Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-01
L OF STAMPS.

WASHINGTON Star: Uncle Sam printed
Just a few postage stamps during the
year 1898. The number of two-cent stamps
issued during the year was about two
billion five hundred million. Such a num-
Der, obviously, is beyond the grasp of the
human mind, but perhaps the matter may
be made more clear by putting it other
wise.
An ordinary two-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 denomina-
ton issued in 1898, placed end to nd,
would extend a distance considerably eN-
ceeding thirty-nine thousand miles. In
other words, they would make a contlnu-
Gus strip of stamps. each one adorned
with the head of the Father of His Coun-
try, stretching in a belt more than once
and a half around the equator.
OF course, though the two-cent stamps
are those principally used, there are
others. Enough one-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, II
similarly arranged in one strip. All other
stamps, as to production n 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 demand OF
1895. OF So stamps the production was
equivalent to a little more than half a
furlong, or about one-tifteenth 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 woul never get 1T nearly
right, unless you went to work to calcu-
late it for yourself. The $500, 600. 900
stamps of all denominations printed the
current year--the statement, of course,
is approXinate-would tower to an eleva-
ton of q miles. This is more thar three
times the height of the highest mountain
in the world-Mount Everest, in the
Himalayas. If the same number of
stamps was piled up in the form of the
ordinary sheets Of one hundred each, 1t
follows that the stack would be over a
fifth of a mile high.
! During tho 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-deliveTy messenger is half a mile.
Indeed. that is an absurd underestimate
but let it go at that. On this assumption
| the total distance travelled for special de-
livery i'll 1898 was about 2,625 900 miles
| That is a very considerable space to
traverse, as may be realized when it is
considered that a messenger boy, in or
der to accomplish that total distance,
would have to so about eleven hundred
times around the world. or five times to
! the moon and back.
1t appears, from figures furnished by
the postoffice department, that the aver
age person in Massachusetts, including
men, women and children, spends $3.50 on
postage per annum. New York come
second, with an expenditure Of 1927, and
the District of Columbia third, with $2.16
Colorado is fourth, with $1.93, and Con-
necticut is fifth. with $3.50. The states
ranking lowest in this regard are South
Carolina, with % cents per capita; Mis-
sissippi. with 81 cents: Alabama, with 81
cents: Arkansas, with 81 cents, and NORTH
Carolina, with II cents.