Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-09-02
D[FACED STAMPS
ARE NOT DISABLE
IF CORNER OR ANY PoRTroS
SHOWING PRINTING is GONE
1T is NO GOOD.
GOVERNMENT is MORE STRICT
IN RULES RELATING TO MUTT
LATED CURRENCY.

with any part of the printing torn on
do not put them on letter expecting
the missiye to be started on its jour-
ney at once. If there is no return
card on the envelope the one TO whom
the letter or package is addressed will
be informed there is a package at the
local Office which is being held for the
want of postage.
A new order has gone into effect
and should be noted by all who are
users of Uncle Sans service of get
ting messages transported from place
to place. BY the terms of the new or
der a postage stamp which is in any
way defaced is now worthless and will
not be accepted in pay for the trans
mission of a letter. Should corner
cannot longer be used. All letters or
packages bearing such stamps will be
held at the postoffice for two weeks
for recovery and at the end of that
period if not claimed they will be sent
to the dead letter Office at the head OF
the district in which they are mailed
and from there sent to the general
dead letter office at Washington
For some time it has been the GUS
tom of the stamp canceling clerks at
the postoff1ce to pass up a stamp
where there has been a small part
missing This has come to the notice
of the head of the department and an
order has been issued calling for a re-
lection of these letters. If they hap
pen to get by the cancelling clerk the
one who throws the mail is held re
sponsible and if the letters are sent
out a charge will be made back
against the office from which the let
tiers are sent. s>.> 'ss =
It is said the government has got
next to a scheme which has been
tried in places where the stamps which
have been cancelled on the extreme
edge have been removed from a letter
and the cancelled part torn or cut
out and then the stamp used again.
1t is to prevent such plans as this
that the new order has been issued
stopping the use of stamps which are
in any way defaced. If stamp is
torn and part is missing these should
be taken back to the postoffice and
turned in the same manner as the un-
used stamped envelopes.
Uncle Sam Getting More Careful.
That the government is getting more
strict in some Of its rules is shown
in the above relative to the use of
postage stamps and another evidence
method of handling mutilated or lost
currency. The latter is given by the
San francisco Journal which says:
1t is stated that of the $500, 000
of clearing house certificates issued
by the banks of San Francisco, $751;
900 are still outstanding. 1t is prob
able that a few more thousand dol
lars may be turned in for redemption,
but it is not at all unlikely that a
hundred thousand dollars or so of the
total issue may share the same exper-
fence or fate as that of the money
emitted by the government.
Paper money is very destructlble,
and large amounts of it are constantly
being destroyed, of which we never
hear, because of an apparent indis-
position on the part of those who
make our laws to provide machinery
for detecting contractions of the cur
rency due to that cause. In the case
of the clearing house certificates it is
possible that considerable amount
has found its way into the possession
of collectors, but the greater part of
the unredeemed notes have doubtless
been lost or destroyed.
It would be interesting TO know just
how much of the $346, 900 of legal
tender currency of the government,
which is supposed to be in circulation,
is still in existence. The opportuni-
ties for destruction since the date
when congress stopped the process
of contraction by fixing the amount
supposed to be in circulation at the
above figure must be very great.
Some have ventured to estimate it at
not less than 100000
There has also been an enormous
loss of silver and gold certificates, no
one can tell how much; and singularly
enough no one in authority in Wash
ington seems 10 be at all curious con-
corning the amount. And yet there
is a good reason Why curiosity should
be manifested.
There is no sense in stating in our
treasury repor,s that there are $40.
100000 of legal tenders outstanding
when it would be easy to ascertain
that the amount was much less, or
that the total silver and gold certifi-
oases in circulation is greater than Il
really is.