miles; Bedminster Down, 2 miles; Ashton Gate, 2 miles; and Clifton Suspension Bridge, 1½ miles. The trams are used by the postmen, and the Department pays the Tramways Company a lump sum in respect thereof. The convenience in this respect will be enhanced when the electric traction system is fully introduced.
In the sorting office the letters are sorted to the various rounds by postmen dividers, and the general body of postmen then have to arrange them at their desks seated on little revolving stools. The process adopted by the postmen in setting in their letters for delivery may be explained by the following example relating to what is technically known as the "Cotham Brow Walk." The letters are first primarily divided (upright) into streets, roads, squares, courts, etc., taken thus—viz.: (a) Sydenham Road, 1 to 18 (one side only); (b) Sydenham Hill, 45 to 11, odd numbers (one side only); (c) Tamworth Place 13 to 1 (one side only); (d) Arley Hill, 2 to 34 and 5 to 27 (cross); (e) Arley Park (cross); (f) Arley Hill, 36 and 38 and 29 to 41 (cross); (g) Cotham Brow, 124 to 88 and 125 to 27 (cross); (h) Southfield Road, 2 to 28 and 1 to 27 (cross); (i) Upper Sydenham Road, 38 to 19 (one side only); (j) Springfield Road, 47 to 85, odd numbers (one side only). Then the letters for one of the above-named ten divisions or streets are taken one by one and placed in order of actual delivery flat on the table; then all are gathered together and stood upright, the letters foreach division being treated in like manner. When the letters for any one street or road, etc., have been set in order, fresh batches of letters of, say, thirty or so, are fully sub-divided by the same process before being set in with the accumulated and finished letters. This course is necessary in order to obviate the postman having to go through a set of fifty or a hundred letters time after time as he gets a fresh batch of letters. Two hours are allowed for the morning delivery and one and a half hours for other deliveries. As those who have the longest rounds have the lightest burdens, they all contrive to finish at about the same time.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge, which was erected in 1864 at a cost of £100,000, plays a very unimportant part in postal affairs, as it serves for the passage over the Avon of three postmen only, who cross with letters for the Leigh Woods and Failand districts. Long Ashton, which has a carriage road approached by the bridge from the Clifton side, receives its letters by a postman who crosses by a ferry lower down the river and reaches his destination more expeditiously than by crossing over the bridge.
A Bristol postman, who was well acquainted with the locality which he had to serve, met with an ugly accident through colliding with a lamp-post, recently erected and not supplied with gas for lighting up. It had been put up during the man's interval of duty, so that he came upon it for the first time when it was shrouded in darkness. The postmen, having in the discharge of their duties to be early birds and to be first out and about in the morning, often pick up articles lost or deposited overnight. Thus it was that a postman found on one winter's morn in a Bristol suburb a parcel containing the dead body of a child, and had to constitute himself a corpse-carrier for the nonce. It was in this city of Bristol that the following somewhat amusing and certainly interesting incident took place. Two rats were found in combat over a letter, which, delivered in due course by the postman, had fallen upon the floor at the entrance to a warehouse, and had been dragged thence to the spot where the rodents were engaged in their fierce encounter, the gum on the flap probably being the attraction. The letter contained a cheque for £300, and its loss for some days caused no small amount of consternation andanxiety to the gentleman who should have received it, and who, it need scarcely be said, at once gave orders for a letter-box to be attached to his warehouse door.
It was well for the Magistrates' Clerk for the Gloucestershire Division of Bristol that he was well known to the postman, or assuredly he would never have received the letter addressed thus: "Mr. Latchem Laforegat pleace stashun," the proper address being: "Mr. Latcham, Lawford's Gate Police Station, Stapleton Road, Bristol."
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 constitute 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 bythem. 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 fashionable 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 assumed 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. Thevessel was therefore confiscated by an over-zealous supporter of the Dogs' Home, and the water was subjected to analysis, 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, Somersetshire, 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 respectingthe 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 containeda circular advertising wire netting for pheasants, rabbits, and hares; and when the Dean replied, pointing out that the only space 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 entitled to pensions, have been allowed to continue to perform their duties long after pensionableestablished 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 shipExcellentat Portsmouth, Captain (afterwards Admiral) Chade being then in command. After serving two years, he was transferred to the oldConway, then engaged in putting down the slave trade in East African waters; and after three years on board that vessel he went to the brigHelena, and was with her in the West Indies for several years. In about 1854 he was passed to theBritanniafor 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 assist another "A.B." to rig thetopgallant 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 ship'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, theBritannia, which was the Admiral's flagship, was ordered to the Crimea (1855), and not only did the seaman who took over S.'s gun meet with his death by the shells from the fortifications at Sebastopol, but the whole of the gallant tars fighting on the starboard side of the ship were killed. S. was taken to London on board theGrowler(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 anaccident 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 inthe 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' Association.
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 title 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 theirsympathy, 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 spaces 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 Fanny 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 competition and also first prize and challenge vase in the volley firing competition. 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' Association.
Mr. Goodenough Taylor, one of the proprietors of theTimes and Mirrornewspaper, has kindlygiven 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 competition for the cup is held are as follows, viz.:—"Competitors to be postmen of any age or rank; appointed, unestablished, auxiliary, or sub-postmaster's assistant, of not less than two years' service, who have never won a prize in public competition. Competitors 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 Gloucestershire County Ground or other enclosure during each year. The post-master, assisted 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 competition." PostmanNewman, 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.
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-splashing 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 anignited match in after it. A conflagration was only averted by the fortunate circumstance 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 assign 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.
Occasionally the postmen have to encounter the difficulties arising from a frost-bound letter box. Such a case occurred with a box situated on the summit of the Mendip Hills. The letter box and the wall in which the box is built were found by the postman to be covered with ice, caused by rain and snow having frozen on them. The door resisted all his efforts to open it, and he had to leave it for the night. On making another effort when morning came, it taxed his ingenuity and that of other interested and willing helpers to get the box open. Hot water was tried, paraffin was poured into the lock, and it was only after a hammer had been used and a fire in a movable grate had been applied for a time that the lid could be opened.
A letter box erected in a brick pillar in a secludedspot on the East Harptree road, about a mile distant from any habitation, was, late one night, damaged to the extent of having its iron door completely smashed off, apparently either by means of a large stone which lay at its base when the violation was discovered, or by means of a hammer and jemmy. Although the adjacent ground, ditches, and hedges were searched, no trace of the iron door could be found. As three roysterers were known to have passed the box on the night in question, it was assumed that the damage was done by them out of pure mischief and not from any desire to rob Her Majesty's mails. Whether such were the case or not, they had the unpleasant experience of being locked up over the Sunday on suspicion.
The Bristol postal area is an extensive one, the distance from point to point being thirty miles, with width ranging from five to twelve miles. It is bounded on one side by the river Severn, from a point about five miles below Sharpness to a point close to Portishead; thence the boundary stretches across country to the Mendip Hills, up to Cheddar Cliffs; then from a point four miles north-east of Wells to Newton-St.-Loe, near Bath; across the river Avon, under Lansdown, thence in a line by Pucklechurch, Iron Acton, and Thornbury across to the starting-point on the Severn. The large rural area is for the greater part agricultural in character, but there are collieries and stone quarries in some few districts.
At the Bristol town and rural sub-Post Offices there are 554 assistants of all kinds employed.Many rural sub-postmasters act as postmen; in the main it is a healthy occupation, and proves a very good antidote to sedentary employment, although there are hardships to be borne, as the toil has to be undergone in all weathers—the scorching sun of summer, the pitiless cold of winter—in rain, hail, and snow. In connection With the Early Closing Movement, at some of the outer Post Offices business is suspended at 5.0 on one day in the week—usually Wednesday.
In the suburban and rural districts there are 105 sub-Post Offices, and 78 of them are letter delivery offices, served by an aggregate number of 226 postmen. Of the 78 districts, 42 have two daily deliveries 28 three, and 6 four, with about a corresponding number of collections.
The sorting clerks and telegraphists at head-quarters gain some sort of acquaintance with sub-postmasters through daily communication by mail bag and wire; also in the passage of reports and counter-reports; but occasionally people performing postal work throughout the extensive Bristol district are brought into closer harmony and touch with each other by means of socialfunctions, such as "outings" and Bristol Channel steamer trips, when town and country officials take their pastime in company, and the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses of the Somersetshire portion of the district get acquainted with those of the Gloucestershire side, and all with the head office officials. By these means of friendly intercourse and interchange of kindly feeling, the service is much benefited. As an indication of this exchange of courtesy, the felicitations exchanged by telegram when the first annual trip by steamer to Ilfracombe was taken ran thus:—
"From Postmaster, Bristol.—Pleasant journey to you. Long may Sub-Postmasterly friendship continue."
"From Sub-Postmasters at Ilfracombe.—Telegram received. Thanks for good wishes. Have just drank your good health. Pleasant trip. Regret your absence extremely.—Sub-Postmasters."
The Bristol Post Office has only recently had electric light introduced, but the squire of East Harptree had long before set the good example of progress by having the Post Office in his village illuminated by electricity. In the Bristol area verymany villages have their little counterpart of the huge combination shops in London, where the villager is enabled to procure everything that his modest income will allow him to purchase. It is at these village "Whiteleys" that the Post Office is generally to be found, and a surveying officer may soon become well versed in the qualities of bacon, cheese, bread, flour, candles, and get a knowledge of rakes, prongs, and besoms, without much difficulty. In other instances no business except that of Post Office work is carried on.
The picture of the sub-Post Office at Cribbs Causeway, five miles from Bristol, may give our readers who are "in cities pent" an idea of a delightful place for the sale of postage stamps and postal orders and the distribution of letters. This unique Post Office has few houses anywhere near it, but it serves a large, albeit very sparsely populated, area. Some of its interest rests in the fact that it was formerly the half-way inn on the once important highway from Bristol to New Passage, for the ferry over the Severn into South Wales. Some of our elderly readers may probably recollect it as the stopping stage of the coaches whichran prior to the introduction of the railway system. The sub-Post Office, which stands on high ground, is held by two sisters, who went to it as a health resort from a farm in the low-lying Severn marsh. They act as postwomen, and brisk exercise and the early morning dew has brought such roses to their cheeks as would be envied by their Post Office sisters whose fate it is to reside in smoke-begrimed regions.