Instead of a stork: how in the USA children were mailed and why it was possible
'19.04.2020'
In childhood, parents often lie to us. About the existence of Santa Claus, about delicious porridge, that the stork brings children, the author of the channel writes “Scientific pop. Science for All "on Yandex.Zen. Then we, of course, find out the truth. And it turns out that dad and mom give gifts, it’s impossible to eat porridge of one’s own free will, and transportation of children by non-responsible creatures is prohibited. Delivery of this kind was legal in the United States and it was not the birds that dealt with it, but the country's postal department.
Before the advent of e-mail and all kinds of messengers, the postal services of different countries of the world performed the function of ensuring communication between people. Love letters, important packages, photos from drunken parties and fashionable resorts - all this passed through the branches of these strategically important and authoritative departments.
The General Postmaster of the United States, for example, was considered such a significant figure in the state system that he received the second largest salary among all civil servants. Only the president earned more than him. This tradition, by the way, has survived to this day, which probably confuses the vice president of the United States a little.
In 1913, the US Post adopted new rules that revolutionized the American economy. They allowed the population to send parcels weighing up to 5 kilograms, which more than doubled the previously existing two-kilogram limit. People began to make purchases by mail. This led to the emergence of many product catalogs, increased consumption, the development of the loan market ...
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But this is a topic for a separate article, today it is more important for us that US citizens have been able to send and receive rather massive objects - toasters, shoes, dolls, baby carriages, cribs and even children themselves. Moreover, the ban on the latter was not stipulated in any way.
The first to send their child by mail is Jesse and Matilda Beagle from the town of Glen Este, Ohio. They bought stamps at 15 cents, after which their newborn son weighing about 5 kilograms was delivered to her grandmother, whose house was located about a mile from the post office. You can naturally say that it would be much less troublesome for this strange parental couple to walk to their destination with the baby, but then suggest another way to make people talk about you a hundred years later. History has preserved a couple more examples of the genus of interest to us. For example, a certain Mrs. Stayley from Stratford, Oklahoma, sent her two-year-old grandson to his aunt in Wellington, Kansas, paying 18 cents.
The most famous was the mailing of six-year-old May Pirstorf, who in 1914 covered more than 100 kilometers by train to visit her grandmother. Towards the end of the last century, a children's book, The Forwarding of May, was written about this journey, which has become quite popular with its readership.
It should be noted that children sent by mail were not packed in any boxes, boxes or other containers with which we associate the work of this wonderful service. Stamps were simply pasted on the kids' clothes, after which they were passed on to the postman. This man, in fact, delivered them to the right address.
Finally, the most interesting question is how legitimate such premises were. Maybe people were just abusing the trust of naive postal workers? There is no unequivocal answer to it and probably will not be.
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In 1913, the postmaster general, when asked to comment on this issue, advised him to read the rules of his department, in which it was written in black and white that the only living creatures to be sent were bees and beetles. It is clear that children can fall into this category only metaphorically.
However, on June 14, 1920, the same government official signed a decree specifically prohibiting postal workers from accepting children for transfer. Which, at a minimum, suggests that up to this point such a practice was more or less widespread.
Original column published on channel “Scientific pop. Science for All "on Yandex.Zen
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