Evening star., 1934-05-20
kSV3fl@Ns ~
STAMPS,,gAlI|l| S! = s.
E EkNgNSK

delivery types.
Designs will be simple in character
and the captions probably will be
laconic.
Engravers at the Bureau of En-
craving and Printing have been at
work on the set since Monday. and
Alvin w. Hall, director, has said that
every possible effort will be made to
arrange production promptly and eff
GENTLY.
Through Mr.. Hall 1t was learned
Friday that the bureau is manufac-
turing an exceedingly beautiful and
interesting set of stamps for the
Philippines.
Fourteen values are included, as
follows: &c, portrait of Rial; &C,
statuary group; &c, girl with basket;
&c. native scene; 10c, Fort Santiago;
12c. Salt Spring: 16c. landing of Ma
gellan; zoe, portrait of native soldier;
26c. rice terrace; SOC, Blood Compact;
1P Barasoain Church; 2P, Battle OF
Manila Bay; 4P, Montalban Gorge
and 5P, equestrian portrait OF George
Washington. The peso denominations
will be bi-colored.
Date of issue is as yet unoecloeo.
The new duck hunters license
stamp. face value 81, will not be
available at the philatellc agency.
Robert E. Fellers, superintendent:
division of stamps. says collectors Will
have to make other arrangements lor
obtaining it.
The agency still remains in its old
quarters on the second floor OF the
City Post Office Building, Massa.
chusetts avenue and North Capltol
street, and the space assigned 10 y.
in the new Post Office Department
Building, Pennsylvania avenue and
| Twelfth street, has been INVADED Dy
another Government bureau. Also,
the plan for five sales windows for the
accommodation of patrons has been
set aside, and the abbreviated area
| left to the agency has been partitioned
of so that only two windows are
available.
A sardonic commentary on the SIT
| uation is the fact that collectors paid
| into the agency during April the sub
! stantial sum of $4,000.
California collectors have appealed
to Mr.. Farley for a stamp to commem-
crate the opening of the new bridge
over Oakland Bay.
The Post Office Department has de-
| clined to issue a commemorative for
| the seventy fifth anniversary Of the
/ drilling of the first commercial oil
well, Titusville. Pa, August 81, 1853.
| illegal Mothers day firSt-day
covers are reported from the follow
ing places: Stanley, N. OAK; Ross,
Ga; Sarasota, Fla; Anson, Eastland,
Mexia and Winters, Tex; and Seaford,
Del But only first day Washington
cancellations will be recognized by
collectors.
MAZDA Foster writes: Il have in
my collection of first-day covers for
the Mothers day stamp two covers
which are rather interesting. On the
| inside of the envelope is the flrst-day
| cancellation postmarked Washington,
May 2. and on the outside is the can
collation. for Mothers day, post
marked Wilmington, N. c., birthplace
| of Whistler's mother, May l3, with
the cachet of the Wilmington Cham
| Der of Commerce attached"
Michael L. Eidsness. IT,. writing in
Stamps Magazine for May l9, says:
There is nothing extraordinary
about the fact that there are few
people who do not like the Mothers
day stamp.
"On the contrary think am safe
in saying that every stamp ever is
sued has been criticized.
THE very idea of adhesives was not
universally popular in 1847. and there
was opposition in Congress to author
izing the issuance of any such noV-
city
1T followed that there was carp
ing protest against the initial values
the scent red brown Franklin and
the 1O-cent black Washington-when
| at last they went on sale, July OF
the year named.
"A decade later there were indi-
viduals who disapproved of the sug-
geStion that stamps should be made
available in perforated sheets-Feb-
ruary "a. 1857.
But the grandest storm of all was
that which came in 1869 when the
Post Office Department dared to
represent a post rider, a locomotive
and an ocean steamship on three de-
nominations in set of 10. Hitherto
respectable newspapers stopped to the
level of the gutter in abusing the ar
tist, the manufacturer and the Gov
ernment. Politicians campaigned for
votes on the slogan: Down with the
new stampsl' A cyclone of disap-
proval was stirred up throughout the
country. And it did its work. for by
April 9. 1870. the Department had a
substitute set ready.
That series, however, likewise
failed to suit everybody concerned,
and from March 8, 1871. to November
| 81. 1888, changes and additions were
ordered with consistent regularity.
The next real outburst. though
did not come until January 2, 1893,
when the beautiful Columbian series
went on sale. Modern collectors think
of these issues as practically per-
feet but their contemporaries were
less easy to please Men rose in the
House of Representatives to attack
| them: hundreds OF people wrote to
| the President demanding their with
drawal.
In their turn the Trans-MiSSiSsip-
pi and Pan-American stamps had to
| run the gantlet of sneers and jeers.
It seemed inevitable that it should be
so-the masses of the land would be
satisfied, even delighted, but there
always was a small minority which
insisted upon being out of step.
During the 26 years spent
in the Department. history con-
tinued to repeat itself. The James,
town, 1907; Lincoln, 1909; Panama
Pacific, 1912; Victory, 1919; Walloon.
1924: Norse-American, 1925: Sesqui-
centennial, 1926; Burgoyne. 1927;
Edison, 1929; yorktown, 1881. and
| Washington Bicentennial, 1882, stamps
were warmly received by millions but
far more hotly slammed by few
score egotists.
| There were fanatics who chal-