Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1898 — HOW THEY ORIGINATED. [ARTICLE]

HOW THEY ORIGINATED.

The Story of the First Use of Postage Stamps. —-x. Sir Rowland Hill, the great English postal reformer, was at one time a schoolmaster. After he had taught for a number of years his health gave way, and finding a change necessary he decided to travel. While traveling in the north of England, In 1834, he stopped one morning at an inn, just as a postman came to deliver a letter. The letter was for the inn keeper’s young daughter. She took it from the postman, carefully examined it ou both sides, and then asked the amount of postage due. “One shilling,” the postman answered. The girl at once handed him the unopened letter and said: “I am sorry I cannot receive the letter, for it is from my brother, but I have not the money to pay so much postage.” Mr. Hill overheard the conversation between the postman and the girl, and he paid the postage. The girl blushed, and seemed greatly confused when the letter was again given to her; and as soon as the postman had gone she told Mr, HUI that the letter was merely a trick between herself and her brother. Certain marks on the wrapper told her all she wished to know, and the paper inside contained no wrtlng. “We are too poor to pay so much postage,” she further explained, “and so devised this method of corresponding.” This incident gave Sir Rowland Hill "something to think about,” and he kept thinking until postal reform became the object of his Hfe. He was thoroughly convinced that a postal system that caused even the boys and girls of the land to resort to trickery and deception must indeed be a very harmful one. He entered the British civil service in 1835, and in 1837 brought forward in pamphlet form “a plan for uniform penny postage.” His plan was much opposed, but he labored fiathfully, untiringly, and at last convinced the Hone of Commons that the penny postage system would enrich the Government, and be a real blessing to all of the Queen’s subjects. Accordingly, in 1840, it was decided that letters weighing not more than half an ounce should be sent for a penny; and penny postage stamps, bearing an image of the Queen’s head, were or* dered to be used. In 1845 the penny postage system was adopted in America.—Philadelphia Times.