Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1899-04-06
Miles of Stamps.

Washington Star: Uncle Sam print
ed just few postage stamps during
the year 1898. The number of 2-cent
stamps issued during the year was
2,500,000,000. Such a number, obvious
ly, is beyond the grasp of the human
mind, but perhaps the matter may be
made more clear by putting it other
wise.
An ordinary 2-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 de-
nomination issued in 1898, placed end
to end, would extend a distance con-
siderably exceeding $4,000 miles. In
other words, they would make a con-
tinuous strip of stamps, each one
adorned with the head of the father of
his country, stretching in a 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 1895
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 and
sales, are of minor Importance COM
paratively speaking, but it is interest
ing to know that almost exactly one
for the demand of 1898. OF So stamps
the production was equivalent to lit
tie more than half a furlong, or about
one-ffteenth of u mile.
Now, if all the postage stamps print
ed by the United States government
in 1898 We're placed one ON top of an
other, as neatly 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
it for yourself. The 3,5OO,OOO,OO0
stamps of all denominations printed
during the current year-the state
ment, of course, is approximate
would tower to an elevation of twenty
one miles. This is more than three
times the height of the highest noun
tain in the world-Mt. Everest, in the
Himalayas. If the same number of
stamps was piled up in the form of
an ordinary sheet of 100 each, it fol-
lows that the stack would be over an
eighth of a mile high.
During the year 1898 the number OF
special delivery stamps sold was about
5,250,00O. 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 2,G25.O0O miles. That is a
very considerable space to traverse, as
may be realized when it is considered
that messenger boy, in order to ac-
complish that total distance, would
have to go about LOO times around
the world, or five times to the moon
and back.
1t appears, from figures furnished
by the postotlice department, that the
average person in Massachusetts, in
Guiding men, women and children
spends $3.50 on postage per annum
New York comes second with an eX-
penditure of $2.27. The District of Co
lumbia third with $2.16. Colorado is
fourth with $l.93, and Connecticut is
fifth with S1.s0. The states ranking
lowest in this regard are South Caro-
lima, with % cents per capita; Missis
sippi, with "a cents; Alabama, with 8;
cents; Arkansas, With 81 cents, and
North Carolina, with II cents.