The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-09
WONDERS OF A BIT OF PAPER.
Carrying Messages Thousands of
Miles " ithout Delay.

AdlASS w lGuOQO O6ldys
From the New York World.
The postal system of this republic is one
of the most wonderful institutions of the
world. For &c. you may send letter
weighing an ounce to San Francisco in
seven days.
1t will go in private car along with sew
eral thousand other miSsives. and will be
delivered to the person to whom it is adj
dressed without an hours loss of time, as
surely as the note you gave to your office
boy to deliver on the way to the post office
Four thousand employees in the Federal
building IN New York work to this end
The postal service is fact, and a most
agreeable one.
How many letter-writers, when they lick
the back of the portrait the father of his
country before ornamenting cor
ner of the envelope with it, realize that
they are tax ng the initial step in the enjoy
ment of a privilege which their grandfath-
ers di1 OF posses! So thick and fast come
the advancing steps of civil. Zatio g., the
march of progress is such a company
front" movement, that the labor-saving.
time-annihllating, ease and comfort bring
ing innovation OF yesterday is the staid, ac-
cepted, commonplace fact of to-day
Thus it is with the prepaid postal sys-
first postage stamp are nearly all in the land
of the living yet, to tell the wonderful
story.
But they don't tell it. They have forgot
ten all about it, To the Rev. Rowland Hill ,
of London, who was a statesman as we'll as
a great divine, should be given the credit
for the introduction of an idea which was
equal in its day and generation to the most
startling invention II Edison
in - l.
that the old system of leaving the postage
on your missives to be paid by the receiver
was abolished in England, and the prepay
ing postage stamp made its first bow to the
public 1t bore about as much resemblance
or affinity to the beautiful and artistic Jubi-
lee series issued last summer by the British
government as George Stephenson's first
locomotive bears to the iron steeds of the
railroads of to-day.
The idea of prepaid or stamped paper
originated in the brain of NJ. de Velayer.
who, in 1858, in the reign OF Louis xiv,
established a private penny post, placing
boxes at the corners of the streets of Paris
for the reception of letters, which were
franked by pasting bands about them These
slips were sold for sou tape, and could be
bought" says NJ. Piron in a pamphlet pub
hshed in 1888, lat the palace, at the turn
tables of converts and from the porters of
colleges"
But the idea died apparently with its
originator, not to be revivified till in 1887,
Rowland Hill obtained the passage by Par
lament of bill which propo ed the pre-
payment of postage by means of stamped
envelopes.
William Mulready obtained the contract
for engraving the envelope in 1910, and his
design was unique and perhaps prettier and
more tasteful than any following issue of
Great Britain. 1t had the merit of symbol
ism, too. it covered the whole upper ha t
and ends of the envelope, leaving only space
en- ugh for the address, like postal cards of
to-day. There was an ideal portrait of
Britannia sending out angelic messengers to
the nations of the earth, while female fig
ures were seen reading letters.
Within year this unwleldy device was
discarded for simpler cOnceit, which could
be pasted on or gummed to an ordinary enve-
lope. These stamps were printed in sheets
and were separated by cutting. Then some
one lost to fame thought of a way to gum
them in the sheets ready for use, and after
ward another unsung benefactor of the
race invented the perfOrating machine,
which is still used, so that no scissors were
needed to separate the stamps.
Since 1910 the British government has
issued a dozen series of stamps renowned
among philatelists as the least attractive in
the whole 1900 varieties of postage stamps
that have been printed in these forty-ei hit
years. All the British stamps bear the dia-
DENIED head of Queen Victoria, and il may
be said in passing that there are fl ty-tive
colonies and provinces of the domi iol on
which the sun never sets which have issued
postage stamps bearing the portrait of
Queen Victoria.
But this boosted land of progress did not
take up the new-fangled notion of our Brit
fish cousins until 1S47-after Switzerland,
and even Brazil, had adopted it.
j. Walter Scott, who has made a small
fortune in the business of collecting the
postage stamps of all nations and selling
them to collectors, and who has lately re-
tired from business has in his possession a
bill made out by J. Lorimer Graham, who
was Postmaster of this city prior to the in
PRODUCTION of postage stamps, against a
merchant for postage due on mail addressed
by him to his custom srs, and which he had
contracted to pay in advance.
There are now some 300 stamp-issuing
coun ries, and the prepaid postal service is
universal.
There is no amusement so instructive for
a youthful mind as that Of stamp col
Letting The stamps form splendid kinder
garten.
The collectors curiosity IS stimulated to
inquire into the reasons for the various de-
signs and changes, aud he is led 70 i.iyesti
gate the history, manner and customs Of
the stamp-issuing countries, so that edu-
Gators have largely accepted the pasti ne of
collecting stamps as a help in these branches.
The late Mrs. Whiting. OF this city, adopted
this ''fad" as part of her curriculum and
Mr.. Scott says that in the past twv nty-five
years he has numbered among his customers
many Of the great Of this country and
Furone who have bought libe ally of o
letter-franlxing adhesioIs for their children,
grandchildren, nepaews and nieces, while
not a few of them have derived much per-
sonal enjoyment fror be study of philately.
Among those W liy be me ltione Is,
If not collector, TIL Ives, at least recog-
nizers of the be til o the study, are
Queen Victoria. K aser Wilhelm, Bismarck,
the Prince OF Wales. King .umbert, James
G. Blaine, Ches,e A.. Arthur, Grover
Cleveland, Roscoe Conkling, Senator ,T = 7
munds, the Vanderbilts, Henry Ward
Beecher, Theodore Tiltou, Gen. Sherman,
Gle Grant aud James A. Garfield.
Imported sauer Krant. German Dill Pickles,