TheUnited States Postal Servicehas a majestic tradition of enrapture alphabetic character and packages in a timely and efficient mode . package were a tardy increase ; the USPS was granted the power todeliveritems nifty than 4 pounds as of January 1 , 1913 .
Like any new overhaul , there were endeavour to game the system . In this case , it involved parents attempting to mail theirchildren .
According to theSmithsonian , it was not unheard of for enterprising — and some might say grossly incompetent — parentsto overwork the new Parcel Post service for the transport of tykes . One such case occurred in Ohio , when Jesse and Mathilda Beagle mailed their boy , 8 - calendar month - onetime James , to his grannie a few miles away , ante up just 15 centime for the help . ( Had the postal carrier lose him , there was recourse : the Beagles insured James for $ 50 . )
Such write up seem periodically in the media , with parents effectively using the Postal Service as a courier for their child . In 1914 , 4 - twelvemonth - old Charlotte May Pierstorff move around 73 mile by train in Idaho to her grandparent ’ star sign . Her female parent ’s cousin worked for the railway mail service service and accompanied her .
Pierstorff ’s legend eventually grew to the stage where she was say to have been mailed under the “ volaille charge per unit ” for stock , but this is apparently incorrect , as no such pace exist until 1918 . She did , however , reportedly have postage stamps stuck to her pelage .
While such stories are lawful , they typically happened in rural areas , where postal carriers were sometimes the only reliable method acting of transport and were consider by households as trustworthy . Despite that square endorsement , the Postal Service quickly made it known that carrier were not to go for children and the practice soon fall out of favour . All told , as many as seven kid may have beensentalong mail routes , with one traveling 720 miles , before the post officeinsistedthat bees and bug were the only live thing acceptable .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
