The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-12-30
FACTS ABOUT POSTAGE STAMPS.
improvements Made and Immense
Quantity of stamps sold.

Quantity OF stamps Sold.
1t is barely fifty years since this con-
venience was introduced into the United
States. The stamp is little older in En-
gland. When first introduced, postage
stamps were sold in solid sheets. OF
course, great many were wasted in the
effort to tear them apart when there were
no perforations. Indeed, the loss and in
convenience was so great that the govern
ment offered liberal reward for a patent
which would overcome the difficulty.
The first machine submitted was one
which cut the stamps nearly, but not en-
tirely apart. While the Post Office De-
partment was considering this machine
the idea of periorating the sheets in rows
each way was offered and promptly ac-
cepted. Nothing better has ever been
sought.
There was time when better paper and
mucilage was used and when the print
ing was an improvement upon the present
stamps, but since we have learned that a
damp sponge isfully as good as the tongue
in preparing the stamps for adhesion, the
quality of the materials used becomes OF
less Importance.
The number of postage stamps used in
year is something enormous. For in
stance, the ordinary postal revenue for
the year ending June 30, 1891, exclusive
of the money order business, was S65, 065,
293.S7. OF this, s41, 432 129 50 came from
letter postage. The bulk of this is, of
course, in two-cent stamps, and it is safe
to put the whole number of this denomi-
nation used at more than 1000, 900, 600 per
annum.
The Issuing of postage stamps, stamped
envelopes and newspaper wrappers all be-
long to one of the divisions under the
care of the Third Assistant Postmaster
General. There is another division of the
same bureau which looks after registered
letters, and still another which attends
to the system for the special delivery of
letters. The classification of mail matter
belongs to this bureau, and it is with the
Third Assistant Postmaster General or
his clerks that newspapers and periodicals
have to quarrel over their gifts to official
entry as second-class matter.
A ten-cent special delivery stamp on q
letter is supposed to keep it in constant
motion from the time the letter is de-
posted in the main or branch post Office
until it is delivered to the addressee.
There is liable to be a little delay in the
starting Of letter when it is deposited
in a letter box instead of post Office, but
everything must make way for special
delivery letter after they once get in the
vicinity of mail bag. The clerk hustles
them out with the first mail leaving the
Office and puts them on the outside of
packages or in a bundle by themselves,
so that the next official can see them at
once.
If the special delivery stamp is put on a
package of second, third or fourth class
matter it has to be treated in first class
manner-that is, it goes into a pouch in
stead OF sack and is pushed through just
as rapidly as letter bearing the same
stamp.
Lastyear there were over 2, 10000 pieces
sent by special delivery, and it is inter-
esting to note that the average time con-
sumed in the delivery of each parcel after
it reached the post Office of the addressee
was only twenty minutes.-Kate Fiesd's
Washington.