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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
101
On
another
occasion
a
packet
containing
a
small
snake
and
a
lizard
found
its
way
to
the
Returned-letter
Office.
Upon
examining
it
next
day
the
lizard
had
disappeared,
and
from
the
appearance
of
the
snake
it
was
feared
that
it
had
made
a
meal
of
its
companion.
Another
live
snake
which
had
escaped
from
a
postal
packet
was
discovered
in
the
Holyhead
and
Kingstown
Marine
Post-office,
and
at
the
expiration
of
a
fortnight,
being
still
unclaimed,
it
was
sent
to
the
Dublin
Zoological
Gardens.
In
the
Returned-letter
Office
in
Liverpool,
a
small
box
upon
being
opened
was
found
to
contain
eight
living
snakes;
but
we
are
not
informed
as
to
the
manner
in
which
they
were
got
rid
of.
The
strike
of
the
stokers
employed
by
the
Gas
Companies
of
the
metropolis
in
1872
is
remembered
in
the
Post-office
as
an
event
which
gave
rise
to
a
considerable
amount
of
inconvenience
and
anxiety
at
the
time.
That
the
Post-office
should
be
left
in
darkness
was
not
a
thing
to
be
thought
possible
for
a
moment;
for
such
a
circumstance
would
almost
have
looked
like
the
extinction
of
civilisation.
On
the
afternoon
of
the
3d
December
in
the
year
mentioned,
intimation
reached
the
chief
office
that
the
Gas
Company
could
not
guarantee
a
supply
of
gas
for
more
than
a
few
hours,
in
consequence
of
their
workmen
having
struck
work.
The
occasion
was
one
demanding
instant
action
in
the
way
of
providing
other
means
of
lighting,
and
accordingly
an
order
was
issued
for
a
ton
of
candles.
These
were
used
at
St
Martin's-le-Grand
and
at
the
branch
offices
in
the
East
Central
district;
while
arrangements
were
made
to
provide
lanterns
and
torches
for
the
mail-cart
drivers,
and
oil-lamps
for
lighting
the
Post-office
yard.
In
the
evening
the
sorting-offices
presented
the
novel
spectacle
of
being
lighted
up
by
2000
candles;
and
this
reign
of
tallow
continued
during
the
next
three
days.
The
total
cost
of
this
special
lighting
during
the
four
days'
strike
was
L58;
but
there
was
a
saving
of
about
160,000
feet
of
gas,
reducing
the
loss
to
something
like
L27.
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