Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-01-27
POSTAGE STAMP CRANks.

Source of Great Annoyance to the Post
Office Department.
No one has ever yet sent in a million
cancelled postage stamps to the post Of
fee department., although two hundred
letters are received annually requesting
information about the prize of three hun
dred dollars which the government is
supposed to offer for that number. How
this popular delusion originally started
no one can tell For twenty years it
has prevailed, and during all that time
people have been making collections
for sale to Uncle Sam. Presumably no
one has thus far secured the desired
million. At all events the packages of
old stamps sent to Washington as in
stallments never contain more than q
few thousand; fifty thousand were the
most that ever came in one bundle. Or
dinarily the collector gets tired by the
time four thousand or five thousand
have been got together. Children most
~ are engaged in this interesting but
fruitless pursuit though many women
both young and old take it up for a
while and bother everybody they know
for contributions of stamps from old
letters.
People are constantly writing to the
department with requests of stamps to
put in their albums, both domestic and
foreign. Sometimes they say that the
dealers charge more than they can af-
ford, and SO they appeal to Mr. Wanna
maker. Awhile ago the postoffice used
to sell specimen sets of its issues, an
used, but that was discontinued in 1884
very interesting album is kept In
the stamp division, containing sets Of
all the stamps that the government has
ever issued. The book isxzsOrth q Lot of
money merely for the face value repre-
sented by its contents On the first
page are the two stamps of Uncle Sans
issue in 1s47. One of them is for five
cents, with head of Franklin, and the
other is for ten cents with Washington's
bust Before that year letters were
distributed by mail in packages with
| accompanying way bills, and the prices
charged for postage varied according to
the distance. On another page of the
scrap-book are found the first per-
forated stamps, which appeared in 1867
Up to that time the stamps had to be
cut apart with shears. The perfora-
tions then were made much finer than
they are now It is said that the Brit
ish government paid large sum for the
idea, but the United States did not give
a cent for its use.
Another page in the scrap book is oc-
cupied by the stamps of 1859, which
were SO very beautiful that the printing
of them cost too much and they had to
be discontinued. Whereas Uncle Sans
postal tokens at the present time are
less handsome than those of almost
any other nation, these were among the
most exquisite ever issued. The fifteen
cent brown bore a picture of the land
ing of Columbus in blue. The twenty
four cent green was adorned with the
Signing of the Declaration" in purple
The thirty-cent stamp had lovely de-
sign representing shield, eagle, and
flags in red, white and blue. The
twelve-cent sort was in green, with
steamship on it; the three-cent den ON
ination was ultramarine, with a locomo-
tive, and the two-cent brown showed a
man on horseback. All these colors
cost money, and, where stamp was
printed in two tints it had to go through
the presses twice. Accordingly the en-
tire series was soon suppressed. Wash
ington Star.