Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-13

Of the 2-cent denomina ton, and some care
is required to see to 1t that this reserve
is not depleted.
Elaborate Precautions.
The same manifold precautions surround
the manufacture of postage stamps that
characterize the printing of currency. Each
sheet of stamps is counted dozens of times
during the process of manufacture and II a
single sheet be missing when the hour
arrives for ceasing work every employe OF
the division where II has disappeared is
compelled to remain in the building until
the misplaced bit of paper is found. At
night the plates from which the stamps
are printed are carefully checked of and
locked up In great vaults fitted with time
locks, the doors of which cannot be opened
the next morning unless all three of the
men in charge be present, 1t being neces-
sary for each to manipulate a lock Of which
he alone knows the combination.
Strange as it might appear, Uncle Sam,
in the case of stamp manufacture, has
installed an official whose duty it is to
see to it that one department of the gov
eminent performs properly the work en-
trusted to it by another branch of the gov
ernment. This official is known as the
stamp agent anu lub OHlltu OldlNs ldllp
agency is probably, insofar as the public is
concerned, the least known of all the great
bureaus of the national government.
With his assistants, he exercises constant
supervision to Insure the proper perform
ance by the Treasury department of the big
Job printing entrusted to it by the Post
office department. He sees to it that the
paper used is of the proper quality, that
the pntaila Oh has mt hen Gnrnad on tnO
thinly, that the perforations are straight
and that the dress of each new ~consign-
ment of stamps is Of exactly the same tint
as those which have gone before. Finally
an army Of clerks in this institution at
tends to dlspatching c~onsignments Of stamps
to the American postofhces, not only in
every nook and corner of the United States,
but also in Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico,
Guam and the Philippines.
The Old and the New.
When an old issue of postage stamps is
retired and a new series comes to take its
place there is a great confagration in a
specially prepared furnace in the basement
Of the general postofice at Washington, for
here all the left over" stamps are ere
mated. Many preliminaries are gone
through with before the burning can take
place. The chief task is, Of course, the ac-
counting. Un,le Sam maintains a book
keeping account with every postmaster in
his service, and when an issue OF stamps is
called in for retirement every bit of paper
received at postal headquarters must be
counted and credited to the postmaster who
returned it. Occasionally the government
finds itself with a heavy stock of superan-
nuated stamps on hand and no chance to
get rid of them at a mark down" sale.
Thus, after the close OF the Pan-American
exposition the condemned" stamps which
had been Issued in commemoration Of that
show, but remained unsold and were fed
to the flames, had a face value OF over
81, 900, 900 and had actually cost the govern
ment fully $4,000.
Situated not many miles from Washing
ton and closely guarded is the mandatory
Of another kind of government stamps