The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-17
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ABOUT POSTAGE STAMPS.
Billions of Them Used AnnuaIly-The Spe.
eial DeIfyery Eaofura

Bnlions OF Them Used AnnuaIly-The Spe
cial Delivery Feature.
1t is barely fifty years since this con
venience was introduced into the United
States. The stamp is little older in
England. When first introduced post
age stamps were sold in solid sheets.
VI course great many were wasted in
the effort to tear them apart when
there were no perforations. Indeed,
the loss and inconvenience was SO great
that the government offered liberal
reward for a patent which would over
come the difficulty. The first machine
submitted was one which cut the
stamps nearly but not entirely apart.
While the postoffice department was
considering this machine the idea of
perforating the sheets in rows each
way was offered and promptly accepted.
Nothing better has ever been sought
There was time when better pa per
and mucilage was used, and when the
printing was an improvement upon the
present stamps, but since we have
learned that damp spongue is fully as
good as the tongue in preparing the
stamps for adhesion the quality of the
materials used becomes of less impor-
tance.
The number of postage stamps used in
q year is something enormous For
instance, the ordinary postal revenue
for the year ending June 80, 1891, ex-
elusive of the money order business,
was S65, 065, 1887 OF this S41, 1872, 1919. =
so came from letter postage. The bulk
of this is, of course, in 2-cent stamps,
and it is safe to put the whole number
of this denomination used at more than
two billions per annum. The issuing
of postage stamps, stamped en-
velopes and newspaper wrappers
all belong to one of the divisions under
the care Of the third assistant postmas-
ter general. There is another division
of the same bureau which looks after
the registered letters, and still another
which attends to the system for the
special delivery of letters. The CLASH
fication of mail matter belongs to this
bureau, and it is with the third assist
ant postmaster general or his clerks
that newspapers and periodicals have
entry as second-class matter
A ten-cent special delivery stamp on
a letter is supposed to keep it in con-
stant motion from the time the letter is
deposited in the main or branch post
office until it is delivered to the adj
dressee. There is likely to be lit
tile delay in the starting of a
letter when it is deposited in a
letter box instead of post office, but
everything must make way for special
delivery letters after they once get into
the vicinity of mailbag. The clerk
hustleS them out with the first mail
leaving the Office, and puts them on the
outside of packages or in bundle by
themselves, so that the next official can
see them at once. If the Specialize
livery stamp is put on package of sec
ond, third or fourth-class matter, it has
to be treated in a frst-class manner
that is, it goes into pouch instead of
a sack, and is pushed through just as
rapidly as letter bearing the same
stamp. Last year there were over two
and a half millions of pieces sent by
special delivery, and it is interesting to
note that the average time consumed |
in the delivery of each parcel after it
reached the post Office of the addressee
was only twenty minutes.-Kate Fields |