Gloucester Section 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
GLOUCESTER OFFICE, 171 MAIN STREET. 
Sunday Closing of Post Offices. 
The movement looking towards 
the closing of post offices on Sunday 
is meeting with popular’ favor 
throughout the country and it seems 
probable that a reform will be ac- 
complished in this matter and that 
in a short time it will be the excep- 
tion rather than the rule for a post 
office to open on Sunday. 
Really when one comes to con- 
sider the matter there is very little 
occasion for the post office to be 
opened Sundays. Take the local of- 
fice for instance. It has come to be 
a habit fer people to flock from the 
church services direct to the post 
office, get their mail and then go to 
office or store and read over their 
correspondence. This could just as 
well wait until Monday morning and 
in every case it would be better to 
forget business and business cares on 
Sunday and to keep the day free as 
far as possible from secular matters. 
Postmaster Brown is an obliging 
and efficient official and he and his 
assistants are doubtless willing to 
accommodate the public by keeping 
the office open for an hour on Sun- 
days if there is a universal demand 
for it, but we do not believe there 
is. It is simply a habit the people 
bave acquired and we believe that 
there would be but little objection if 
Gloucester followed the example of 
many other cities and kept the post 
office closed Sundays. 
The Russ Island Road. 
It has been practically decided by 
the county and city authorities to 
build the road asked for by Storer 
F. Crafts, from Concord street in 
West Gloucester to Russ Island in 
the Annisquam river. On Tuesday 
last, the county commissioners were 
in Gloucester and accompanied by 
Alderman C. Homer Barret, City 
Engineer Webber and Mr. Crafts, 
visited the proposed roadway. 
This news will be welcome to all 
the citizens of Gloucester, for with 
the building of the road a large tract 
of desirable property will be opened 
up and in addition to that it means 
the development of Russ Island upon 
an extensive seale. 
Now that the road is assurred, 
Mr. Crafts will go ahead with his 
plans which include the erection of 
a large summer hotel and _ several 
cottages on the island. 
The estimated cost of the road is 
about $2,500, of which the county 
will pay $1,000 and the city $1,500. 
The Bar and Bottle Bill. 
The Bar and Bottle bill will 
stand as passed by the legislature 
last year, as all attempts to repeal or 
modify it have met with complete 
failure. The result of the various 
attempts did not stir up much in- 
terest among the liquor dealers of 
Gloucester, probably for the reason 
that when the bill goes into effect 
they will be retiring from business 
with the prospect ahead of them of 
staying out of the business for a 
number of years, so far as Glouces- 
ter is concerned. 
While the workings of the law 
will not affect Gloucester this year, 
it will be watched with keen inter- 
est to learn whether or not it will 
develop into the strong temperance 
measure that its adherents claim. 
City Officers’ Salaries. 
There seems to be a general effort 
this year on the part of certain city 
officials to get a raise in salary, and 
the matter has been pretty thor- 
oughly discussed by the municipal 
board with the result that it has been 
about decided to indefinitely post- 
pone action. This will probably 
meet with the approval of the tax- 
payers, as it is not felt that the 
condition of affairs in the city war- 
rants any boost in the salaries of 
city officers. 
It certainly cannot be claimed that 
the Registrars or the Assessors have 
any more work to do now than they 
formerly had, and in the case of the 
first mamed, there are many who 
think the pay is already more than 
adequate for the services performed. 
It is a safe bet that if the council 
should cut the salary of the regis- 
trars in halves not a member of the 
board would resign. 
It would seem, however, that if 
any official was really underpaid for 
the amount of work he does, it would 
be no more than an act of justice to 
increase his salary to an amount 
commensurate with the work accom- 
L. F. WILLIAMS, MANAGER 
plished, and to do this even if the 
city is not in the best condition fi- 
nancially. ‘ 
Those who are most familiar with 
the work at city hall, regard the sal- 
ary of the secretary of the overseers 
of the poor as entirely inadequate. 
The secretary occupies a responsible 
position, is an extremely busy man 
and receives a very small salary. It 
may not be best to let the bars down 
at this time to increase the salary 
of even an official who deserves an 
increase, but surely if any increase 
is to be made anywhere it should be 
made in this particular instance. 
Postal Savings Bank. 
Postmaster General Hitchcock has 
designated Rockport as one of the 
45 places in which postal savings 
banks are to be established. These 
are in addition to the banks already 
established. 
Quarry Strike Settled. 
The strike which was inaugurated 
March Ist, by the employees of the 
granite quarries at Lanesville and 
Pigeon Cove, and which caused a 
closing down of all work, was ended 
Saturday, when a definite agree- 
ment was entered into by the quarry- 
men and employers for a term of 
five years. 
Base Ball Season Opens. 
The 1911 season of baseball was 
formally opened on Wednesday of 
this week by the Pacifie Coast 
League, which is the first to start 
on its schedule. The regular games 
of the three big leagues, the Ameri- 
can, National and American Asso- 
ciation will not, however, start be- 
fore April 12. The New England 
league games do not begin till April 
24th. : 
While Gloucester is much too 
small to. have a team in any of the 
professional leagues, the city has in 
years past been well represented by 
base ball teams of a semi-profes- 
sional nature and it is hoped in 
many quarters that the sport will 
be revived this season and that the 
local fans will be given an oppor- 
tunity to witness some good games 
in this city. 
