University of South Carolina Libraries
g SAM'S CARBlfcBS ,l ,rdshiP? T? ?i*t Mail j liver*''' ?? ' "r Aw"y ,,Uln,"? salll hil. ui; i? *? u ii ir iu war. "?"? ; ;,f bravery and of heroism "T! In 'deeds of daring per rtU? , |,V those patriots who have '"TsM ???> *hen ot "" '*!' "c , . not lacking among the """"if employees of the United Lnmtmt. While the hard ^ontered and the loss of life ' P* .0 great in numbers as those '""fl in actual warfare, nevertlu rtW 1 bear mute testimony to i in iit scrvice rendered by these ""I servants of the people, bent r?rforming the onerous and d?f. ( it ta^k^ assigned them. " IJd'the praises of these heroes are f lag in either prose or poetry. Tv ,?>? not broadcast throughout . i There is no Congressional L l"of Hunor bestowed on them; ! d rorntion of any kind awaits 1, There is not even so much as .Station for bravery and ?mer.tor.ous [vice performed in the line of dut} . ' Hut these faithful employees of Sam never complain. They are seeking notoriety. Thcypre be L content 'to carry on their daily C,rs without thought of reward other than that which goes with the consciotisnvss of duty fulhlle l. Thcrc is no class of employees of lhe government that faces more ac nnl perils of life and limb and are subject to more vicissitudes of the elements in their daily routine than "some of the men who carry the mails over some of the more difficult. of the ?ur routes. These men are not paid salaries but work under .contract, .warded under the law as a result of competitive bidding. It might be said that they differ iroyi all othef government employees in thnt they fix their own salaries. When it is pointed out that duiing the past two and a half years 55 car riers have lost their lives while in 4he performance of duty, it will be seen that the tasks asigned them are hazardous in the extreme. There are star routes scattered throughout the country where "seas of mud" are considered ?pf slight mo ment and where i the perils encounter ed from ice packs and floes many time result in .death or serious and permanent injury. To the city dweller a reference to the mail man brings a picture of the gray-coat^ carrier who. delivers his letters and packages unhampered to any great extent by wind or weather. But the denizen of, the rural district thinks of him as the driver of a horse drawn or motor vehicle, whose arrival is regarded as an event in the daily life of the occupant of' the farm, put ting him,, as it does, in touch with the outside world and with his fellow man. In .January of this year ReiholU Dreahn, carrier oh the star route be tween Buffalo and Murchison South Dakota, fell a victim to duty. For several years Dreahn had been mak ing twice-n-week trips between the two hamlets, encountering all sorts of weather conditions but never fail ing to carry out his part of the con tract with the Post Office Depart ment. He had started from Murchi son as usual on a certain Saturday and when ho did not putt in an ap pearance the next day at Buffalo, .1 search was made for him. He was fdund ju.st one mile outside of town with both hands and feet frozen. He was dead when discovered and it is estimated he had been exposed lo the intense cold for over sixteen hours. The theory advanced for his death was that, becoming exhausted from a hard day's work and while attempt ing tu crank his car, he fell and was not able to recover his senses before he succumbed to the cold of the night. Records of the Post Office Depart ment show that among the most dan Rerou* and difficult routes served by rural carriers and star route con tractors are those extending from Newport to Otter Rock, Oregon, Elli s,"i Bay to Detroit Harbor, Wiscon Kuiky Bar to Atlanta, Idaho, and from Sandusky to Kellys Island, Middle Bass to Put-in-Bay, Ohio. the Rocky Bar-Atlanta, Idaho route, the service is performed in the winter season by carriers traveling ?n f>now-shoea, packing 50 pounds of ma'l. \'ot infrequently, carriers on this route have been caught in snow slides and swept to deAth. Only a >ear or two ago, a carrier lost his '?'e m this way early in January and body was not recovered until late the following June. The routes from Ellison Bay to De troit Harbor, Wisconsin, and from Sandusky, Qhio, to. nearby island? ^uat he operated over the ice ih the winter and in the fall when the lake j* frozen. During th? spring thaw x is ?*tr?mely difficult and kasardous ,0 carry on tha tarries. A anmbsr gf Clrrien have lost thslr IJtss in ?^?a?oriaf to transport tbs *a0s "twesa ~ Probably ma* u i tiu- mo.>t ha/.ai OX pc rifles 'that ever bofeit ono or more of Uncle Sains mail carrier* was that of the . Hitchcock brother , curriers on the routes out of San dusky, Seme winters ago, while en de?YOVing to deliver mail to residents of some of the smaller islands in Lake Erie they were caught in a storm and running ice. They were curried down the late by the resist less force of a drift in which tlu-y had become wedded. The carriers were given up for lost by the excited islanders. A cablegram wired to Kelly Island read: "Look out for the carriers; they are fast in the ice and drifting that way." But the two men after many ef forts, were rescued. They were in an exhausted condition and so Com pletely covered and weighed d?\va with icc ns to he helpless. Their caps were frozen fast to their heads and their clothes so loaded with ice that the wearers were unable to bend. On arrival at homo their friends were obliged to. cut and tear away their ice-armored garments. After changing clothing a bushel of ice that had fallen off in the process was swept from the lloor. For several years (Jeorge and Charley Morrison were employed as carriers on tht ( Bass , Island route. They, too, passed through many arduous and trying experience being the victims of many close calls from death. Out on the hike ifl "11 kinds of weather, with ice conditions of every description they battled with Storm running ice, fog and blinding snow. Formerly associated with George Morrison in the imjil carrying service was his brother-in-law, Carl Rotert. Among the articles carried in the boat operated by the two men Was long unwieldy piece of metal. This in some.jway 'shifted, capsizing the boat. Morrison found himself struggling in the water. With great difficulty he succeeded in extricating himself, but Rotert was carried under the ice. His body was not recovered until late the following^spring. ^Tlenry Elfers carried the mails to Kelley's Islands for over forty years. During that time he had many hair breadth escapes and adventures galore. "When I was a youngster," said Elfers not long ago, "I was out in a boat about all the time. Now I. don't care about ordinary sailing but battling with the ice has a fascina tion for me. As soon as the ice be gins to form 1 fell eager to get out one of the ironclads and fight mv way across. Each is a flat bottomed skiff There's a sail in the bow to carry us through the water or oven, the ice when conditions are right. There are two iron-shod runners on the bottom so the boat may be used as a sled. The sides are sheathed with galvanized iron. This is very important because thin ice will cut) a boat like a knife. "From here to Sandusky is ten miles in a direct line and I go there when conditions are good. At other times I go to Marblehead which is four miles away and the nearest point on the mainland. I have sailed] these four miles over smooth ice in twenty minutes. I have covered the ! same distancb in eight hours. That was when the ice was about an inch and a half thick and I had to break my way over every foot of the four miles. At times the lake has been covered with icebergs 20 to 30 feet high and I have had to travel 15 miles in a roundabout course to reach Marblehead. "In the winter of 1896 I started back from Marblehead with my son and we got to within half a mile of the island when we were caught in a blizzard. The wind blew^at 55 miles an hour. Snow filled the air so I could not see my son at the other end of our sixteen foot boat. Our sail was torn to pieces and we battled with the blizzard four hours before we succeeded in reaching Marblehead. "At 8 o'clock one night, 1 had al most reached the island when I found I could not land on account of run ning ice. 1 turned toward Marble head but lost my way in a fog and did not ?reach there until 3 o'clock next morning. Twice the life savers came out and got me when high seas and running ice made it impossible for 'me to land without their help." The craft used by Uncle Sam's car riers to deliver the mails to these points on Lake Erie is a combination sailboat rowboat, ice yacht and sled. The star route from Ellison Bay, the northernmost postoffice in the Door Country peninsula to Detroit Harbor, Wisconsin, is one that is cov ered by carrier entirely by water, crossing the famous passage called "Death's Door." During the months when navigation is open, that is, from May 1 to No vember 1, carrying the mail on this route is a comparatively safe occu pation, and free from difficulties. It ie during the winter period, however, from November 1 to Kay 1, that the m ? 1 < i? -i. i., I. - " after every meal \ Cleanses month and teeth and alda digestion. Relieves that over eaten feeling and aeld month. Its l-a-s-t-l-n-a llavor satlslles the craving lor sweets. ? Wrlgley's Is donhle value In the henellt and pleasure It provides* Scafaf in ii? Pmriiy Package. oa ? rier has nioic than a TJWtlV -s>ze job on his hands. l.et the postmaster at Detroit Har bor tell his own tale. "The chief difficulty encountered ?while crossing- Death's Door in win ter," he says, "is drifting ice fields. The ice bridge that forms in ex tremely cold weather hardly ever le mains for more than a few days at a time. It is speedHy dissembled b> shifting Mali's and currents. Some times this breakup occurs so suddenly , that the carrier is caught out on the Ice with his horse sleigh and mail. It is at these times that the prox imity of the U. S. Coast Guard station at Plum Island is a Godsend. One such incident took plat * some few yea i s ago. The breakup occurred while the carrier was transporting the mail to this side over the ice with horse and sleigh. The ice became so thoroughly broken up that in a very short t j me the carrier found himsel on airtce cake barely large and heavy enough. To hold him and Kis equip ment. The Coast Guard crew having noticed his plight, came to the rescue. They succeeded in getting a line out to the carrier and then toward the whole cake over the' solid' ice and the carrier was enabled to walk onto more solid ice and thereby reached the mainland. "When the carrier can not find solid ice on which to travel he usually re sorts to his motor launch.. This he has conveniently moored inside the edge of the heavy ice with a channel cut away to open water. Here he may have to buck new ice for long distances .Old travel through slush ice which will be 8 or 10 feet deep and oftentimes impassable. In such circumstances, he has to return and seek out new openings in the ice fields. Sometimes his boat is caught in drifting ice fields and carried out into Lake Michigan 'rind forccd to stay out over night. Finding suitable landing places on either shore during the winter, cutting off all access to docks. Then the carrier must land along the beaches wherever the surf will permit to anchor his boat in deep navigable water and ferry the mail into shore in a rowboat, then cairy the mail bags- over the ice .banks and hummocks to the waiting team on land. "Another mode of carrying the mail is by the use of the ice boat. The carrier attaches ropes to the gun wales forward and hauls the boat along the ice like a sled. When open water is encountered he launches the boat, takes his place at the oars and pulls for the other side. This sounds exceedingly simple to the uninitiated but the difficulty comes when at tempting to launch the boat from the edge of the ice. Naturally, there is a wide belt of slush ice and small cakes caused by the seas pulverizing the outskirts of ice floes.. Sometimes the seas are so heavy that they will dash the small boat back on the solid ice At the other times the cakes that comprise this belt of broken ice are too heavy to row through. When this happens the carrier leaps^out on the cakes and holding on to the gun wale of the boat puabes_!t_alon* to ward open water, leaping back into the boat when hi. footing has dis aP"The wonder of it all is that there arc not frequent drownings but know of no to* of life while carrying mail across Death's Door. ^atura"^ with all these difficulties to overcome, there are periods when the earner ? unable to cro,.. ,?U ,'urfng fh'Jde'lys. mail i. pi""* ?P ?? th? Elli.on Bay po.toffice a problem for the already overworked carrier a., to how to tn">?PO? a large volume of mail with Jan. at hand. The~ period. of non-mail delivery are trymg to th. 0M thoaaand inhabitant, on W?h^ tngton Island .ipc. **? ** ?y item afford! tUonly will continue to exist as long as the mail is transported along the surface of the water. FJerhnps the airplamy will solve the problem, in the future. Why not ?" The edii iex, whu ^upplicx mail/on the Newport Otter Hock route in Oriv gon, immediately on the Pacific coast, is up against many difficulties and hardships and many times takes his, life ii^.his hand in order that the patrons on the route may receive their letters and packages. The car rier is, compelled to travel down the beach at low tide. If for some reason the incoming tide Catches him, before completing .h is trip he must either abandon his team and the mails jmd climb the rocks or be dashed to pieces against them. 4 The most expensive star route in the United States is from Price to Vernal, litalj. it is 121 miles long and for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1023, the cost of maintaining it was approximately $90,700. As high as twenty or more tons a day of mail mattor? - mostly parcel post are handled over this rtmte. The longest routes are from Two Harbors to Grand Portage, Minn , and from Midland, Texas, to Loving ton, New Mexico. These routes are each 143 miles in length. Athletes in the United States hold thirty-five of the ninety .world's records fdr track and field events, recognized by the International Ama teur Eodtualion. Gi*eat Britain is next wttJi twenty-five and Finland is third with twelve. Notice of Application For Charter. Notice is hereby given that the undersigned will apply to \V. P. Blackwell, Secretary of State, on September 13th, 1924, for Charter for Jno. M. Villepigue & Company, In corporated. The proposed corpora tion will have a capital stock of ten thousand dollars divided into one hundred shares of< the par value of one hundred ($100.(T0)">fu'h and wiJl be empowered to engage in the busi ness bf buying, selling, storing and otherwise dealingjn coal, wood and other fuels. Books /of. subseiption of said corporation will be open for cap ital stock of said corporation at the office of Jno. M. Villepigue. Immedi ately upon subscription of more than fifty per cent, of the capital stock of said corporation, there will be a meet ing of the stockholders for the pur pose of organization. JNO. M. VILLEPIGUK, L. A. KIKKLAND, JOHN WHITAKER, JR., Board of Incorporators. Camden, S. C., Sept. 0, 1924. THE SMALLER YOUR IN COME, THE LARGER VOI R NEED OF A HANK AC COUNT AT? Loan & Savings Bank CAPITAL $100,000.00 ' 4 Per Cent. Paid on Savings Deposits Red Cedar SHINGLES Mackey Mercantile Company k Camden, S. C. ? . The 107th anniversary of the birth of General Lafayette was celebrated in Baltimore Saturday by the unveil ing of a statue of the French general. President Coolidge made the princi pal address. CRANK. CASt OILS icorst enemies, MANY car owners seem to think that the oil in the crank case ought %o last indefinitely. They for get that there are two very serious . sources of oil contamination. First of all, unless your car is equipped with an air strainer, you ar? going to have a surprising amount of dust drawn in with th? mixture. This dust is caught by the oil, accumulates there and , is ground through the bearings over and over again; You know how much dust accumu lates on the car body in the course of 5 00 miles of driving. In the en gine it is much worse, for here are four, six or eight ff lungs " drawing in dust every revolution and that dust has little chancc to escape from the sticky oil. t Then, too, in starting, and especially if you overdo the use of the choke, unburned fuel leaks down and is ab sorbed by the crank case oil. Gaso line does not lubricate. If dilutes and ffcuts" the lubricant. These two causes eventually reduce the efficiency of even the best oil. The only safe way to overcome this is to drain, flush, and refill the crank case with fresh oil regularly every 500 miles. Before having new " Standard1' Polarine Motor Oil put in be sure to have the crank case thoroughly flushed out. "Standard" Flushing Oil is a light oil especially designed for this purpose* STANDARD OIL COMPANY (New Jersey) "STAN DARD" mm wwrt fcr jcmm 5Teler'e NMw Oils you am