The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1873-05-08
The Postal Cards

The new postal cards are soon to be
come prominent feature in our post
Office arrangements. Much mlsap
prehensiOn exists amop- the peopIe
Is % what the cards wili De and how
they viii Ge used. Many suppose
they must be put in an enve,ODe.
while others have an idea that each
card viii require cue OF tie one cent
stamps NOW IN use. o. the contrary,
/ each card viii be complete in Itself
the side given above being used for
. the direction, while the reverse Of the
card IS blank surface on which can
be written any message desired, or i,
can be used for printing a business
card, in which case it would take the
. place of the advertising circulars now
t 50 extensively used. The earJs will
I be for sale at every p0st-Oflice in the
/ United States, singiy or in quantities,
7 the same as postage stamps are now.
z A card will answer all the purposes OF
/ paper, envelope and stamp, in case
| the message contains nothing OF a pri-
vate nature, and the saving OF two
cents to men aud houses sending out
hundreds OF letters daily, will be no
small item. IJ is not expected that
the postal card will be popular with
lovers, or people in whom the organ
Of secretivness IS unusually large; but
with the mass Of people they are sure
to become Immensely popular
IC was intended to have the cards
printed and in use during 1872, but by
a singular oversight, the FOrty-secOnd
Congress closed its second session, last
spring, without making any apprOpri-
alton for their manufacture, aud the
matter thus had to 60 over, The mis-
take was corrected at the opening of
Congress in December, when an ap-
iRropriatiOn of $4,000 was voted for
the manufacture of postal cards and
stamped envelopes. The Postmaster
General advertised for proposals to
manufacture the postal cards, January
3, and on the 9th Of February the
contract was awarded 10 the Morgan
Envelope Company of this city, which
offered to furnish the cards at 81 ,39{
per thousand. The contractors agree
to furnish one hundred million cards
the first year, and more if required.
The orders received at the department
already amount to over 30, 600, 600, and
are increasing every day, so that the
Postmaster General calculates that at
least 130, 900, 900 cards will be called
for the first year.
The cards are to be printed on what
is known as "bOnd paper" that is, pa
per which is worked together in q
solid sheet without pasting. They
will be FIVE and One-eighth inches long,
/ by three inches wide, and are Of two
shades of velvet-brOwn, bearing on
one side a stamp with the '.liberty"
head surrounded by the words 'U. :
Postage One Cent? in lathe work, and
having besides, the words "United
States Postal CARD" Printed across
the face are lines for the address, with
the letters ''U. 5. P, o. D., ," one and a
half inches long, in water mark
across the body Of the caTt The
weight is to be SIX pounds - the thuu-
sand. The cards are to be put up in
packages of p, and then will be en-
closed in light pasteboard boxes con-
tanning 20 packages, or 500 cards each.
By the forms OF the contract the man
ufacturers must have 5000 cards
ready for delivery, May l.
There has been much speculation
as to the merits and dement's of the
postal card system, many claiming
that il will be used rs means Of
blackmailing and ven ting personal
spleen, as has been the case 10 some
extent in England, where the system
has been i'm vogue some time. But
the present postal regulations provide
that any letter or package having on
its envelope gross or obscene words
shall be sent to the dead letter office,
and this law will of course apply to
postal cards. No sooner had the sys-
tenn been arranged than private parties
began getting up postal cards on their
own hook and sending them through
the mail, with the usual one cent
stamp affixed. As each card bore an
inscription similar to the following;
"Lipman postal card, patent applied
fOr,n every one making its appear
ance at the post-office is cOntiscated
and sent to the dead letter Office at
Washington. Without the postal in
scription the cards would have been
allowed to pass like other mail mat
ter,