The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-06-20
some STAMP STATISTICS
UNCLE SANS ISSUES FOR 1898
MILES LONG.
Figures Which Exceed the Power of the
Human Mind to Grasp, Measured by
Larger Standards.

Uncle Sam printed just a few postage
stamps during the year 1898, says the
Washington Star. The number of 2
cent stamps issued during the year was
about $500, 900, 900. Such a number OBJ
viously, is beyond the grasp of the hu-
man mind, but perhaps the matter
may be made more clear by putting 1t
otherwise.
An ordinary 2-cent stamp is exactly
one inch long. From this fact, by
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 distance consider
ably exceeding $4,000 miles. In other
words, they would make a 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,
if similarly arranged in one strip. All
other stamps as to production and sales
are of minor Importance, comparatively
speaking, but it is interesting to know
that almost exactly one mile of 81
stamps were manufactured for the de-
mand of 1898. OF s. stamps the produc
ton was equivalent to a little more
than half a furlong, or about one-fif
teenth of a mile.
Now, if all the postage stamps printed
by the United States Government in
1898, were placed one on top another as
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 it nearly right, unless you
went to work to calculate 1t for your
self. The $500, 600, 900 stamps of all de-
nominations printed the current year
| the statment, of course, is approximate
would tower to an elevation of TWEEN
| ty-one miles. This is more than three
times the height of the highest noun
| tain in the world-Mount Everest, in
! the Himalayas. If the same number OF
stamps were piled up in the form of the
ordinary sheets of 100 each, it follows
that the stack would be over fifth of
mile high.
| During the year 1898, the number of
special delivery stamps sold was about
| $3.50 900. 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 g.
/ 625 600 miles. That is a very consider
| able space to traverse, as may be real
lied when it is considered that a mess
enger 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
Guiding men, women and children,
spends 80 80 on postage per annum
New York comes second, with an ex
! penditure of 81 81, and the District of
Columbia third, with 50 16 Colorado is
! fourth, with 81 90. and Connecticut is
| fifth, with 81 so. The States ranking
lowest in this regard are South Caro-
lima, with 25 cents per capita; MISSISSIPPI
pi, with "a cents; Alabama with So
cents; Arkansas with 81 cents, and
North Carolina, with Al cents.