Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1885 — History of Letter Postage. [ARTICLE]

History of Letter Postage.

It will probably surprise some of our readers to be told that it is only since 1863 that the postage rate on letters in the United States has been uniform for all distances. The first postage law, that of 1732, fixed the rates according to distance, and according to the number of pieces of paper. A “single letter” was one piece of paper. Envelopes were wholly unknown. The sheet of paper was folded and the address written on the back of it. For a single letter sent a distance of thirty miles or less, the rate was 6 cents. This rate was increased to 8 cents for distances of sixty miles or less; to 10 cents,for 100 miles or less, and so on.

For every single letter sent over 450 miles, the rate was 25 cents. The distance from New York to Buffalo by the Central Bail road is only eight miles short of that distance and the postage on a letter between the two cities would have been 22 cents.

The system was continued with unimportant changes, which increased rather than reduced postage, until the year 1845, when a part of the present system came into use. A letter which weighed less than one-half ounce was to be deemed a single letter. .The postage was made uniform at 5 cents for distances under 300 miles, and 10 cents for all greater distances. In 18 1 prepaid single letters were charged with 3 cents postage, and lettere on which the receiver paid the

postage, with 5 emits, for all distances under 3,000 miles; double rates for greater distances—which referred only to letters sent to and from California. In 1865 prepayment of postage was made compulsory, and the rate was fixed at 3 cents for lese than 3,000, and 10 cents for all over 3,000 miles. Finally, in 1863, the uniform rate of 3 cents was fixed.— Youth's Companion. Mu E. R. Hoyt, a mechanical engineer at the New Orleans Exposition, was severely injured by a huge derrick pole falling on his foot. He was conveyed to his residence, and, after only three applications of St. Jacobs Oil, all tin swelling and pain disappeared, and he resumed his duties.