Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-25
POSTAGE STAMPS.

Among the new postage stamps which
are destined to be very popular-aside
from their commercial value-is one of
the Princess of Wales, the first time the
features of this royal lady have been
designed in this way. The compliment
is paid her by one of the English colo
MES, Newfoundland, and the United
States has a finger in the pie, as the
beautifully engraved pink stamp was
made by the Banknote Engraving com
pany of New York. An earlier issue
includes the Prince of Wales in the same
pleasing color, and his portrait and that
of the princess form companion stamps
of the requisite rates to carry a letter to
any part of Europe or America, his being
a two-cent stamp, while that Of Her
Royal Highness, his wife, is a three-cent
stamp, the combination making the
necessary five-cent postage.
But there are others, n among
these are the new stamp portrait of the
queen of England as she looks now, in
hcr dignificd age and in her widows
cap, q one-cent green stamp, also issued
by Newfoundland, and with it another
and OUNCE scion of the royal family
makes his bow to an admiring public
from the face of a lavender stamp, the
little son of the duke Of York II the
hcir-apparent to the British throne. Be
fore me, as l write, is q letter from the
general postof1ice, Newfoundland, regis
tered and postpaid, with a one-cent Vic
toria stamp, two one and a-half stamps
of her little great grandson, the small
duke of York, and a pink Scent stamp of
her gracious majesty's daughter-in-laW,
the Princess of Wales. Quite a family
gathering for the conveyance of one let
ter. and a unique feature of postage
portraiture, not surpassed in any age OF
country.
Children'S faces are not unknown or
stamps, the little Queen of Holland, as
her Dutch majesty has been called unit
recently, being a familiar sight to hel
subjects on the postage stamp of the
Netherlands. But the little queen has
shot up into w~omanhood, and her childish
pictures. representing a little girl will
flowing hair and straight bangs are no
representative of a crowned queen, so sh'
will have a new postage stamp made-in,
! deed, has already done so, but Withdrew
it from circulation because she did not
like either the expression or the pose
Anyone who has received one of these
forbidden stamps can sell it for So. In 6
few years it will be priceless.
Little Wilhclmina was not the only
royal child on a postage stamp-there i:
the boy king of Spain, Alphonso XIII.
and there was a stamp bearing the image
of the young king of SIAM. I do not recall
any other postage likenesses of little
kings and queens, but may have over
looked some. In these instances the por'
]traituTe was not restricted to postage
stamps, but appeared also or the coin O.
the realm. Perhaps a good reason WHY
no image of the child Victoria of England
is found on postage stamps Of the pas
is the fact that stamps were not in us'
until 1910, when that gracious lady was
crowned sovereign. Her youthful features
taken then have remained the same unit
the present issue of her face in late
years. Time stood still With the bonn.
young queen Of he postage stamp.
The literature of the postage stam]
should interest many others besides tn
stamp collectors n the amateur cranl
who makes himself obnoxious to hi
friends by begging their foreign stamp
before they have read their letters. TIL
fad is spasmodic, like measles or Group
and is gone over with as suddenly. Dur
ing the war just ended, the Cuban stamp