The magazine of American history with notes and queries . n, as he struggled across theEast River in answer to the summoning horn, projecting a bridge thatsome day should span the shores, and carry easily its daily his little wherry was itself the humble beginning of that bridge,which, after two hundred years of invention and progress, still striving forsomething better, has taken his place! And with what almost reverence THE EARLY NEW YORK POST-OFFICE 1*5 the firstpost-rider would have looked upon theplain locked box out of which, once a month, hetook the accumulated mail, could
The magazine of American history with notes and queries . n, as he struggled across theEast River in answer to the summoning horn, projecting a bridge thatsome day should span the shores, and carry easily its daily his little wherry was itself the humble beginning of that bridge,which, after two hundred years of invention and progress, still striving forsomething better, has taken his place! And with what almost reverence THE EARLY NEW YORK POST-OFFICE 1*5 the firstpost-rider would have looked upon theplain locked box out of which, once a month, hetook the accumulated mail, could he have seen init the ancestral beginning of the great NewYork Post-office; and with what cheerfulendurance he would have joggedalong—alone under the stars, throughdeep forests, through rivers, and in allweathers—could he have known howhe was helping to draw together colo-nies that would soon be States, andsubsequently a mighty nation ! The locked box, in 1673, stood inthe office of the Secre-tary of the Colony,and was liter- .. \i ally the Post- ^. THE LETTER CARRIER OF THEOLDEN TIME. * office ; not overcrowded—?p it took a month, at first,to accumulate a post-riders/ mail, even with smallportable goods. But itwas a great improvementupon the condition ofthings in 1652. A mer-chant had at that timebrought to London somecoffee, from the East, andhis house was soon socrowded with visitors to taste the delightful beverage—then innocent of n6 THE EARLY NEW YORK POST-OFFICE chicory—that he established his servant in a special that beginning coffee-houses multiplied everywhere; and itis worthy of notice that benevolent people are again introducingthem, in England, as a counteraction to intemperance—especiallyamong seamen. To the coffee-house, then, as a popular gatheringplace, letters and packages were originally taken ; left on the table,to be well thumbed and critically examined, till called for or re-moved—of course, with no certainty of delivery,
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