Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-02-06
CUBAN STAMPS.
Uncle Sam Casting About for Suitable
Designs.

A great many inquiries are coming
to Washington as to the postal system
which will be in operation in Cuba
For the present, our government has
taken no steps further than to pro-
vide director general Of posts and a
corps of assistants, who will admin
lister the postal affairs of the island
technically under military authority,
but actually under the supervision of
the postmaster general.
1t is proposed to maintain through
out Cuba the domestic rates of post
age which prevailed there under Span
ish rule. A letter to be delivered with
in the province in which it is mailed
vii have to carry 21a-centavo stamp,
but a letter passing from one province
into another requires a 5-centavo
stamp. On ordinary letters mailed in
Cuba for this country, and on those
mailed here for Cuba, the charge will
continue to be five centavos. To this
rule there will be one exception:
letter mailed to or by soldier or
saiIsr of the United States will cost
only two cents either way, on the
theory that the army is for postal pur-
poses a part of the United States.
The present fiction of American pos
tai stations in Cuba will be swept
away and the mails to and fro will
be treated on substantially the same
basis as the mails between any
foreign country and the United States
that is, as if Cuba had already am
Independent nationality.
Nevertheless, not only shall we have
the authorship and control of the
Cuban postal system, but we shall
provide series of stamps for Cuban
use as soon as we can get around to
it, The postmaster general called
some time ago upon the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing for set of
appropriate designs. The bureau has
not yet respond, and seems so
1ethargic that the postmaster general
is already considering what can be
done by his own department in this
direction
1t may be recalled that that was
NudL Iud1lJ udu W bC OO1AC III CnO NCCoS
of the Omaha Exposition series, after
a long and fruitless period of wait
ing for the bureau to act. AS in the
former instance, so now, the depart
ment is beating the bushes for ideas.
Some of the most characteristic de-
signs for the Omaha stamps were sug-
gested by Governor-elect Roosevelt,
hoI 1oic
than now A letter sent him the other
day inviting him to make few sug-
gestions for the present emergency
drew from his a goOd-natured, but
very brief, response, that on the sub
ject of Cuban stamps he was ''all at
sea-"
The shape of the stamps has come
in for some discussion ALSO The
conventional rectangle used by the
leading nations may finally be adopted,
but meanwhile the department is
casting about for something fresh
and new The horizontal shape used
for the Columbian, and afterwards
for the Omaha, series is not favored,
because, first it has lost all the charm
of novelty, and, second, because the
adoption of a horizontal stamp for
internal-revenue taxation has led to
countless errors among the people,
resulting in delays, and sometimes in
serious losses Two suggestions have
come in which offer chance for do
ing something out of the ordinary.
One is that the Cuban stamps be made
tall and narrow-the sugar-cane de-
sign, if adopted, making this appro-
pirate. The other contemplates a
circular colored stamp, printed upon
square of white. This idea seems
to have been inspired by an issue of
one of the German principalities, per-
haps 35 or 40 years ago.
On the whole subject the department
will be thankful for practical hints
from any source. Meanwhile, the ex-
igency will be tied over, as in the case
of the internal-revenue stamps, by
the use of our current postage stamps,
surcharged with the proper Cuban de-
nominations. For example, our one
cent stamps will receive a "one-cen-
tavo" imprint in high color; ETC.
Washington corr New York Post.