The Quaker City Philatelist

-The Quaker City Philatelist. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE QUAKER CITY PHILATELIC SOCIETY AND SECTION PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONALER PH ILATELISTEN VEREIN. VOL. IV. NOVEMBER, 1889. No. 11. ©HE ENGLISH eOSN-OFHIGE. HE Postmaster-General’s annual report, says the London St. James' Gazette, on the work of his office up to the 31st of March last, has been issued. The T great event of the year was the assumption by the post-office of the charge ot direct telegraphic cummunication with the continent of Europe. Negotiations, which are described by the Postmaster-General as both difficult and delicate, were set on foot, and arrangements were made for transfer to the post-office, on the 1st of April, of the cables of the Submarine Company, and for the simultaneous reduction of the rates to France, Germany, Holland and Belgium to zd. a word, with a minimum of lod. per message. In many respects, the year 1888-89 has been rather one of steady growth than of striking new developments. It is estimated that during the twelve months there have been delivered in the United Kingdom, 2,362,990,000 letters, post-cards, newspapers and parcels. New post-offices have been opened in 399 places. The number of letters alone transmitted is estimated at 1,558,100,000. Post-cards were especially favored by the public. The number of post-cards used (201,500,000) increased by nearly seven per cent. There has been, for the first time, an actual decrease in the number of newspapers sent by post—a result due no doubt in part to the competition of early newspaper trains. The Postmaster-General is not likely to lament this diminished load if the opinion he quotes, that all half-penny matter is carried at a distinct loss to the revenue, is correct. Of letters proper there has been a striking increase in Lon don, which has sent no fewer than 480,000,000 in the year, an increase of seven per cent on the previous year. The parcels post is in a flourishing condition. The increase in the number of par cels delivered during the year is nearly 3,000,000, or seven and eight-tenths per cent, and the total number posted is close upon 40,000,000. The increase in London has been rather greater than in the provinces; but Ireland shows the highest per cent of increase. The parcels post has been extended to many colonies and foreign countries during the year, and there have been bne or two notable improvements in these posts. A reduction in the rates between this country and the Australian colonies and the Cape of Good Hope has led to an increase of forty per cent in the parcels sent. Canada, which has been very shy in admitting parcels, has now opened all her post-offices to parcels ranging up to five pounds. The United States, however, still refuses to inter change any parcels, owing, it is said, to the influence of the private carrying interests. The number of letters, post-cards, book-packets, newspapers, parcels, etc., received in the Returned Letter Offices was 14,286,835, showing an increase of 850,178 on the number for the previous year. No fewer than 28,330 letters were posted without any address whatever, and 1390 of them contained cash, checks, and bills to the value of £8700. During the last five years the total number of unaddressed letters has never been less than 25,000, or more than 28,500,while the number containing value has been between 1390 and 1686. It is evident that there is a law governing even gross carelessness. About 58,000 loose postage stamps were found detached from let ters owing to the careless way in which they had been affixed. 142 THE QUAKER CITY PHILATELIST. The post-office has its usual string of odd incidents to relate, the prettiest story be ing that of a tomtit who builds her nest in a private letter-box by a farm gate. For two /ears she resented the intrusion of the letters, and pushed them out as fast as they were placed in the box. This year, however, she permitted them to remain, and suc cessfully hatched five young ones. As usual, articles of great variety have been discdvered in the undelivered corre spondence and parcels. One parcel contained a human skull, the crown of which had been sawed off; another, thirty green tree-frogs, all alive. Specimens of the ladies’ dress-improver and packets of made-up hair for ladies’ head-gear may be seen in the museum in which these various articles find a temporary resting-place. The composi tion of some articles at Christmas-time was peculiar. In one were two petticoats, a pair of stays, a leg of mutton, and a packet of tobacco. In another, a rabbit stuffed with two tobacco-pipes, tobacco, a doll, and a piece of bacon, the whole being wrap ped up in a lady’s jacket. In the parcels stopped in transit as contrary to regulation were found a cat, a squirrel, pigeons, lizards, dormice, snakes, a cuckoo, muskrats and moles, all alive, not to mention one or two other parcels containing dead dogs and cats. A very objectionable practice, and one likely to occasion risk and disappointment to the sender, is the growing habit of transmitting money in various articles sent by par cels post. Four sovereigns were found in a mass of crushed grapes, six in a packet of tobacco, and ios. mixed up with smashed eggs and butter. A native of India, residing in London, expressed a wish, in September, 1888, to send by parcels post to India, the ashes of his cremated brother, so he dropped into the Sacred Ganges, but was informed that, unless he could limit the weight of the parcel to eleven pounds, the post office could offer him no facilities. No further ap plication was received on the subject. A letter was received from Naples bearing for address a rough sketch of two pears with the word “ London” underneath and was promptly delivered to the soap-makers in New Oxford street, who acknowledged the accuracy with which the department had interpreted the intention of the writer. Foreign Revenue Stamp (Sollegting. BY PH. HEINSBERGER. ——---- — HE history of foreign revenue stamps is. an old one, and dates back to the year 1805, as far as fiscal authorities have ascertained. Great Britain has the honor T of having issued the first revenue stamp. Authentic proofs have been found, that in 1805 England had already revenue stamps, but it may be, before that time, revenues were used elsewhere. It has been, and still is, a difficult, troublesome and very expensive thing, to gather reliable information from all countries about their revenue stamps, date of issue, value and color. This result can be reached, not with money only, but by patience, true love for foreign revenues, and with the assistance of friends and of strangers in the fiscal service of all foreign countries, and the numerous readers of The Quaker CitY Philatelist. No American ever has made the trial ! Until our present day only one man has dared to undertake this gigantic job, to gather information about all revenue stamps. Not for the sake of money, but for the sake of our hobby—the love for revenues ! This true philatelist is an official in a European fiscal service, a German who hasspent ten years of his life, troublesome time, and many thousands of dollars of his own money. And for what? To gain in the interest of all revenue stamp collectors reliable information about all foreign revenue stamps. The love for his own collection of revenues brought him success, and after years of hard work, he was able to present to the philatelic world the first and only illustrated descriptive catalogue of the revenue stamps ofthe world, issued in the German language, but in English letters. Great was the joy of collectors of revenue stamps, as the THE QUAKER CITY PHILATELIST. 143 first edition of this valuable work was issued, and in our present time, this catalogue is in the hands of over 3000 collectors of foreign revenue stamps in all countries on the globe. I will mention here, that some French dealers have translated this German catalogue, and have issued a French edition of foreign revenue stamps. A collection of foreign revenue stamps, no matter how small, is beautiful. The size of a revenue stamp is large, and on account of this, the arms of the different countries, the heads of emperors, kings and princes, are more impressive for the eyes, and in short, the whole design of a revenue stamp is marvelously nice in itself. It is a fact that the revenue stamp has long been treated as an outcast, but year by year the number of fiscal lovers have increased. There are now issued revenue stamp papers in the German and in the French languages. Further there are issued descriptive price catalogues of the revenue stamps of single countries. Last, but not least, I desire to acknowledge the fact, that leading American and European postage stamp papers have, and still continue to chronicle, in their pages all new issues of the revenue stamps of all countries on earth. Postal and fiscal are two souls with but one thought; they are brother and sister, and the name of their mother is Philatelia. Both have the same rights, both have their supporters, but fiscal can and does claim antiquity ; nothing can put aside the right of fiscal.

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