"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
Of course we know this as the postal service creed. But, it's not. According to the USPS, they have no official creed. The reason this phrase has been associated with the postal service is because of an inscription on the collanade outside of the James Farley Post Office in New York City. The inscription was placed on the building by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux-Arts style.
An interesting aside:
The original Pennsylvania Station stood directly opposite the James Farley Post Office building which was meant to match in strength the colonnade that originally faced it across 8th avenue. The original Pennsylvania Station was unfortunately demolished in 1963, much to the horror of many who opposed its destruction. The New York Times editorially lamented: "Until the first blow fell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished, or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance." ["Farewell to Penn Station". The New York Times. October 30, 1963. (The editorial goes on to say that “we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed”).]
"Neither snow nor rain ..." is actually a borrowed phrase from Herodotus' Histories (Book 8, Ch. 98) and describes the faithful service of the Persian system of mounted postal messengers under Xerxes I of Persia. Wasn't that the Persian ruler who led the battle agaist the Spartans in the 300 movie?? The original phrase read:
"It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed."
Portions of this post are borrowed from:
2 comments:
I'm one of those who thought that it was a post office motto. Maybe reinforced by the movie The Postman with Kevin Costner. I also thought it said something about sleet. Oh well.
Yeah, I think one version of it goes, "Neither sleet, nor snow, nor driving rain ..." I wonder who came up with that version.
Post a Comment