The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-27
THE POST CARD.
FIRST 4 GERMAN IDEA, LATER
ADOPTED IN ENGLAND.
New Large Size Cards-1ssue of Novem"
Der LIST Concessiom to Needs of People


new Large Size Carus-Issue oil NOVem'
Der Ist Concession to Needs of Peopl,
Everywhere.
The issue of larger post cards to-day
November l. 1899 is concession by
the post office which will. be hailed
with great satisfaction by post cards
writer's, whose number is legion. II
is one that has for some time been
widely agitated for in this country
Both the inland and the foreign cards
will be increased in size to five and
inches, and these cards will eventually
displace the present thin inland and
stout oblong cards, and the present
foreign cards. They will be sold at the
same prices as those for the cards they
supersede, and the stout court cards
will continue to be issued. Likewise,
will be increased to five and one-half
inches by three and one-half inches
to correspond with the size of the new
cards, These changes may not seem
in themselves of vast Importance, but
when the number of persons whom
they will affect is taken into account
they certainly appear deserving of no.
tice. The postmaster general states
that the number Of post cards used in
the year is at the present time at the
rate of 382,200,000, which means that if
the whole population were given to
post card writing the average number
of cards used by each person would be
9.5. So rapid indeed has been the
growth of correspondence by post card
that the number now used annually is
more than double, the number used
twelve years ago Those are interest
ing and noteworthy facts, and the
change which takes place to-day in the
size of the cards will, without ques-
ton, mark a further important devel-
opment in the history of the post card,
brief glance at which may not be in
opportune at the present moment.
This humble, though very useful,
factor in the social economy of this
country dates back nearly thirty years.
1t was on October l. 1870, that post
cards We're introduced here. The idea,
however, was not due to native in
genuty for similar cards had been
brought into use in Austria just one
year previously, being sold at two
kreutzers each. But the merit of in
venting the idea is really due to DR..
Stephen, the late indefatigabe Ger
man postmaster general who in 1855
submitted to the delegates of a Ger
man postal congress held at Carlsruhe
in that year, new kind of letter in
the shape of an open post card (of-
fenes post-blatD, on one side of which
We're to be written the name and adj
DRESS and on the other side the cum
munication. These cards We're to be
sold at a very low rate of postage. The
plan, however, was not adopted, ow-
ing to the fact that the German postal
service had not at that time the neces-
sary Uniform organiza ton, and also to
a fear that it's adoption would tend to
decrease that revenue. Whether or
not this scheme was known to DR.. |
Emanuel Herman, of Vienna, is not
recorded, but 1t is the fact that that |
gentleman made a similar suggestion |
in 1869 to the Austrian post office. 1t |
appears that DR.. Herman was forcibly |
struck by the fact that a large number J
was sent, the Importance of whose |
contents were, in no proportion to the |
waste of trouble and polite sentences
involved, and which might as well
have been forwarded without covers.
One-third of all the letters, he reckon
ed, contained merely simple informa
tion which might easily have been
posted open at a lower rate of postage.
So imbued was he with the idea that
he forthwith suggested it, in an arti-
Gle to the Neue F'reie Presse, to the
Austrian post office authorities, who
recognized the value and Importance
of the proposition so promptly that it
was carried into effect on October LIST
of the same year., The plan met with
immediate popular favor, as may be
Judged by the fact that in the first
month of their use as many as 1926,
1902 cards We're sold. The success of the
system soon attracted the attention of
other countries, and six months later
was brought into use by the North
German Confederation The Southern
German states soon followed suit as
did also Belgium, Britain and France
and within less than five years post
cards were being sold in every civiliz-
ed country in the world.
In our own country the subject was
brought to the notice of the postal au-
thorities by means of an article pub
lshed in the Scotsman of September
H. 1863 There was also considerable
agitation by private individuals, but
the idea was at first rejected. On Feb .
ruary II, 1870, however, DR.. Lyon Play /
fair (afterward Lord Playfair) pre- |
scented an extensively signed memorial ]
in favor of what was termed card {
post" with the result that inquiries s
were instituted in Austria The inves- I
tigation would appear to have been {
quite satisfactory, for proposal to is I
sue post cards formed part Of the /
newspaper postage bill of 1870, and the
system came into actual operation, as {
already stated, on October LIST of that c
wear. 1t is curious to recall at the i
present day the ridicule and even hos l
tility with which the post card was t
met on it's introduction. The main ar +
yument against the post card was that t
t would afford an opening for the ILL 7
directed efforts of those who indulge v
;t,o1 pt,I n fl1 11Dti inn 9fl