Evening star., 1937-01-17
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

Several pamphlets have recently been
printed in England" says The Star of
January II, 1887 Ito answer the query
Who invented the adhesive postage
rI;. en stamps? Up to
0feult iof the within a short time
Postage Stamp. Sir Rowland Hill,
the father of the
penny post has been accorded the
honor: but his claim is disputed by Mr..
Patrick Chalmers of Wimbledon, in be-
half Of his father, James Chalmers. To
many minds such a question seems a
strange one TO make the text for
vigorous controversy, since the invention
consisted merely of a device to take
the place of the old method of printing
paid or six pence postage due on the
outside of a letter or package with a
hand stamp held by the postmaster.
Yet. insensibly to itself. the world re-
ceived from the adhesive stamp one of
the greatest practical benefits it has
ever known. The national treasures
have acquired more money through the
increased convenience to the public on
the one hand and the greater facility OF
collection on the other. The adhesive
stamp made correspondence easier; the
ease of correspondence made its volume
larger; the increased volume paved the
way for cheaper rates. Hence it comes
that to the invention of little bit of
colored paper smeared with mucilage on
the back we must credit our power to
send letter today from one extreme Of
the United Kingdom to the other for a
penny, or from Bangor to Los Angeles
for its equivalent in American money.
T% ;r Inrf,t Nf hat he
last 46 years have witnessed in postal
progress on both sides of the globe. that
the honor of devising so far-reaching an
contending for"
THAT part of the annual report of the
District Commissioners says The Star
of January 13, 1887. which deals with
the subject of public conveyances ought
to receive the earn
Washington's Poor est attention of
Street Railways. Congress; with
perhaps the excep
ton of its cheapneSs, no American city
of the size of Washington has a street
railway service less adequate to its needs.
The tracks. as the report shows, and as
any one can see for himself without
being District Commissioner or an
engineer, are a Disagreement to the
highways and positive obstruction to
general travel. The rails stand up some
distance above the level of the roadway,
the space between them is paved with
cobblestones and on either outside OF the
track there runs a strip of ballasting
blocks of granite or some similar mate
rial. To rob the very middle of a street
of several feet of space that legitimately
belongs to it is bad enough; but it be-
comes a crying nuisance when, with a
pretense of compensation. the public
get so unsatisfactory services as they
do in this city. The railway companies
were granted their charter privileges on
the hypothesis that the citizens were to
have cheap. easy and effective mode OF
conveyance from point to point. In
stead of this they are carried in un-
warmed. half cleaned, Ill ventilated and
otherwise uncomfortable cars, of so
slender capacity and so few in number
on some of the roads as merely to lrrl-
tate the temper of would-be passengers
who spend 80 minutes waiting on a
street corner for a chance to ride Is
minutes hanging to platform. On the
two-horSe cars the accommodations are
Door enough, and on the bob-tail' lines
there Is not only stingy supply OF
stingy cars. but the passenger who is
fortunate enough to get inside has to
work as well as pay for his ride by pass
ing tickets and change TO and fro, be-
cause a well-to-do corporation refuses to
hire a conductor"