Evening star., 1935-12-01
SNS& ~ MM
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E7E5S1 49, ~ - WI
Jacques Callot, herald Of Lorraine and
a celebrated engraver.
Estonia has in preparation two new
sets, one for regular postage end the
other for airmail.
An appropriate cachet for all first
class Christmas mail from Washing
toms Birthplace, Va, post office for
December 20 to IS. Covers should be
sent to Miss Julia w. Muse, postmas-
ter.
Weekly Philatelic Gossip explains:
"The one-half penny stamps Of Great
Britain were changed to yellow green
In 1904 because the blue green and
gray green stamps had proved con-
fusing to stamp clerks working under
gas lights, often being mistaken for
2ha penny stamps and vice versa
Philatelic wit dates back to 1912, If
not to an earlier time. London Punch.
In its second volume-it was founded
in 1841-said: "The ladies of England
have been indefatigable in their en-
deavors to collect old penny stamps.
In fact. they betray more anxiety to
treasure up Queens heads than King
Henry VIII did to get rid OF them"
The portrait Of Won Steuben used
in the commemorative Of 1880 was
copied from a bronze tablet set up
at the generals birthplace in Magde-
burg, Germany.
Eleven sets OF so-called Seebecks
were issued for Salvador; nine for
Nicaragua; five for Honduras, and
three for Ecuador The printer was
N. F. Seebeck, president Of the HAM
ilton Bank Note Co., New York. A
stamp collector himself. he did no.
wilfully intend to injure the hobby.
Instead, he hoped to help it by pro-
ducing really beautiful and interesting
philatelic examples of the engraver's
art. And in that respect he succeeded.
1t was the irregularity of his con-
tracts with the four governments in
volved that caused all the trouble.
c. w. Ricketts,. jr., Is the author
ican postal service. He writes, in
part: THE mail service Of Mexico
is perhaps the oldest in the New
World. Prior to the conquest of Mex
leo by the Spanish under Herman
Cortes there existed in the Aztec
Empire highly developed system of
communication. Throughout the ter
ritory dominated by the Aztecs there
were little sentinel stations six leagues
apart. The posts were manned by
well trained soldiers. These men were
picked for their intelligence as we'll
as for their physical prowess. Their
training was to equip them to be in
telligent observers for their monarch
when they were abroad in the empire.
These mail men were diplomats and
military intelligence officers who could
report with understanding anything
that they chanced to see which might
be of vital Importance to their gov
ernment. They were selected only
from the noble class and the middle
class. While they were technically a
part of the army. still their duties
were to carry messages both verbal
and in the heiroglyphics Of the Aztecs
to and from the Emperor. While on
such missions they were held inyiolable
and their death by violence was an
swered by war. They formed the
only link between the Aztec Emperor
and his many feudatory chiefs.
From the fall Of the Aztec Empire
to the time that the first actual
postal system of Mexico began was
about so years. During this period
nothing Of a public service in the way
Of transmitting messages existed, aside
from a post operated by the royal
colonial government. On August 81,
1868, Don Martin de Olivares OBJ
tanned by royal decree the right to
establish postal system throughout
Mexico and to collect fees for the
carrying Of messages. This office was
purchased from the crown and was
with all its rights and benefits to be
hereditary in the family of Don Mar
tin. Letters we're carried along the
camino real at the rate of two reales
for each four leagues. An additional
charge for bringing the letter to the
camino real, or state highway, was
made if the sender lived apart from
the populated district that bordered
the road. The same was true con-
cerning the delivery of the letter If
it had to be delivered beyond the
camino real. However, here we have
a public service with a rate uniform
to all operating in the Southern re-
public nearly 40 years before James
town was founded by the English
under Capt. John Smith.
This system of postal service per-
severed with the descendants of Don
Martin de Olivares until there were no
more Olivares to carry on. The
franchise then reverted to the royal
treasurer of the crown Of Spain.
This Office was held by one Domingo
Antonio Lopez, whose title was ad-
ministrator general and who admin
istered the mail for the colony Of
Mexico both on land and sea. The
extent of the mails service at this
period was confined to Is offices. No
change came in the service worthy of
mention until after the revolution in
1924. at which time there was some
legislation extending the service in
conformance with the new govern
ment's policy.
"The first postal code was promul-
gated in 1884, stating as principle
that the function of mail carrying was
essentially a public service. At this
time there we're 200 post offices. and
the code provided uniform tariffs in
place of a number Of inconsistencies
that had crept in from time to time.
Ten years after this date another law