The Cairo bulletin., 1911-11-12

POSTAL STAMPS
LICKED DAILY
Twelve Billion Are Sold In The
Uni'ed States Erery
Year
SALES BREAK word RECORD
Present Year Marks Seventeen |
Anniversary OF Use OF
Stamps On Letters
SALES BREAK World RECORD

1
tres just compiled here 1t has bee
brought to light that the citizens Q
he United States hold the uniqu
record of administering 30.000,00'
lickings every day. This does no
mean, however, that $4,000, 600 per
IONS engage in daily personal en-
ounters, or that the parental slippe
$ brought into use thirty million
ines every twenty-four hours, TIL
lickings are administered by the cit
,zens of the country to nothing mor'
bellicose than the humble postage
'tamp.
Appropriately enough the estab
'ishment of this record comes on the
twentieth anniversary of the intro
luetion of postage stamps. Twent.
ears ago the average number O.
tamps used daily was only abou
t0.000,000 SO that within two dc
AIDES their use has trebled until nov
The stamps used in single day lait
nd to end, would reach about AZ
tiles or half way from Chicago t
lew York, while the number used IL
year would stretch about $4,000
niles, or seven times around tho
'arth. No other nation comes any
here near approaching this record
Incidentally it establishes Americans
the greatest l.tter writer's with
average of something over four
,pistles week sent or received.
History of the Stamp.
Small and apparently inconso
luential as the postage stamp is, II
history and development are fgll
interest. Although practically ur
;hronicled it has played an import
mt part in the development of til
country. Just seventy years age
hat is in 1871, it began its career
Of course there had been stamp
used in this country since pre-revo
'utionary days but these were ia,
stamps and the like. Last year, jus
efore arriving at an age of thre'
core and ten, however no less tia
l,360,353,G79 postage stamps OF all
inds were issued with total valu'
f more than 5000, 100000. In the
light of these figures, it is interest
ng to note that In the annual re
iort of the Postmaster General fol
$40 the sale of $1,000, 900 stamps
'alued at about S16,500,000 was
eferred to as astounding"
Just how the tiny pieces of gum
ned and engraved paper which last
year provided the chief source of in
come for business on which the
government spent come 5000, 600
in the handling of 5000, 100000
pieces of mail had its origin is prob
ably not known to one person in ten
thousand The primary cause was
woman, or rather woman and her
brother. Up to 1S41 letters Were
carried much as express packages
which are shipped "collect@ are
handled today, being forwarded c.
L., so to speak, with the receiver pay
ing the charges. Although the sys-
EN- was unsatisfactory 1t continued
force for years until the idea o.
he present day postage stamp by
means of which the sender does the
aging suggested itself to an English.
nan named Rawlond HILL it 81
HANGED that one day he heard a car
Ter in country In holding z
ieated conversation with serving
maid. She had received letter from
Ter brother and upon learning that
here was shilling postage to pay
earthly announced that she could
lot raise the amount. Meantime she
carefully scrutinized the outside OF
he letter. Hill took pity on her ant
)aid the postage but later learned
hat on the outside Of the letter wa!
cipher through which she had re
reived a message from her brother
md that the inside was blank From
this incident he conceived the ide,
If the paying-in-advanee postag,
stamps which while II is today thu
smallest kind OF negotiable paper in
wolves the spending Of hundreds o
millions of dollars and furnished las
years nearly 80 per cent of the In
ONE of the post office department.
Dividing The Profits
Few persons who purchase one
,ent or two-cent stamp realize 1,
n how many ways and through how
many channels the penny or pennies
will be expended. Postal carriers
transportation companies, rural FIRE,
deliveries. railway mail clerks al
these and host Of others who han
lie the 1900, 00O, geo pieces o
nail annually receive each thei
Mills or fraction s Of mills from eacl