outstanding characteristic of corporate development in the United States. This is especially true in the growth of public utilities. Practically all the many gas companies, as well as the electric lighting companies, which were formed in Lancaster County be- ginning with the gas industry in 1849, and the

ranking among the most gigantic of all in the United States, and therefore in the whole world. Our story concerns only our own county. But let us take a glimpse or two into the dim past. One of the first references to the "post" or post office is found in the Bible. In the eighth chapter and tenth verse