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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
310
CHAPTER
XXV.
RED
TAPE.
The
Post-office
is
no
stranger
to
the
taunt
that
it
is
swathed
from
head
to
foot
in
red
tape;
or,
at
any
rate,
that
its
operations
are
so
trammelled
with
routine
that
no
inquiry
into
irregularities
can
be
made
with
anything
like
due
expedition.
Such
accusations
as
these
often
come
from
unreflecting
persons,
or
from
those
whose
business
operations
are
of
a
small
kind,
and
who
have
no
idea
of
the
methods
necessary
for
carrying
on
a
huge
administration.
An
ordinary
shopkeeper,
for
example,
has
under
his
own
eye
the
whole
sphere
of
his
daily
business;
he
has
a
personal
knowledge
of
all
purchases
from
the
wholesale
houses,
and
knows
exactly
the
particulars
of
his
daily
sales;
he
has,
moreover,
the
behaviour
of
his
servants
constantly
under
observation
with
a
view
to
discipline;
in
fact,
he
is
ever
present
in
his
own
business
world,
the
whole
scope
of
which
is
within
his
individual
purview.
If
a
person
of
this
class
were
asked
a
question
in
regard
to
his
affairs,
it
would
probably
be
in
his
power
to
afford
an
answer
at
once;
and
when
he
addresses
an
inquiry
to
the
Post-office
he
expects
a
reply
with
like
rapidity.
Not
receiving
an
answer
with
the
looked-for
despatch,
as
might
very
likely
happen,
the
cause
would
be
assumed
to
be
needless
routine--otherwise
red
tape.
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