Postal card

“ Postal cards are only intended for the briefest of business messages, but lots of people use them for nearly all their correspondence. I know one man who writes love letters on postal cards. Most women and some men manage to make one side of a 5 × 3 inch postal card do duty for four pages of commercial note. They will write up and down and across lots and on the bias until the whole thing is so hopelessly mixed and tangled up that if the mystery of a woman's ways, or the fate of Charlie Ross were solved upon one of these cards all the "experts" in the world could not unravel it. ”

“ ROUGH ON OSCAR. SOMEBODY shook a log-cabin bed-quilt at Oscar Wilde, when he was in this country, and it knocked him so crazy for two days, that a man had to lead him around town by a bed-cord to prevent him from butting his head against a lump of oat-meal mush, and scattering his brains all over the Union.
THE POSTAL CARD. NO one denies that the postal card is a great thing, and yet it makes most people mad to get one This is because we naturally feel sensitive about having our correspondence open to the eye of the postmaster and postal clerk. Yet they do not read them. ”

“ For the convenience of correspondence by Post Card within the Dominion, a double Post Card has been prepared and is now ready for issue, which will afford to the original sender of this form of Card the means of sending with his communication, a blank prepaid Post Card to be used in reply. Each half of the double card will bear a one-cent postage stamp impressed thereon in prepayment. ”

“ The 3d paragraph will hereafter read as follows:
2d. For postal cards, 10 centimes for a simple card or for each of the two parts of a postal card with paid reply.
The second clause of the seventh paragraph commencing with the words: "As a temporary arrangement" is suppressed. ”

“ J. Smythe.—I know very few collectors of postal cards, and personally never collected them. I think it would pay you to join the Postal-Card Society if you are going to collect cards on anything like a fair scale. At auctions postal cards bring very small prices, but probably there are no rarities in the lots offered in this way.
A. A. Fischer.—The water-marks on the Tuscany stamps, first issue, are in four horizontal rows of three crowns in each row. It requires quite a block to see an entire crown. ”

“ By act of Jan. 20, 1874, the salaries of Congressmen were reduced to the old amount.
C. J., Topeka, Kan.—It certainly is customary when ladies or gentlemen write to any one for information for them to inclose a postal stamp or postal card for the reply. It is quite as much as one should ask of a business man that he take time to give desired information. To request this much and expect him to pay postage on the reply is what is termed in the emphatic vocabulary of the slang-slinger, “cheeky.” The very fact that postage is such a trifle makes the omission to inclose it all the more inexcusable. ”

“ Mounting takes time, and it is not necessary to mount everything. Material used only occasionally may be left unmounted. For instance, much newspaper-clipped material may be kept loosely in heavy manila envelopes. Again, some material may be made more accessible if not mounted, especially if in card form and in standard sizes. Such is the postal card. The amount of valuable material obtainable in postal-card form will astonish those who have not looked into the matter. ”

“ The postmaster's wife told me yesterday that he'd sent Barbara one of them souverine postal cards and said on it he'd be down last night. As you go, you might stop and tell the Norths that he's comin', for they don't go after their mail much and most likely it's still there in the box. Tell Barbara that the card has a picture of a terrible high buildin' on it and the street is full of carriages, both horsed and unhorsed. If he can make the lame walk and the blind see, I reckon he can fix my back. ”

“ Post Cards. Nothing whatever may be attached to a post card, nor may it be cut or altered in any way. A previously used post card, bearing a 1 cent stamp, will not be accepted as a post card. [Pg 139]
2nd Class Matter.—For Canada, Newfoundland and the United States.—Newspapers and Periodicals posted from the office of publication, for regular subscribers in other places in Canada, Newfoundland and the United States, pass free of postage. ”

“ The next change recorded was the issue of a large sized card for business purposes, which took place, according to the American Journal of Philately, [235] on the 17th February, 1893, in company with the two high value postage stamps and the letter card. The new card was of the usual light buff stock and measured 6 × 31⁄8 inches (152 × 92 mm.) . The design was the same as for the ordinary card, the stamp being of the wrapper type 4 but at a slightly greater distance from the end of the banderole—4 mm. in the small card and 12 mm. in the large card. The impression was in black. ”

“ It will be a very pleasant thing to be able to post letters without going off our own doorsteps, but this is only half of the comfort which the new box is going to be to us.
In each post-box will be a special envelope containing blanks, on which the householder can order one and two cent stamps and postal-cards, putting the money to pay for them into the envelope with his order.
The postman collects this envelope with the regular mail, and hands it to a special clerk, who takes out the money, fills the order, and drops the envelope in the mail for the postman to deliver on his next round. ”

“ The use of adhesive postage stamps was first authorized by act of Congress, approved on the 3rd of March 1847, and on the 1st of June 1856 prepayment by stamps was made compulsory. In 1863 a uniform rate of postage without regard to distance was fixed at three cents, and on the 1st of October 1883, the rate was further reduced to two cents, the equivalent of the British penny postage.
All mail matter for distribution within the United States is divided into four classes. First-class matter includes letters, postal cards, post cards and anything sealed or closed against inspection. ”

“ The fact of its existence had apparently lain dormant, except among post card specialists, until the Canadian correspondent of Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News rose to remark [229] that they could be produced by manipulating an uncut sheet of the regular cards. This called forth a rejoinder from Mr. A. Lohmeyer [230] who wrote:—
In the first place, the Error Cards, for such they are, do not exist among the 1 cent cards, but only among the 1-1 cent of 1882, or reply-paid cards. ”

“ The Post Office Department of the United States, besides the stamps for the collection of postage, has employed from time to time for special usages certain seals which, as they are adhesive and in the form of postage stamps and officially used, are here described, although they are of no postal value and not properly stamps, but are all employed to indicate that the packages which bear them are properly secured and have not been tampered with in transit. ”

“ In the month of June, 1900, the department commenced the issue to Postmasters, of a small book of 2 cent postage stamps, containing 12 stamps, disposed on two sheets of 6 stamps each, and interleaved with wax paper to prevent adhesion of the sheets. The size of the book is such as to make it convenient to be carried in the pocket or pocket-book. Printed on the cover is postal information calculated to be of interest to the public. The price at which the book is issued is 25 cents, one cent over the face value of the stamps being charged to cover the cost of binding, etc. ”

“ Then it would not be possible for a man to hand you a sealed package weighing over seven ounces, and bearing only three two-cent stamps and a ten-cent stamp for registration—you wouldn’t give him his registry receipt under such circumstances?"
"Certainly not, sir," replied the postal clerk. "The package, being sealed, would have to go as first-class mail; and if it weighed a fraction more than seven ounces it would require sixteen cents postage in addition to the registry fee." ”

“ Even in our great cities they have no regular daily courses, save in a few business districts. If the ordinary city resident would dispatch a parcel by express, he must go after an express wagon on foot or by telephone. The post-man—our public expressman—comes to our doors one, two, three, four times a day, or oftener. We have but to substitute a machine post for our overburdened foot post and, with a perfected system of collection and delivery of insured parcels at reasonable rates, we shall have a postal express at hand, ready and competent to do our bidding on our own terms and conditions. ”

“ Persons transmitting letters, which they desire should pass through the post as "registered letters," must observe that no record is taken of any letter unless specially handed in for registration at the time of posting. Upon all such letters, with the exception of those addressed to the United States, one penny must be prepaid as a registration charge. If addressed to the United States, the ordinary postage rate on the letters to that country must be prepaid, and in addition a registration charge of 3d. ”

“ His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor in Council has been pleased to approve of the following modifications in the Postal Arrangement between the United States and this Island; viz.:
“On and after the first day of November next, the postage on a single Letter shall be Four Pence, if prepaid at the mailing office, and Ten Cents (equal to Six Pence) if posted unpaid; and for other than single Letters the same charge shall be made for each additional half ounce, or fraction thereof. Letters for British Columbia, California, and Oregon shall be Six Pence, if prepaid, per half ounce. ”

“ While, of course, any number of 1⁄2 cent stamps on an article of correspondence will be recognized to the full extent of their aggregate face value, it is not the wish of the Department to supply them except for the sole specific purpose above mentioned, and an intimation to that effect should be given by postmasters to patrons of their office who are in the habit of buying 1⁄2 cent stamps for other postal purposes. ”

“ If any person uses or attempts to use in prepayment of postage on any letter or other mailable matter posted in this Province, any postage stamp which has been before used for a like purpose, such person shall be subject to a penalty of not less than Ten and not exceeding Forty dollars for every such offense, and the letter or other mailable matter on which such stamp has been so improperly used may be detained, or in the discretion of the Postmaster General forwarded to its destination charged with double postage. ”

“ The surcharging was begun and the letter cards so treated were issued as early as February, 1899. The perforation, so far as known, is always A.
In its issue for 27th January, 1900, the Weekly Philatelic Era notes the receipt of the 1 cent and 2 cent letter cards of the maple leaf type in new colors, conforming with the requirements of the Postal Union, the one cent in green instead of black and the 2 cent in carmine instead of green. In all other respects these letter cards conformed to their predecessors. They were doubtless issued early in January, 1900. ”

“ A halfpenny post of this kind would certainly be very convenient, especially in large towns, and a man of business carrying a few such cards in his pocket-book would find them very useful. There is an additional advantage attaching to the card, namely, that of having the address and postmark inseparably fixed to the note. ”

“ The classified [Pg 47] or carrier stations are practically complete post-offices, so far as the public is concerned, affording full facilities for the sale of stamps, money-orders, postal savings, registration of mail, acceptance of parcel post, the distribution of mail, etc., and for the delivery and collection of mail by carriers. The financial stations afford all the conveniences mentioned for the benefit of the public, except that they do not make delivery of mail nor effect its distribution. ”

“ Letters for the different departments of the Government in London may be prepaid, or otherwise, at the option of the sender. [Pg 325] Letters addressed by the public to the district surveyors of the Post-Office, on postal business, may also be sent without postage, though all letters addressed to local postmasters should be prepaid by stamps. It is absolutely forbidden that information respecting letters passing through the Post-Office should be given to any persons except those to whom such letters are addressed. ”

“ This system, which was suggested by the celebrated Rowland Hill, originated at a period in English postal history when the requirements of trade and commerce demanded a revisal of the code. Perhaps no man was better qualified for the purpose than was Mr. Hill. In 1839 railroad post-offices were in use for mail-bags. Each railway company provided a car, when desired to do so by the postmaster-general, for the exclusive use of the mails. These cars were fitted up with boxes to facilitate the distribution and reception of the mails. ”

“ All such parcels have to be examined at comparative leisure, and the public would be surprised to learn what a large amount of time is spent by the Post Office in making good the many defects and shortcomings in addresses on parcels and other postal packets. The Parcel Post comes in for many kicks from the public, but in justice it must be said that the officials spare no pains to trace the proper 91addresses of parcels. They exercise, too, great ingenuity in the task, and books of reference are in constant use. ”

“ Mail bags, parcel post receptacles, official bicycles, and telegraph instruments are supplied in large quantities. Over 11,000 bicycles, carriers, and trailers are in use throughout the Kingdom, and the mileage covered by them amounts to 150 million miles per year.
Miscellaneous postal stores, such as stamps, seals, scales, weights, telegraph paper, string, sealing-wax, are purchased by the Stores for the Post Office. Printed matter, pens, ink, paper, and office requisites, 202though stocked and distributed by the Stores, are supplied by the Stationery Office, Whitehall. ”