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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
305
Similar
anxiety
to
be
first
in
possession
of
commercial
or
political
news
conveyed
through
the
newspapers
was
no
doubt
common
to
all
business
centres
at
the
period
referred
to;
though
in
our
own
age
such
information
is
largely
anticipated
and
discounted
by
the
telegraph,
and
in
this
respect
the
circumstances
have
changed.
Senex,
in
'Glasgow
Past
and
Present,'
humorously
describes
the
scene
enacted
at
the
Tontine
Coffee
Rooms,
in
Glasgow,
during
the
French
War,
at
the
close
of
last
century,
on
the
arrival
of
the
mail.
He
says:--"Immediately
on
receiving
the
bag
of
papers
from
the
Post-office,
the
waiter
locked
himself
up
in
the
bar,
and
after
he
had
sorted
the
different
papers
and
had
made
them
up
in
a
heap,
he
unlocked
the
door,
and
making
a
sudden
rush
into
the
middle
of
the
room,
he
tossed
up
the
whole
lot
of
newspapers
as
high
as
the
ceiling.
Now
came
the
grand
rush
and
scramble
of
the
subscribers,
every
one
darting
forward
to
lay
hold
of
a
falling
newspaper.
Sometimes
a
lucky
fellow
got
hold
of
five
or
six
newspapers,
and
ran
off
with
them
to
a
corner,
in
order
to
select
his
favourite
paper;
but
he
was
always
hotly
pursued
by
some
half-dozen
of
the
disappointed
scramblers,
who,
without
ceremony,
pulled
from
his
hands
the
first
paper
they
could
lay
hold
of,
regardless
of
its
being
torn
in
the
contest.
On
these
occasions
I
have
often
seen
a
heap
of
gentlemen
sprawling
on
the
floor
of
the
room,
and
riding
upon
one
another's
backs
like
a
parcel
of
boys.
It
happened,
however,
unfortunately,
that
a
gentleman
in
one
of
these
scrambles
got
two
of
his
teeth
knocked
out
of
his
head,
and
this
ultimately
brought
about
a
change
in
the
manner
of
delivering
the
newspapers."
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