Union gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1899-1900, 1899-10-13
MILLIONS OF STAMPS.
PosToFFIcEFIGuREs THAT WILL
ASTONlSH YOU.
Enough Two-cent Stamps Issued in
the Year 1898 to Reach More than
Once and a Half Around the Earth
at the Equator.

Uncle Sans printing Office has an
during year. A gentleman long con-
nected with the service has collected a
mass Of statistics regarding the issue
which is simply paralyzing. He says
that the number OF 2-cent stamps Is
sued during 1898 was about 2,5OO,OOO,-
600. such a number obviously is be-
yond the grasp of the human mind, but
perhaps the matter may be made more
clear by putting it otherwise.
An ordinary 2-cent stamp Is exactly
one inch long. From this fact. by a
little calculation, it is easy to discover
that the number. of stamps of this de-
nomination issued in 1898, placed end
to end, would extend a distance consid-
erably exceeding $4,000 miles. In other
words, they would make continuous
strip Of stamps, each one adorned with
the head Of the father of his country,
stretching in belt more than once and
half around the equator.
OF course, though the 2-cent stamps
are those principally used, there are
others. Enough 1-cent postage stamps
have been issued during the year 1898
to stretch from New York city by way
Of Europe and Asia to Bombay, India.
IL similarly arranged in one strip. All
other stamps as TO production and sales
are of minor Importance, comparative
ly speaking, but it Is interesting to
know that almost exactly one mile Of
81 stamps were manufactured for the
demand of 1893. OF $5 stamps the
production was equivalent to a little
more than half furlong, or about one
fifteenth of a mile.
Now, II all the postage stamps print
ed by the United States Government in
1893 were placed one on top another
MS nearly as might be without putting
them under pressure, how high do you
suppose the pile of them would be?
There is no use guessing, you would
never get 1t nearly right, unless you
went to work to calculate it for your
self. The 3,500,OOO,O00 stamps of all
denominations printed the current. year
the statement Is of course approx
mate-would tower to an elevation of
twenty-one miles. This is more than
three times the height of the highest
mountain in the world-Mount Everest
in the HimaIayas. If the same number
of stamps was piled up in the form of
the ordinary sheets of 100 each it fol-
lows that the stack would be over a
fifth of mile high.
During the year 1893 the number of
special delivery stamps sold was about
100000. 1t is only reasonable to sup
pose that the average journey of the
special delivery messenger is half a
mile. Indeed, that Is an absurd under
estimate, but let it go at that. On this
assumption the total distance travelled
for special delivery in 1898 was about
2.625, 900 miles. That is a very consid-
erable space to traverse, as may be re-
allied when 1t is considered that a
messenger boy in order to accomplish
the total distance would have to go
about 1,100 times around the world, or
five times to the moon and back.
: 1t appears from figures furnished by
the Postoffice Department that the av-
erage person in Massachusetts, includ-
ing men, women and children, spends
$3.50 on postage per annum. New York
comes second with an expenditure of
1927 and the District of Columbia
third with $2.16. Colorado is fourth
with $1.93 and Connecticut is fifth with
$1.S0. The States ranking lowest in.
this regard are South Carolina, with 25
cents per capita; Mississippi, with "a
cents; Alabama, with 35 cents; Arkan-
sas, with 81 cents, and North Caro-
Tina, with Al cents.