El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-06-22
Postcard Production Large
USE AS TIME SAVERS GIVING WAY TO
BUSINESS; HEAVY SALE IN AMERICA

after a while began to take on the pro-
! portions of a popular fad in Europe.
American tourists sent the cards to
America, where they were regarded as
/ interesting curiOsities.
! For many years the American postal
| laws, which did not permit the use OF
i private mailing cards except at letter
! rates Of postage, discouraged the intro
! ductiOn Of the picture cards in the Unit
! ed states. Finally the law was changed
and the private cards were admitted to
/ ;he cEe-cent postage rate, WhereupOn
i tie fad spread over this country like
I wtldfire
Germany still produces more picture
! cards than any other country. but the
| United States is now a close second. At
! first the American printers We're I'M
| able to produce the color effects OBJ
! tanned in Germany and the domestic
| cards were not popular Even now the
American card publishers depend largely
upon German wOrkmen.
Cards Popular in Japan
The United States now uses twice as
many post cards the whole continent
! of Europe Post cards are cheaper in
Japan than in any other country, al
| though many of the cards sold there are
hand cOlored. As postage rates in Japan
are also much cheaper than in any other
country. the post card has proved quite
| popular in the MikadO's dominion.
/ 1t is said that Los Angeles and Wash
| fngton are the greatest post card mar
/ kets in the United States. The daily
| sale in Los Angeles is about 5000 and
! in Washington it is about $500. New
| York probably sells as many or more,
/ but the statistics are not availaIe al
! though New York has a regularly or
! ganized post card board of trade.
! One Washington post card firm, which
| has two stores, carries a stock of over
| $4,000 different designs Outside OF
| large cities, Mt Vernon, the home and
! tomb of Washington, is the largest post
| card market in the country. During the
! summer season the sales average about
! 500 day.
! Many Go to Dead Letter Office.
! The dead letter office in Washington
( receives about 10000 post cards a day
which are dead because of imperfect,
/ incorrect or ilIegible addresses 1t also
| receives from 10000 10 $4,000 cards
daily which are unavailable" because
! they violate the postal regulations
J flee department furnace and are said
| to make fairly good fuel There is no
| ground for the impression prevailing
among ill-infOrmed people that the post
/ office is careless in handling cards.
! Every effort is made to deliver every
| post card mailed, the effort being as
/ honest and thorough as if the missive
were sealed letter.
The growth of the picture post card
! publishing business in the United
States has been remarkable, although no
comprehensive statistics are available.
Il is known that the sale Of cards is
| greatly increasing, while the imports
from Germany are decreasing In 1907
the United States imported from Ger
many 1926 tons Of picture post cards.
In 1908 this had decreased TO 25.902
tons, and in 1909 the record was q. 769.
The increase last year was due in large
| measure to the fact that the German
manufactures had greatly reduced their
prices TO meet the competition of Arneri-
can post card printers.
Post Card Newspapers.
New uses for post cards are being
invented daily Paris now boasts a
Journal which is published every after
noon at o'clock. 1t bears a small
sketch. photograph or cartoon illus
tTative of the principal item of the
days news. and also a brief cOndensa-
ton of the important happenings of the
day.
1t is proposed to issue such daily
post card newspaper, dealing only with
baseball news, in an eastern American
city, but the scheme has not vet mater
iaizei.
Used for Advertising.
Tt remained for an Australian mer-
chant to enlist the post card habit as a
means of converting his customers into
statesmen Every person who pur-
chased goods from him was invited to
step into the post card parlor of his
store There were post cards of a thou
sand designs, pens and ink and postage
stamps. The customer was invited to
write as many cards as he wished, to use
the stamps without charge. the only
stipulation being that the customer tell
lis correspondent that he had just
bought something from this store. The
scheme proved to be a successful bust
ness producer, and il is now being tried
out in several American cities.
The post card no longer is a side line
for the druggists or the book sellers
counter. II still has its place of honor
in such stores. but it is more at home
in shops devoted solely to the sale Of
post cards Every city has many of
these post cards shops and they are
daily increasing in number and popu-
larity. The post card no longer is a fad,
Il is necessity.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of Milk.
ARTESIA Gun CLUB MEETS;