The morning call., 1894-09-09
PRICE FIVE CENTS.

aged to pick up little education were ex-
tremely dscontented over the state of af.
| fairs.
AT length, about 1866, the residents of
one or two districts, more enterprising than
the rest. besought their local assemblies to
| grant them the power to establish local
postofflces at available points in order to
supplement- the imperial service. The
assem- blles, not without considers ble hesi-
tatlon and doubt as to the success of the
| experiment., consented that it should be
trled. 1t proved most gratifying success,
ana other districts, which had watched the
progress of the experiment with intense
interest. were not slow to recognize the
great value of the innovation and to try it
| Tor themselves.
Inc Minister of the Interior in due time,
Learning of these local Offices, examined
into the Russian postal law and found
that the local Assem- blies had exceeded their
authority In sanctioning the rural posts.
he al once Instituted thorough investiga-
tlOn OF the matter. and as Russia is not
nOled as an ultra progressive nation it
seemed extremely likely that the Door
peasantry would lose their hard-earned
postal privileges. The matt.r hung fire for
tonr or i've years. as is customary with
the dllatOry methods of this Ted-tape rid
den monarchy. The Government did not
actually prohibit the establishment and
maintenance of rural posts to Cooperate
with the imperial mail service, but it took
no steps to officially sanction their exist
ence. But at last, in 1870, after a great
deal OF dIlly-dallying, the Minister of the
Interior promulgated a decree officially
authorizing the establishment of local
postottices wherever the necessity of their
existence should be felt; and, further,
granting to each postoffice thus created the
night to issue postage stamps of It's own
on the one condition that these stamps
| should differ radically from the regular
issues of the empire.
Thus officially sanctioned, the local
postoftices began at once to rapidly multi
ply, ard very nearly all of them took ad-
vantage of the permission to issue stamps
Of their own.
Ii is difficult to ascertain the number of
local stamp-issuing postofices, but the
number that have up to date INDUCED in
the practice are estimated to be between
135 and 150. The stamps of some thirty of
these are now obsolete. the offices having
been superseded by the imperial postal SER
vice, which is now being rapidly extended
aud promises to ultimately take the place
OF the rural pOstofices entirely.
complete collection of these Russian
local stamps makes a very fine showing.
In point of historic interest they vie with
the stamps of any country and many Of
them are in addition of real artistic merit
The designs used upon them are exceed
ingly Interesting, as they have been Sc
lected with peculiar appropriateness.
AS has been before stated, the Russian
imperial mail system is being extended
every year and the local postoffices and
their stamps are being retired oDe by one,
Under these circumstances those who keep
the pecuniary value of their collection
in view would do well to secure as MANY
of these interesting labels as possible be-
fore their retirement from service causes
them 20 become rare and costly.
Many OF them are already among the
unobtainable for the majority of collectors,
as the varities of the first issues range in
price from $50 to $3.50 each. A fair estimate
of their worth may be gained from the fact
that Mrs. Levison, whose collection aud
philatelic experience was described last
week in these columns, has a special coll
lection of these stamps. numbering about
800 varieties, the total value of which is
about $500.
American collectors have heretofore paid
little attention to these stamps, but they
have always enlisted the attention of the
advanced collectors of Great Britain and
the Continent, who are really the collectors
who set the pace and fix the ultimate mar
ket value of all classes of stamps.