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Show fftstory as Told jSB by Stamps r jmMMt 'iM$fc'!&Mm off TheWwm first rJ?"" postage tjtamp lowed by the White Plains Buttle stamp In the same year, the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont and the Burgoyne Surrender tn 1027, Washington Wash-ington at Valley Forge, and Molly Pitcher In 1028 and the George Rogers Rog-ers Clark and the General Sullivan stamps In 1020. During 1030 other events of the Revolution probably will be commemorated commem-orated and a movement has already been started for a special series to celebrate the tercentenary of the Massachusetts Bay colony founding. Two speclol stamps, honoring great Americans, have appeared In the last three years. In 1927 Lindbergh's epic flight across the Atlantic was honored hon-ored In a special alr-mall stamp and during the past year Thomus Edison was honored wltb a stamp commemorating commem-orating the fiftieth anniversary of the Invention of the Incandescent lamp. In connection with the latter two, many persons wondered why portraits of Lindbergh and Edison did not appear on the stamps which bore the message mes-sage of their fame. The reason was that the law of the land prohibits the use of the portrait of a living American Amer-ican on the postage stamps of our country. (And for a similar reason this article Is nof illustrated with reproductions re-productions of any American stamp. It Is "agin the law" to illustrate United States stamps, the same as United States currency or coins I) So the Lindbergh stamp showed his fa-mous fa-mous plane, the Spirit of St Louis, and the Edison Light Golden Jubilee stamp showed a picture of the first incandescent light Another Interesting fact about the Lindbergh stamp Is that 15,000,000 of this Issue were printed. Virtually all of them have been bought up, giving giv-ing Uncle Sara a net profit of 1,000,-000, 1,000,-000, post office officials estimate. Since only a few of the stumps have been used, the officials estimate that at least 10,000,000 of them will be retained re-tained as souvenirs. The fact that these stamps contain an error will make them more valuable In later years. It Is predicted. The error Is that Newfoundland Is shown as several sev-eral Islands Instead of a large piece of land fringed with Indentations. About 10,000,000,000 postage stamps are printed for our Tost Office department de-partment each yeur by the bureau of engraving and printing at Washington. Washing-ton. Dies are made and stamps are printed In sheets of 400 each. After being printed and dried the sheets are taken to the gumming machines. Each machine Is surmounted by a tank from which a carefully regulated stream of special gum Is fed into a pan, at one end of which it comes Into contact with an adjustable revolving re-volving roller. After being gummed the sheets pass Into a tunnel where the temperature Is kept at 130 degrees. de-grees. This tunnel Is 72 feet long and the stamps take a minute and a half to traverse It. When they reach the other end they are dry and ready for the perforating machines. It is estimated esti-mated that the department sells something some-thing like 14,000,000,000 postage stamps (all denominations), 1,2,10,000,-000 1,2,10,000,-000 postal cards and 2,7.r0,000,000 stamped envelopes each year. Although the postage stamp Is a comparatively recent Innovation in usage by mankind, the Idea of a postal service conducted by the government for the carrying and distributing of the written messages between Its people peo-ple goes back to ancient times. The first "postal systems" were In Babylonia, Baby-lonia, Egypt and China, but they were little more than mere courier services to keep the kings and emperors and government officials In communication with their subordinates, according to a recent bulletin of the National Geographic Geo-graphic society, which traces the development of the postal system as follows: Borne of these systems, such as that of Darius of Persia, about 600 B C, were elaborate. "Posts" or stations were established at Intervals along the highways, and at them horses were kept In readiness. Interference with the king's messengers was on pain of death The idea that they might carry mcsagres or objects for private cltliens would have been considered not only preposterous, but treasonable as well. These early Persian couriers carried brloks, for the messages wers lmprescions baked Into clay. On Into the Middle Ages the Idea extended that a country's postal serv-See serv-See was "the king's poet," for irovern-mental irovern-mental ufe only Such a service was maintained by Charlemagne and by lesser rulers. The llrst Instance In relatively modern mod-ern times In which the public was admitted ad-mitted to the use of the royal post was In France tn H8L. undsr Louie XI. The postal eystem of the Dnlted States had Its roots directly In the British system. Tbe tatter grew up by degrees from the royal courier service, as on the continent Durlrrg most of the Seventeenth century the postal privilege was "farmed out," hut In 1S8S the service waa taken over and operated by the government The system sys-tem was extended to the American colonies, col-onies, but owing to the great stretches of wilderness It was fot a long time alow and primitive. Benjamin Franklin Frank-lin was postmaster general toward the end of the colonial period and flrst admitted newspapers to the post After the break with Great Britain, Franklin Frank-lin was made flrst postmaster general of the Independent American system. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON rV-B.T!r HE reoent announcement ff from London that the 11 fl . world's flrst postage sjr Ta. J stamp had been placed on sale In that city at-SwawwrrT at-SwawwrrT traded unusual atten- tIon not only 'rou S3re stamp collectors but tt Tf from the public In gen--j tbe il-ttf'J eral, because It em-' em-' phasized the fact that ' , this present-day common convenience, JT millions of which are used every-cj every-cj day, is of comparatively recent adop-"t-Mon. For this stamp, an English one --.-- bearing the likeness of Queen Victoria, Is still attached to the envelope on which It was used and bears the postmark post-mark "Bath, May 2, 1S40." This means that the postage stamp In Its present form Is less than a hundred years old. 4 The first postage stamps In the United States were put on sale In New York on July 1, 1847. Previous to that time, postage stamps were Issued Is-sued by private companies doing a general express or local delivery serv- s Ice of letters. On January 1, 1842, ,'. the City Dispatch Post, otherwise known as Grelg's Post,' was established estab-lished In New York city, and It Is said that this Post Issued the flrst adhesive ad-hesive stamp used In this country. But the use of these private stamps proved such an annoyance to the gov- Jaw- ernment that It was suppressed1 and in its place the United States City Dispatch Post was established. In the early days of the United States postal system the receiver of a letter paid for Its delivery according to the number of sheets of paper which the letter contained. In 1S45 this system was discarded and the weight system was adopted with a lower rate. About the same time came the envelope to give secrecy to letters. Prepayment of postage and the nse of gummed stamps were put f into use In 1847, During the flrst fiscal fis-cal year of their use postmasters were supplied with 800,380 postage stamps to be sold to the public. Now, 83 years later, the Post Office department is supplying some 14,000.000,000 stamps every year to the 50.000 postmasters post-masters In the United Stutesl Since the flrst gummed stamps were Issued In 1847, there have been a dozen distinct series of regular post-age post-age stamps with additions to each after their Issue. Only 10 of our Pres-Idents Pres-Idents have been honored by having their portraits appear on our stamps, While 19 other persons prominent In American history have been thus remembered. re-membered. . . Washington and Franklin have been honored In every regular series of . stamps from the beginning and Jefferson Jef-ferson and Lincoln have seldom been Omitted. The other Presidents pictured pic-tured on various Issues are: Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Taylor, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland. Harrison, McKlnley, Roosevelt, Harding and Wilson. Memorial stomps also have been issued for Lincoln on his one hundredth birthday anniversary In 1900, for Harding Shortly after his ' death, and for John Ericsson, the In ventor, on the occasion of the unvell- Ing of a statue to him in Washington In 1928. The other men whose portraits have f been selected for stamp Issues are, besides Franklin, Ilenry Clay, Daniel Webster. Winfleld Scott, Alexander Hamilton, O. II. Perry, Edwin M. Stanton, Stan-ton, William T. Sherman, John Marshall, Mar-shall, David G. Farragut Robert B. Livingston, William H. Seward, Nathan Na-than Hile, Capt John Smith, Christopher Christo-pher Columbus and Vasco Balboa. Only three women have had that distinction. Martha Washington was the first, as was befitting the "First Idy of the Land," and the other two v tfre Queen Isabella of Spain and Poca- v aortas,- the Indian princess. "48t Interesting of all the stamps jlby the government, perhaps, peipeclal series. Issued from time to time, known as commemorative commemora-tive stamps. The first of these appeared ap-peared In 1893 to commemorate Columbus's Col-umbus's discovery of America. There were sixteen of these stamps, ranging In denomination from one cent to $5, each one telling a little of the story: Columbus In Sight of Land, the Landing Land-ing of Columbus, the Flagship of Columbus, the Fleet of Columbus, Columbus Soliciting the Aid of Isabella, Isa-bella, Columbus Welcomed at Barcelona, Barce-lona, Columbus Restored to Favor, Columbus Presenting Natives. Columbus Colum-bus Announcing Ills Discovery, Columbus Colum-bus at La ltablda, Recall of Columbus, Isabella Pledging Her Jewels. Columbus Colum-bus in Chains, Columbus Describing nis Third Voyage, Isabella and Columbus, Colum-bus, and Columbus alone. After five years another commemorative commemo-rative series followed, known as Transmississlppl-Omaha stamps. Issued Is-sued during the Transmlsslsslppl and International exposition. The nine denominations, ranging from one cent to $2, were titled Marquette on the Mississippi, Forming In the West, Indian In-dian Hunting Buffalo, Fremont on Kocky Mountains, Troops Guarding Train, Hardships of Emigration, Western West-ern Mining Prospector, Western Cattle Cat-tle in Storm and Mississippi Ulver Brldga Ttie Pun-American exposition at Buffalo in 1001 was marked by another an-other series, depicting means of transportation. trans-portation. A lake steamer was shown on the one-cent stamp, a railway train on the two-cent, a steel-arch bridge on the flve-ceut. ship canal lock on the eight-cent and an ocean steamship on the ten-cent stamp. . The next special series celebrated the purchase of Louisiana from France. The stamps bore severally the portraits of the men most responsible respon-sible for accomplishing It Robert R. Livingston, minister to France at the time; Thomas Jefferson, President, and James Monroe, special ambassador ambassa-dor to France. The Jamestown series of 1907 followed, fol-lowed, depicting the landing of the colonists 300 years before ond bearing the likenesses of Cnpt. John Smith and Pocahontas. The first single commemorative stamp that Is to say one that belonged to no series-was that of 1909 to mark the development of the Alaska-Ynkon-Paclflc territory, having for Its design the portrait of William IL Seward, who as secretary of state negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia. In the same year a two-cent stamp, showing Henry Hudson's Half Moon milling past the Palisades and Robert Fulton's Clermont under full steam, commemorated not only tbe discovery of the Hudson river but also the centennial of Its first navigation by steam. The 1012-13 series marked the opening of the Panama canal and the discovery of the Pacific ocean. In 1919 a special three-cent stamp was Issued to commemorate the successful outcome of the World war. It depicted de-picted a figure of Liberty victorious against a background of the flags of the United States. England, France, Italy and Belgium. In 1020 the Pilgrim Tercentenary was celebrated with three stamps Illustrated Il-lustrated by the Mayflower, the land-ln land-ln of the Pilgrims and the signing of the Mayflower. Compact aboard that historic ship. The coming of the Huguenot-Walloons to America was celebrated In a tercentenary series in 1924 and the arrival of the first Immigrants Im-migrants to the United State, from Norway In 1695 was also the Inspiration Inspira-tion for another series, known as tbe Norse-American series. During the past five years the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of many of the stirring deeds of the Revolutionary Rev-olutionary war has given the lm-petus lm-petus to s large number of patriotic Lues. The first of these came out in 1023 with the Issue of the three Lexington-Concord stamps. Then came the Sesqulcentennlal stamps with tie Bell of Liberty to 1926. closely fo- |