CHAPTER XII.

PUBLIC OFFICE: ITS BUSINESS--THE SAVINGS BANK--PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS.

The public office of the Bristol Post Office is very commodious (50 ft. by 44 ft.), and affords ample counter accommodation to the citizens for properly conducting their Post Office business. It is markedly superior as regards size and fitting-up to almost any other provincial office, and indeed its equal in those respects is scarcely to be found in all London. In contrast to the spacious public hall of the Bristol Post Office and the civility of its clerks, the writer's first impressions of the postal service of his country were by no means of a pleasant character. When quite a small child, he was entrusted by his mother with the mission of conveying a small rose-coloured and delicately-perfumed letter to the Post Office in a world-famed Warwickshire town--an errand of which he was "no end" proud. Timidly he knocked at a little wicket in the window of the house to which he was directed. Almost immediately the wicket was thrown open, and a very red visage appeared. "What do you want?" "Will you put a stamp on this letter, sir, please?" "No! What the devil do you mean by bringing letters like this? 'Tisn't big enough. It'll get lost in some hole or corner." Frightened at this "Giant Grim," a hasty retreat was made, and the irascible old postmaster was left to do as he liked with letter and penny.

The penny combined postage and Inland Revenue stamp was introduced in 1881. A new series of postage stamps was issued in 1884, and the present series in January, 1887.

In the year 1833 the value of the postage stamps obtained from London for distribution in the Bristol district was L33,844; in 1862 it had only grown to L35,720; but in 1898 it had reached the more prodigious proportions of L171,000, of which sum those stamps of the halfpenny denomination were of the value of L30,700, and in number 14,735,000; and the penny stamps in value L85,775 and in number 20,586,000. Stamps of other denominations were issued thus:--1-1/2d., 207,360; 2d., 205,920; 2-1/2d., 207,000; 3d., 364,320; 4d., 277,680; 4-1/2d., 16,000; 5d., 147,120; 6d., 534,600; 9d., 51,200; 10d., 27,840; 1s., 82,320; 2s. 6d., 2,800; 5s., 2,588; 10s., 688; 20s., 550 and L5, 4. Post-cards, embossed envelopes, newspaper wrappers, telegraph forms and other articles of the kind were of the value of L14,334. At the earlier period the postmaster of the day was allowed 1 per cent. on the value of the stamps sold, in addition to his salary. It is not so now!

Under the system inaugurated in 1880 the postal orders issued and paid at the Bristol public office counter number nearly half a million in the year. The money orders paid at the counter preponderate over those issued--the amounts respectively being L237,000 and L34,000. These sums include the amounts received in respect of telegraph money orders--the Department's new departure of 1890. The Government insurance and annuity business commenced by the Post Office in 1865 is making progress in Bristol, and the same may be said of the system started in 1880 of investments in Government stock through Post Office medium.

The first Post Office Savings Bank in the district was established at the Clifton Branch Post Office on the 16th September, 1861, the year in which savings bank business was commenced throughout the country generally. Several accounts were opened on that day, and the amount deposited was L35 4s. A similar institution was opened in the city in March, 1862, at the Money Order Office, then located in the corner shop in Albion Chambers, Small Street, opposite the present Head Post Office. From such small beginnings a vast savings bank business has grown up. The sum standing to the credit of depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank in the Bristol postal area at the end of 1895, when the last account was published, was nearly L2,000,000, deposited by some 100,000 separate individuals. The deposits made at the head office in Small Street reached close upon L400,000, and the other part of the amount is made up thus: Gloucestershire side--Town Post Offices, L659,085; rural Post Offices, L192,934. Somersetshire side--Town Post Offices, L215,295; rural Post Offices, L91,944. The estimated amount due to depositors in the Post Office Savings Banks throughout the whole country on the 21st December, 1898, was L123,155,000, and the amount due to trustees of Savings Banks on November 20th, 1898,--the latest date on which the figures were made up--was L50,634,655. The Bristol Savings Bank was closed in 1888, and its 12,814 accounts were transferred to the Post Office Savings Bank. The amount of money involved was a little over half a million.

During Mr. Fawcett's administration at the Post Office, thrift on the part of the nation was encouraged in every possible way. Then was inaugurated the now familiar system for facilitating the placing of small sums in the Post Office Savings Bank by means of postage stamps affixed to a Post Office form as penny after penny is saved until an amount of one shilling is reached, the minimum for a Post Office Savings Bank deposit.

A case occurred at a Bristol Post Office fifteen years since, in which a young servant girl, in her desire to be thrifty under the system alluded to, craftily obtained the key of the letter box from the secret place in which the sub-postmaster kept it, and abstracted a number of circular letters on School Board business, and took off the stamps for attachment to the Savings Bank slips. She was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, which, on account of her youth, was limited to six months.

Amusing incidents sometimes occur to break the monotony of counter work. For instance, a woman applied for a postal order, and when it was handed to her, the clerk, acting upon the official instructions, recommended the good lady to take the number before sending the order away. A few days afterwards she appeared at the Post Office with the order and complained that payment had been refused because the order had been mutilated. The clerk on examining the order found that the direction to "take the number of the order" had been acted on literally. The number had been carefully cut out, and retained in the possession of the applicant. It was some time before she could be made to realize her mistake. In another instance early one fine autumn morn a young couple presented themselves at the public office of the Bristol Post Office and begged in earnest language that they might be supplied with a marriage license. The request could not, of course, be complied with, but the applicants, much to their satisfaction, were informed where they could obtain the needed document. On another occasion some money was observed on the counter, and on the very small child near it being asked what was required, "Two ounces of tea and a pound of sugar" were at once demanded. This mistake no doubt arose from the fact that the business carried on in the late Post Office building in Exchange Avenue is that of a tea dealer. It is a rule of the Service that letters should not be delivered from the _Poste Restante_ except to the actual addressees or to other persons bearing authority to receive the letters on behalf of the addressees. A request was made at the Bristol Head Post Office for the delivery of letters to a person other than the addressee, which person could not produce the necessary authority to act as recipient. The excuse given for non-production of authority was that the addressee was asleep. The enquirer having been advised to get authority when the addressee awoke, rather astonished the counter clerk by saying that such awaking would not take place until Saturday, the day of application being Tuesday. It transpired that the application was made in respect of letters for a person who was undergoing a state of hypnotism at a Bristol music hall. The touching incident occurred at the Bristol Post Office of a poor woman--pressing want having come upon her at last--who had to withdraw a shilling which she had thirty years previously deposited in a trustee savings bank which was taken over by the Post Office. She had to receive one penny by way of interest for the use of her mite for thirty years. Some years since a collector of old issues of crown-pieces presented seventy of such coins, in a good state of preservation, at the Bristol Post Office counter as a Savings Bank deposit. The depositor, after taking the trouble to accumulate these old coins, had come to the conclusion that an annual interest of eight shillings and sixpence would be more useful to him than an occasional inspection of the coins. Few people know so little about Post Office matters as an individual from over the Severn who recently asked for a postage stamp. "Do you want a penny or a halfpenny stamp?" asked the clerk. "I want a South Wales stamp," was the reply of Taffy. Then the surprise of the counter officer must have been great when, on counting up his money, he found that on one of the shillings the legend "Baby" boldly appeared impressed where the Queen's head is usually found, the coin having evidently been used as a brooch.

The Department, in communicating with the public, prescribes that its officers should subscribe themselves as the public's most obedient servants, and on some of the printed forms which have to be returned in answer to queries raised by the Department the same style is adopted for the public to use. One dignified gentleman returned his form, from which he had erased "Your obedient servant" and substituted "Yours respectfully," adding a marginal note to the effect that he was not the servant of the Department, but that the Department was his servant.

The postmaster of Bristol is addressed by the public in various ways, as for instance: "Postmaster General," "General Postmaster," "Bristol Postmaster," "H.M. Chief Postmaster," "To the Postmaster in State, Small Street, Bristol," "Head Post-Master and Surveyor of the Bristol District," "Head Master, Post Office," "Post Office Master," "Postmaster-in-General," "Master General, Post-Office," "Mr. ----, Esq., Post M.G.," "Mr. ----, Esq., Post Office General," "To the Reverend Sir Postmaster, Bristol, England."

It is astonishing how many Foreigners and Colonists apply to the Bristol Post Office respecting their relations, or for information as regards trading matters. The former questions are sometimes answered, but the latter are handed over to the courteous secretary of the Chamber of Commerce to deal with.

Very unusual was the circumstance of the receipt at the Bristol Post Office in 1895, anonymously, of a sum of ten shillings in postage stamps as conscience money, and, oddly enough, the next day threepence in stamps was received in the same anonymous manner and for the same purpose. These two instances were the first and the last.

The difference between romance and fact is exemplified by an article which appeared in a monthly magazine as follows, viz.:--

"A PUBLIC SERVANT."

"Her Majesty possesses one more faithful public servant than she is aware of, though its name does not transpire in the list of the Ministry. Every night at the General Post Office, Bristol, a spirited mare attached to the red mail-cart is brought, at a quarter before midnight, to fetch the bags of letters, &c. She stands perfectly still, waiting while the mails are sealed and tossed one by one into the vehicle. At the five minutes before twelve, however, should all not be ready for departure, her driver sings out 'Any more for the down train?' by way of hurrying the officials. No sooner does the mare hear those words than she begins to dance and curvet, showing in every possible way her anxiety to start and her sense of the importance of her duties. But if by any chance the first stroke of midnight should sound before they are ready to proceed to the station, she takes matters into her own hands, and nothing will then hold her in. Those who have to do with this clever and beautiful creature are very proud of her, on account of the example she sets of punctuality and attention to the affairs of the nation."

The real facts on which this incident is founded were, that the horse (not mare) remained in the Post Office yard quietly from 11.10 p.m. until midnight on one particular night only, and not generally, and when the loading of the van commenced the horse became restive, the final slamming of the van doors causing it to start off for the street. In consequence of a repetition of this restlessness on another night, and "kicking-in" the front of the van, the horse was taken off the Royal Mail Service.