New-York tribune., 1869-02-27
TO CORRESPONDENTS

X. S. B-The architect of the Empire Rink at
Sixty-third-st. and Third-ave, Is John u baDcock
OF this city.
Thomqs Martin.-Some of the Commercial Colleges
teach telegraphy and there is a school for the an
structiOn of women IN the art at Cooper Institute
Old Sabscri6er.-F Fifth-ave., between Eleventh and
Twelfth-st is in the With Senatorial District, at
present represented at Albany by Michael Norton esq
, Mdrtha Msrin-ColOred orphan children are edu-
Gated free Of charge at the Colored Orphan Asylum
at Carmansyille. New York. You had better write
to Nh, Davis, the Superintendent OF the Asylum a
SabScriber-You can get a good compilation OF the
United States Bounty and Pension Laws TO the
present time from Van Nostrand, the military book
seller. No. l:t2 Broadway, New-York,
cisco by the Union Pacific Railroad VIII be after the
completion of the road. is not yet known. AT pres
ent, the fare byrail and stage is $237.
John WitkeAs-The POst-Ofice address OF D. La
throp Motley and William Lloyd Garrison is Boston
that OF Cyrus w. Field, New-YOrk. Gen. h. E Lee Is
Presidept Of Washington College, Lexington, Va.
Z. II. S-The title of the Genealogical Society IN
Massachusetts is the New-Eugland HistOric-Geneal-
oglcal Society. The SOcietysrooms in Boston, at
no. IL Bromfield-st, and the Rev. Edmund Shafter
NJ A. Of Boston. is the Corresponding Secretary. He
may probably be able to inform you where you can
obtain Godwins Genealogical Notes.
y. N. Whfson.-fou can get all the Information you
want relative to the organization sRd management
of Building Society from My Albert Alhngham
Secretary OF the Cooperative Building Association
Cooperative Hall. No. 2l4 Bowery, New-York. The
printed artlces OF the Assoclaslon setting forth the
principles OF the Cooperative movement and point
ing ont the way Of going to work. will cost you so
cents; prospectuses, &c, you will obtain grautously
yQhg MiLlg-YOu say that in reply to letter ad-
dressed to the War Department in Washington reat-
Jug TO tbe back pay Of soldier you received COM
mGncatioii FROM the PayWasteg; Generals Office,
dated July Q. 1863 admitting the soldiers claim, but
that although yOu have since that time %ftteh sew
eral letters to the Department. v you have heard
nothing more about the matter Have you written
to the head of the Department himselff II not we
advise you to address your next letter to the ray
master-General U. S. A., Washington. Probably you
will then get reply 81
s. ana T--The United States Government first Is
sued pustaee-stamps in the year 1S47 and the rate
of postage was reduced to cents per half ounce for
all distances by act Of Congress Of March g. 1863 In
regard to your questions, as to whether postage
stamps preceded the invention and use OF letter en-
yeOpes, and whether the pOstage-stamp and the let
ter envelope not both foreign inventions,
not do better than cite few interesting facts con-
tanned in work entitled Her Majesty's Mails,n by
W. Lewins, who is consideTed p good authority in
postal matters. Postpaid envelopes were in use in
France as early as the reign Of Louis XIV. PelsoI
states that they originated in 1853, with q
authority, private penny-pOst in Paris. placing
boxes at the Of the streets for the reception
of letters which should be wrapped in a certain en-
veope The subject Of postage stamps was first agi
tated in England in 1890 but it was not until 1885
that it took practical FORM in the adoption of what
called the Mulready envelope. In six months
this envelope was withdrawn, and in May 1910, the
postage stamp was adopted instead SO it appears
that envelopes were in long before the invention
of the postage-label stamp, and that the letter
envelope and the stamp are both foreign inventions