The Shack Post Office Scandal

Since our allusion to the manner in which the Post Office in this city is managed, we have not gone upon the street without being urged to keep up the fight. It is a disgrace to the city, and the public interests and convenience demand an immediate change. Thomas W. Prosch was appointed to the office at the instance of Capt. E.A. Starr, without consultation with the citizens of Seattle. At the time, Prosch had not a dollar’s interest in this town outside his printing office and had only just left Tacoma. He has used the office as a source of personal revenue solely, in utter disregard of public interest or convenience. He farmed it out for a stipulated sum without giving it any personal attention. To save rent, he removed the office to an unpainted and unplastered board shanty but 12 feet in width, the cases through the center leaving a passage not much over five feet on either side—not swept oftener than once a week and lighted only by a half window in the door. This low, dark, dirty passage is all the public accommodations for the delivery of the mails to nearly five thousand people. The money paid to Prosch for the use of his name would not only pay the rent of a respectable and convenient office, but would pay for sufficient additional force to ensure a prompt delivery of the mails.