Telegram Postally Sent

Obviously I'm clueless on this one. Why not just send it via normal mail? Or, if your sending a telegram, why the stamp and postmark?
I think I'm having brain lock.
Hoping someone can school me on this use.

I believe the postmark is Princeton.

I'm only guessing here, but I imagine that this message was received from overseas, transcribed in letter form, and then mailed. This way one gained a little bit of time and saved money. (I imagine telegrams being hand-delivered outside the postal service were expensive.)

The sender of the telegram message might be in some place like California or even overseas. It still would have been quicker to send the telegram to an office close to the receiver and then have the message mailed from there compared to having a letter sent by ship from say England.

Could it not just be a "make up" fee, for higher telegram charges?

I can not read the cancel. Does this cable have a date? Maybe this was at a time that some folks did not have a telephone yet? ( Hard to imagine this day and age when even kindergardeners have a cellphone! )

Peter

Good question, Peter!

Normal mail over what distance?

This combination by itself gives you Paris (France) or Paris (Texas) to Connecticut in minutes, with same day delivery by post ... but we assume too much.

I suspect that what you have is the hardcopy that was sent as a courtesy after the message was delivered by phone, or as a backup because the phone call had not yet been successfully completed.

I came in at the very end of telegrams, but I remember having the option of deliver-by-hand (pricey, slower, and rare) versus deliver-by-local-phone-call (cheaper, often faster).

One deciding factor would be the venue of the target. To reach someone at home is one thing. But people did, for example, send a telegram to The Happy Couple to be read at the reception, which required hand delivery ... cheaper than a plane ticket, eh?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I believe Ikey is on to it. As a youngster, in the 1950s, I saw my folks receive telegrams by mail. It was a 'big deal' and rare occasion to get them. I remember one was a birthday message. The percentage of covers with contents saved is probably <.01%

I agree with wbrob and IkeyPikey. If the receipant had a phone, the message would normally be delivered by phone and the hardcopy mailed. If no phone, it might be mailed locally or delivered by hand. Yesteryears version of e-mail.

Thanks everyone for enlightening me to some of the possibilities. Interesting stuff.

Going to bump this subject up...ran across this similar kind of mailed telegram today. It appears to have left Chetopa Kansas at 5PM on November 16, 1907 and arrived in Coffeeville Kansas at 7:30PM the same day. The distance between the two cities is about 30 miles. https://www.distancebetweencities.n...opa_ks/route I wonder if there wasn't a telegraph line between the two cities at the time? I assume the card went by train but that is pure speculation.

The telegraph post card has nothing to do with a telegraph company. It has no company name, for one. This is a novelty-type card.

The basic message is a canned one; there might have been several to choose from. If you examine it closely, the "message" in large print will probably prove to be printed. Note the handwriting is different from the added message at lower left and addressing on the reverse.

Interesting. Thanks for your comments hy-brasil.

I agree, likely a novelty card on closer examination...and thanks for your comments.