The Southern herald., 1899-03-10
OUR POSTAGE STAMPS.
There Were Many Millions of ths
Stlekers Issued by the Govern
ment Last Year.

Uncle sam printed just few postage
stamps during the year ls9S, The num-
Der Of two-eent stamps issued during
the year was about 2, 2,500,OOO,OOO. Such
a number, obviously, is beyond the
grasp of the human mind, but perhaps
the matter may be made more clear By
putting it otherwise.
An ordinary twO-eent stamp is exact
IL one inch long. From This fact, BY a
little calculation, Il is easy 10 discover
that the number Of stamps of this de-
nomination issued in 1s9S, placed end
to end, would exteBd a distance consid-
erably exceeding 5000 miles. In other
words, they would make continuous
strip Of stamps, each one adorned with
the head of the father 0f his country,
stretching in belt more than once aud
a half around the equator.
or course, though the two-eent
stamps are those principally used, there
are others. Enough one cent postage
stamps have been issued during the
year 1S9S to stretch from New York
city, by way of Europe and Asia, to
Bombay, India, if similarly arranged in
one strip. All other stamps, as to pro
duction and sales, are of minor impor-
tance comparatively speaking, but it is
interesting to know that almost exact,
ly one mile Of one dollar stamps were
manufactured for the demand of 1s0s,
OF ive-dollar stamps the production
was equivalent to little more than half
a furlong. or about one-fifteenth of a
mile.
Now, il all the postage stamps print,
ed by the United States government in
1898 were placed one on top another,
as neatly 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 it nearly right, unless you
went to work TO calculate it for your
self. The 35OO,OOO,OOO stamps OF all
denominations printed during the eur.
rent year-the statement, of course, is
approximate-woud tower to an eleva-
tion OF 21 miles. This is more than three
times the height Of the highest noun.
tain in the world-Mount Everest, in
the Himalayas, II the same number OF
stamps was piled up in the form of the
ordinary sheets of 100 each, it follows
that the stack would be over fifth of a
mile high.
During the year 1898 the number OF
special delivery stamps sold was about
5,25O,OOO. 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 q
625,000 miles. That is very consider
able space TO traverse, as may be real
lied when it is considered that a mes
senger boy, in order to accomplish that
total distance, would have to go about
] 100 times around the world, or five
times to the moon and back
1t appears, from figures furnished by
the post Office department, that the
average person in Massachusetts, in.
GLIDING men, women and children,
spends $3.50 on postage per annum
New York comes second with an ex.
pcndlture of $2.27. The District of Co.
lumbia third with $2.1G. Colorado is
fourth with $1.O3, and Connecticut is
fifth with $780,, The states ranking
lowest in this regard are South Caro-.
lima, with 2j cents per capita; Mississp.
pi with "a cents; Alabama, with 3j
cents; Arkansas, with 81 cents, and
North Carolina, with Al cents.-Wash-
ington Star.