recked, by a notice informing them where they can find
means of nourishment.

Once again we make a leap. The Bosnian mail carrier's equipment (Fig. 24)
is, or rather was, quite singular, for our picture was taken before the
occupation.

This mounted mail carrier with his weapons gives one the impression of a
robber.

The task of conducting the mail through the Alps of Switzerland (Fig. 25)
must be uncomfortable in winter, when the sledges glide by fearful
precipices and over snow-covered passes.

Since the tariff union mail developed from the Prussian mail, and the
world's mail from the tariff union, it seems suitable to close our series
of pictures by representing the old Prussian postal service (Fig. 26)
carried on by soldier postmen in the eighteenth century during the reign of
Frederick the Great.

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--CHINESE POSTMAN.]

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--DELIVERING LETTERS IN LANDES DEPARTMENT,
FRANCE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 22.--RUSSIAN EXTRA POST.]

The complaint is made that poetry is wanting in our era, and it has
certainly disappeared from the postal service. One remembers that the
postilion was for quite a while the favorite hero of our poets, the best of
whom have sung to his praises, and given space to his melancholy thoughts
of modern times in which he is pushed aside. It is too true that the post
horn, formerly blown by a postilion, is now silenced, that the horse has
not been able to keep up in the race with the world in its use of the
steam horse, and yet how much poetry there is in that little post office
all alone by itself on the Booby Island, that we have described--the
sublimest poetry, that of love for mankind!

The poet of the modern postal system has not yet appeared; but he will find
plenty of material. He will be able to depict the dangers a postman passes
through in discharging his duty on the field, he will sing the praises of
those who are injured in a railroad disaster, and yet continue their good
work.

[Illustration: FIG. 23.--POST OFFICE ON BOOBY ISLAND.]

[Illustration: FIG. 24.--BOSNIAN POST.]

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--SWISS ALPINE POST IN WINTER.]

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--SOLDIER POSTMAN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]

He can also praise the noble thought of uniting the nations, which assumed
its first tangible form in the world's mail. It will not be a sentimental
song, but one full of power and indicative of our own time, in spite of
those who scorn it.--_