The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-14
CHRISTMAS REMITTANCES T(
EUROPE.
IN. Y. Sun. J

/
During the month of December in each
year there is transmitted by persons resi-
dent in New York, or in the neighbor-
hood of the city, q sum roughly estimated
at $4,000, 600. The money goes by pos
tai order, draft, purser- proxy, or other
wise from the senders to friends or rela-
tives living abroad. These remittances
are, for the most part, holiday presents
intended as pleasant and graceful re-
minders of the Christmas season of gift
making and good cheer from those on
this side the Atlantic to those whose cir
cuInstances prevent them from coming
| to the New World.
money orders sent by persons in the
| United States in year to foreign coun-
tries amounts to about l 900 900 in num-
| Der. The average amount is SIS, bring
| ing the total amount of Ruch remittances
| up to SIS, 000,0 900. On the other hand
| the number of money orders issued in
| foreign lands for payment to persons re-
siding in the United States amounts in
a year to about $50, 000, or one-third as
| many as the outgoing money orders, and
| the average amount OF each being SUBJ
this side of the Atlantic, or rather in the
United States, for many Of the remit
tances are from Canada and some are
from South and Central America and the
West Indies, aggregate about IS, 600, 00O
| Through this channel of international
postal communication, therefore, our
country pays out $40, 100, 900 a year more
than it receives.
1t has long been the homely and gra-
cious custom of many persons of foreign
nativity Or ancestry, resident in the
United States and particularly those of
German. Swiss, Swedish, Dutch Danish,
or Norwegian birth or descent, to relnem-
Der the old folks at home at Christmas
time. The custom, TOO, has general and
a generous observance among Irishmen
and lrishwonen, though the Irish-Amer-
lean residents of the United States are
sending remittances TO Ireland all
Through the year. The Christmas gifts of
M oney are intended in part to promote
thu emigration OF the younger genera
tom to the United States, and in part to
promote the cheerfulness of the holiday
season on the other side OF the Atlantic :;
and it must be rememb ered that the
actual purchasing owner OF the money
sent abroad is in most European ooun-
tries greater than it is here, where wealth
is more generally distrib uted, and the
compensation of labor is larger.
On single day this week 20, 600 money
orders ware cent abroad, amounting to
more than $500, 900. 1t is somewhat
curious fact that while one-half the total
number of such money orders went to
Great Britain and to Ireland, twice as
many as were sent to Germany the total
sum of the remittances to Germany was
twice as large rs all the remittances to
England, ireland and Scotland. That
is to say the femittanCes to Germany
were fewer IN number, but larger in
amount. Twenty-Five per cent. of the
money orders had for their destination
the three scandinavian countries, Swe-
den Norway and Denmark. The remit
ances to France were few To Spain
and Russia there were practically no such
remittances. Some went to Italy. but not
q large number as compared with the
other European countries.
Money order remitfances to the folks
across the sea A happy and wholesome
incident of the holiday season in the
United States, the great. republic of open
doorssand open purses.