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Show TODAY IN HSSTORY ,! JANUARY 10. Today Is the anniversary day of the establishment of the penny post by sir Rowland Hill, and the use of the modern postage stamps ou letters. It seems almost al-most Incredible, in vlow of the fact of the greut number of stamps used today, that it. was only In lSlfl that postage . stamps came into use op January 10. That is only seventy '.years ago. and today to-day hundreds of mflliomi of utanips are dally placed upon litters. Sir Rowland UrsL made the suggestion In 1837 In a briof sotting out Improvements Improve-ments in the postal systom of England, in the following words: "Perhaps the difficulties might ho ovurpome by using a bit of paper largo enough to bear tho stamp, and covering tho back with a glutinous wash, which, by applying a little lit-tle moisture, might he attached to the back of the letter.'' Proposals so striking and novel In regard re-gard to a subject In which ovory one had a special personal Interest could not fall to command general attention. The adhesive postage stamps wero not Introduced Into the United States untl 1S-17, but. on account of the high rate of postage and the provision allowing optional op-tional prepayment, thoy did not come Into general use until 1SH5. In 1S52 stamped envelopes were first Introduced. In 1872 postal cards wero authorised, and In 1S7U double or reply postal cards wore first used. In the English colonics of America bo-forc bo-forc 1G3P. such postal facilities as existed wore supplied by -private enterprise In that year the first effort was mado for the establishment of a government postal systom. In 1702 rates of postage wero fixed which remained unaltered for nearly half a century. Thoy were: For 30 miles and under, G cents; over 30 miles and not exceeding 00 miles. 8 cents; over GO miles nnd not exceeding 100, 10 cents, and so on up to 150 miles and over, for which tho charge was 25 cents. In 1S45 the rate was lowered and the postage on letters let-ters not exceeding one-half ounco In weight was fixed at 5 cents for any distance dis-tance not exceeding-300 miles: over 300 miles it was 10 cents. In 1S51 It was reduced re-duced to S cents for distances under 0000 miles and G cents for distances above 3000 miles. It was not until 1SS3 that letter postage was reduced to 2 cents. January 10 also marks tho beginning of the famous Council of Trent, In loGl: the birthday of Ethan Allen hi 173S: the founding of the first Young 31'ns Christian Chris-tian association in Boston (1So2). |