Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1894 — Mr, Bissell Irate. [ARTICLE]

Mr, Bissell Irate.

Washington-Star. — y" - " The Postmaster-General is irate. He wants to know who wrote it. About a week ago a correspondent of a Western paper sent out a story to the effect that the Postoffice Department had decided to furnish a proof of each of the stamps issued by the department upon application for the same. This item touched a responsive chord in the breast of the great American public. and was widely copied. The applications have begun to come in. Several hundred have come in each mail for the pastfive days and the number is increasing. There is a deluge of this kind of mail matter, and to-save the department from being swamped, Post-master-General Bissell has been compelled to order printed a circular setting forth that the department is not distributing proofs of stamps, and has also been compelled to transfer some of the clerical force of the department from legitimate work to the work of sending these circulars to the stamp applicants. The affair is regarded as a practical joke on the department, but Gen. Bissell didn’t regard it in that way when he said to a Star man: “I’d give a week’s salary to know who wrote it.”