From January 1, 1913, users of the USPS (United States Postal Service) could send packages up to 11 pounds (4.98 kilograms) through local post offices. The public quickly took advantage of such a service, and with a lack of precise regulations, shipments could be very strange. Two particular cases involved children: the first made a one-mile trip, and the second crossed from Oklahoma to Kansas by train. Over the years, many images of mail carriers with children have ended up on the Web, but how real are they?
A baby's journey through the postal system
The story dates back to January 17, 1913, just a couple of weeks after the new postal service was introduced. An article in the New York Times mentions that the postmaster general was consulted about the wrapping specifications required for sending a baby to comply with the requirements. Unfortunately, the full article is behind a paywall, but at least we know the text itself was not invented.
Two weeks later, newspapers again talked about children sent by mail. One claimed that Vernon O. Lytle, a mail carrier on rural route number 5 in Batavia (Ohio), had become the first man to accept, transport, and deliver a child as mail. The child, weighing exactly 10.75 pounds (4.87 kilograms), was well prepared by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Beagle, with instructions to deliver him to his grandmother, Mrs. Louis Beagle, who lived a mile away (1.6 km). The postage cost 15 cents, with $50 insurance.
From Oklahoma to Kansas
A year later, the Times returned to the attack, sharing the story of a boy sent by his grandmother in Stratford (Oklahoma) to E. H. Staley, an aunt in Wellington (Kansas), via mail. The child had spent three weeks at his grandmother's house, and at the time of delivery he wore a label around his neck indicating the cost of shipping (18 cents). He had to travel 25 miles (40 kilometers) along a rural route before reaching the train, on which he traveled and lunched with the postal employees. Note: The distance between Stratford and Wellington is 203 miles by car.
The prohibition
From there, other similar stories emerged in newspapers, until a piece in the Los Angeles Times (published on June 14, 1920) indicated that the postmaster general was forced to confirm that sending children by mail was prohibited, since they did not qualify as "harmless live animals without requirements of water and food" during transport.
Fact or fiction?
Many insist that all cases were publicity stunts, jokes repeated to exhaustion, or a bit of "fake news" on the part of the newspapers of the time to boost their circulation. None of the images circulating on the Web with mail carriers and children in their bags appears to be legitimate, but the point is that a hundred years ago, evidently someone considered the possibility of putting a couple of stamps on their blessings and sending them by mail...
If you want to know other absurd situations from the past, check out the warnings to prevent people from being electrocuted and the ads with doctors recommending tobacco.
Sources: Snopes, Smithsonian
