in the trenches and redoubts around Boston; and no battle or siege,
including the capture of Yorktown, is without its tribute to the
far-reaching influence which that training assured.

The echoes of the national salute which have so recently commemorated
the one hundredth anniversary of the close of the official career of
Washington as commander-in-chief of the army of the Revolution, may well
be associated with those midnight salvos of artillery which crowned his
first campaign with an enduring success, and, once for all, rescued the
soil of the Bay State from the tread of a hostile foot.

* * * * *




THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

[Footnote: Illustrated by pen and ink sketches furnished by the author.]

BY COLONEL THOMAS P. CHENEY.

[Superintendent New England Division United States Railway Mail
Service.]

[Illustration: YE FASTE MAILE OF YE OLDEN TYME.]

It is not the purpose of this paper to give a history of the growth of
this important branch of the government service, so much as to impart,
perhaps to an indifferent degree, the methods of its intricate workings,