The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-22
STAMPS By II MILLION,

81 AMPS BY THE MILLION.
The war series Of stamps soon to be
issued under the war revenue act will
be the daintiest, most artistic, and at
the same time the most dignified, of all
stamps issued by the government. In a
few weeks you will see them attacked
to nearly everything sold at the drug
stores in put up packages. to all
sorts of documents and to many other
things commonly handled. They will
soon become well nigh as familiar as
the ordinary postage stamp. Since any
attempt to reproduce the designs for
illustrating purposes would result in
the seizure of all newspapers so Of
tending, a pen picture must suffice.
Thos to be most commonly seen will
be the proprietary n documentary
adhesive stamps. They will be slightly
larger than the two-cent postage
stamp, n printed upon the same good
quality of white p~aper-not the green
paper now used in tobacco, cigarette
and cigar stamps. The longer edges
form the top n bottom, the designs
running lengthwise with the surface.
On the proprietary stamps beneath an
arch bearing he inscription United
SN"NNS ~ Ia 1ASNSHue Status DOlulN
out, with characteristic dignity and
grace, a typical United States frst-class
battleship, under full steam, riding a
restless sea beneath a canopy of fleecy
clouds. The documentary stamp shows
the figure of a goddess with flowing
rlbes; she holds in one hand an old
model battleship, and in the other a
scepter.
The designs were happily selected by
('hlpf I0hnSnn Of tho I,,rno, ~f H.,
craving and printing, because of the
conspicuous part thus far played in this
war by the American man-of-war, even
before the formal declaration of hos
tllltleS was made. The perforations
separating the stamps on the whole
sheets will not be round like the "pin-
hole' perforations of postage stamps,
but what are called knife blade per-
forations. They will be dashes instead
OF dots, and when torn through will
leave straight rather than saw-tOoth
edges.
The same designs will appear upon
all denominations of the two official
lssues-proprietary and documentary
OF adhesive stamps. The only difference
Will occur in the tints and numerals
to denote different denominations and
the inscription to characterize each of
the two series, as said. In these bits
OF official engraving you will shortly
see some tints never before used on
stamps. Uncle Sans great variety Of
inks has already been exhausted, and
some novelties are being experimental
with.
You will be struck by the oddly of
the new fractional denominations. For
instance, there will be, one-eight, one-
fourth, three-eighths, five-eighths, l,
z n 4 cent proprietary, one-half, I,
?, 3, 4, 5, 10 n SO cent 81, SO, SIS and
$40 documentary stamps. The tints
Will include three each of blue, brown,
red and green, and a number of other
novelties in orange and lemon. You will
find these fractional proprietary
stamps upon perfumery, cosmetics,
pills, lozenges and cough drops put up
before the new individual proprietary
stamps have been designed for those
manufactures who prefer them.
The one cent documentary stamps
will be seen ordinarily upon telegraph
messages and parlor and sleeping cal
tickets. The great variety of denom-
nations up to $40 will be seen upon all
sorts of real estate and legal docu-
ments, bills Of lading etc.
About two-thirds of the force en-
ployed on the new stamps are women,
mostly young iris, selected because they
are much more neat, careful and dex-
trous for delicate work than is the or
binary mar To keep the wheels run-
ming fast enough to fill the variety OF
new orders necessitated by the revenue
act. the force of the great bureau of
printing and engraving has been in
creased to nearly 100. BY making
two shifts Chief Johnson says he can
turn out 1000, 900 Of the new stamps
daily.