Ken Gargett

In the Early 1900s, the United States Postal Service Would Let You Mail a Child A postal carrier with a special delivery. | Smithsonian Institution, The United States Postal Service has a proud tradition of transporting letters and packages in a timely and efficient manner. Parcels were a later addition; the USPS was granted the ability to deliver items greater than 4 pounds as of January 1, 1913. Like any new service, there were attempts to game the system. In this case, it involved parents attempting to mail their children. According to the Smithsonian, it was not unheard of for enterprising—and some might say grossly incompetent—parents to exploit the new Parcel Post service for the transport of tykes. One such example occurred in Ohio, when Jesse and Mathilda Beagle mailed their son, 8-month-old James, to his grandmother a few miles away, paying just 15 cents for the service. (Had the postal carrier lost him, there was recourse: the Beagles insured James for $50.) Such stories appeared periodically in the media, with parents effectively using the Postal Service as a courier for their child. In 1914, 4-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff traveled 73 miles by train in Idaho to her grandparents’ house. Her mother’s cousin worked for the railway mail service and accompanied her. Pierstorff’s legend eventually grew to the point where she was said to have been mailed under the “chicken rate” for livestock, but this is apparently incorrect, as no such rate existed until 1918. She did, however, reportedly have postage stamps stuck to her coat. While such stories are true, they typically happened in rural areas, where postal carriers were sometimes the only reliable method of transport and were viewed by households as trustworthy. Despite that hearty endorsement, the Postal Service quickly made it known that carriers were not to accept children and the practice soon fell out of favor. All told, as many as seven children may have been sent along mail routes, with one traveling 720 miles, before the post office insisted that bees and bugs were the only live things acceptable.

just found this thread. good lord, i hope you have been drinking heavily. an influencer? did i offend you somehow?

what do you reckon the priorities of the government will be? the long-suffering Cuban people or the rum industry and the money it brings them. hey, and they can claim they are saving the population from diabetes.

great stuff. now give rob his head-dress back.

apols to all. i have advised rob but i don't think he has shared it yet - i have a problem with the date. my fault - i simply did not twig to the clash but i have my car in for service that morning (given the waiting list, etc etc). if i cancel, it could be weeks and weeks to get another spot and i am already six months over the suggested date. also, i would rather it was sunday morning our time so Aussies can be part of it. i can do the first our time, any other day that week, bar the Thursday, all the following weekend and all the next week. that is literally one of only two dates for ages that does not work (in my defence, i was not consulted before the date was decided but i am aware of my position on the food chain not requiring such information). apols. when the powers that be work out the date, let me know.

huge fan of kohli. one of the greats.

westie, when we were kings is truly brilliant. i am overall a movie guy but i do watch a lot of docos, often not as thoroughly as i should. but a good movie is a fine thing. that said, i have probably watch years of David Attenborough docos and similar stuff.

that's the one!!

i think you'll find it in the pile that the Salvo's rejected.

had a LE Partagas 21 2004 yesterday. might just be the best cigar i have had this year. stunning. anyone who says these things don't age is kidding themselves. it was a glorious cigar.

anything that makes you happy.

john, you're just concerned that they won't share them with you.

next week's video? Russian hookers optional.

excellent - thank you.

CA, i'd rather eat a monte open than vegemite.

john, i believe that you left out the final step, after only a tiny amount needed. that is to then throw the piece of toast or bread, with whatever amount of vegemite slime is on it into the depths of mt doom.

i spent a couple of decades as a Washington fan thinking the same thing. but it is nice to dream. absolutely no offence but does anyone really wake up in the morning and think, hey, that geno smith, he is going to win the superbowl?

happy with what your team did? not happy? reasons? for me, a very solid though not spectacular draft for the Commodes. good O line pick to kick off because the more protection we can give JD5 the better. the corner taken later seems to be very highly regarded. and very much something we needed. a few other solid picks. the RB in the 7th will be interesting. i'm told we got some very solid undrafted guys as well, by people who know far more than myself. where we fell short seems to be in not addressing the pass rush. but given that we are basically in year two of a complete rebuild, thanks to the coach and admin prior to the current mob having even less of a clue than i do, going pretty well and one can't expect everything in a year. otherwise, iggles always seem to do well these days. dallas looks as though the early picks are very solid. aside from carter who seems can't miss, it does seem that the giants are a mystery - could go either way.

i also don't hate sausage rolls but i don't ever get excited by them and never deliberately order them.

vegemite? i thought this was a discussion about food. westy, i'm with rob on brains etc. for me, most detested is anything with paw paw. old man loved them. i can't stay in the same room. literally. smell alone makes me sick. pumpkin. cow food. horrible. although i do like pumpkin soup. weird? popcorn. love the smell. hate eating it. and one more, pippies? why? why not use them as bait - for which the divinity of the dancing wombats designed them - and catch something good to eat. while on seafood, i have tried and tried with cod. can't see it. finally, i am not opposed to peanut butter, crunchy or otherwise, but i would never willingly choose it. pretty much everything else, bring it on.

that is about 30 minutes, give or take, north of us.

incredibly lucky to be alive. just born snakes are just as venomous as the big ones. the big ones might have a bit more venom but if one taipan has enough to kill 200 blokes then a small one has enough. also, the very young have not yet learnt to save their venom like the older ones. so they will just inject as much as they can. older ones might, if you are really lucky, dry bite.

found everywhere. i looked it all up as well. i actually thought that they could go a fair bit faster than that. for our American friends, that is literally three times faster than the southern black racer. which from here on in, shall be called the southern black old age pensioner. racer? a misnomer of ever there was one. mind you, that apparently makes the brown the 2nd quickest snake on the planet. i could not believe the quickest - a sidewinder. who knew? i still think that has to be a mistake.

that snake could quite literally go in circles around a golf cart, even if the cart was full steam. they are seriously fast if they want to be. you are not outrunning one.