Mails, the Telegraph, the Telephone, and Highways._

The Swiss postal service is a model in completeness, cheapness, and
dispatch. Switzerland has 800 post-offices and 2,000 depots where
stamps are sold and letters and packages received. Postal cards cost 1
cent; to foreign countries, 2 cents, and with return flap, 4. For
half-ounce letters, within a circuit of six miles, the cost is 1 cent;
for letters for all Switzerland, up to half a pound, 2 cents; for
printed matter, one ounce, two-fifths of a cent; to half a pound, 1
cent; one pound, 2 cents; for samples of goods, to half a pound, 1 cent;
one pound, 2 cents.

There are 1,350 telegraph offices open to the public. A dispatch for any
point in Switzerland costs 6 cents for the stamp and 1 cent for every
two words.

The Swiss Post-Office department has many surprises in store for the
American tourist. Mail delivery everywhere free, even in a rural commune
remote from the railroad he may see a postman on his rounds two or three
times a day. When money is sent him by postal order, the letter-carrier
puts the cash in his hands. If he wishes to send a package by express,
the carrier takes the order, which soon brings to him the postal express
wagon. A package sent him is delivered in his room. At any post-office
he may subscribe for any Swiss publication or for any of a list of
several thousand of the world's leading periodicals. When roving in the
higher Alps, in regions where the roads are but bridle paths, the
tourist may find in the most unpretending hotel a telegraph office. If
he follows the wagon roads, he may send his hand baggage ahead by the
stage coach and at the end of his day's walk find it at his
destination.

There are three hundred stage routes in Switzerland, all operated under
the Post-Office department, private posting on regular routes being
prohibited. The department owns the coaches; contractors own the horses
and other material. From most of the termini, at least two coaches
arrive and depart daily. Passengers, first and second class, are
assigned to seats in the order of purchasing tickets. Every passenger in
waiting at a stage office on the departure of a coach must by law be
provided with conveyance, several supplementary vehicles often being
thus called into employ. A postal coach may be ordered at an hour's
notice, even on the mountain routes. Coach fare is 6 cents a mile; in
the Alps, 8. Each passenger is allowed thirty-three pounds of bagg