I have recently acquired from New Zealand a collection of early philatelic journals. Amongst this acquisition was The Stamp Collector’s Magazine (February 1, 1871), published in London. The magazine published articles by such philatelic notables as Moëns, Ferrary and Edward Pemberton. We hope to publish some of these in the future.

This article, “The Philadelphia Postman”, is a particularly fascinating one as it gives an insight into postal workers lives and post office arrangements at the time. Useful postal rates are also included…

It reads, as follows:

In France the Postmen, when New Year’s Day is near at hand, give a little hint to their clients that the appropriate moment for bestowing étrennes has arrived, by leaving an almanack for the following year – said almanack having at the back, in small type, an epitome of the postal regulations. This almanack-card is got up in several styles, commencing with plain black and white printing, and a coloured paper edge, and rising to gilt edges and coloured lithographs, and those from whom the largest donations are expected get the richest cards.

The wise postmen of Philadelphia have, however, improved somewhat on the French idea, by issuing a little sixteen page pamphlet, containing much readable, and some valuable information. Title, the book has none, but on the coloured wrapper there appears a representation of a rather care-worn postman, with his U.M. bag under his arm, standing in a meditative attitude beside a lamp pillar-post, that is to say, a lamp-post, around which is attached, about half-way down, a letter box. The snow is falling fast around him, but does not prevent him from uttering the good wishes printed above and below the engraving – “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”

The book opens with a poetical address by Miss Laura L. Rees, dedicated to the Philadelphia letter carriers. It is rather serious reading, but it finishes up with a humorous stroke, of which Miss Laura L. Rees is conscious, and may be proud:

All honour, then, to those whose well-tried worth,
Though truly known, is passed so lightly by –
The messengers who bear the leaves of earth
O’er life’s dark waters the anxious eye.

The idea of comparing postmen to doves is new, but striking. If postmen should ever form a society or trades-union, they might take the hint, and adopt the gentle bird as their symbol.

After being addressed in verse by Miss Laura L. Rees, the letter carriers get analysed in prose by M. James Rees. Mr. Rees explains how it is the carrier system came to be introduced into postal operations, and shows that the object of the Postal system (capital letters) is to bring the whole country “under one great Postal Head” – an impressive and reverential way of alluding to the postmaster general. Mr. Rees is glad the United States cannot boast that its post-office yields a profit, for that very boast would be a reflection on its success: but a couple of sentences further on he expresses the belief that “the time is not far distant when it can be made a source of revenue” – if so, there will be reflections made in the shape of boasting.

Mr. Rees is evidently anxious to prove that just at present it is an advantage for the United States post-office department that there is an annual loss on its operations; but we fancy Mr.Cresswell would like to show a balance on the right side at the end of the year, and would care very little for reflections.

The letter-carriers of Philadelphia (by the way there are no “postmen” there) have a warm friend in Mr. Rees, who declares them to be, as no doubt they are, a very deserving class of men. He gives a number of directions to correspondents, whereby they may aid carriers, and also ensure prompt delivery of their letters, and plainly hints that if letters miscarry or are delayed, it is generally the writers who are to blame, and not the carriers.

There is another class of people with whose misdeeds the post-office often gets credited, and that is the class of “boxholder’s messengers.” As our readers are probably aware, the system of renting private letter-boxes at the post-office is carried on in America to a great extent. The carriers drop letters that arrive for the boxholder into his box, and the “boxholder’s messenger” comes and clears out the contents of the box. Their office is one of trust, and it is often abused. Scarcely a week passes without the detection of a boxholder’s messenger in purloining the letters of his employer. There is hardly a publishing house of importance in the city referred to which has not suffered in this way – the largest of them to the extent of thousands of dollars – through the honesty of three of its messengers, detected in succession.”

Following Mr. Rees’ address comes a list of Philadelphia postmasters, from which we learn the rather interesting fact that the first one was licensed by William Penn, in 1683. Fifty years later, Benjamin Franklin was nominated to the post, and remained in Philadelphia until he became the “postal Head” of the colonies. During the present century, no less than fifteen postmasters have men appointed to Philadelphia, and the present holder of the position is a military man – General Henry H. Bingham.

The pamphlet before us winds up with a post-office guide, giving a number of useful details with regard to postage, hours of mailing &c. From this we learn, among other things, that the two-cent stamps are used for pre-payment of letters address to places within the county of Philadelphia, and prepayment is obligatory.

The fees for money-orders are comparatively high, the lowest for international ones being thirty cents, which may be made up of ten cents in paper money, and twenty in gold; the lowest for “domestic” money orders (remittances from man to wife or father to son) is ten cents.

The post-office calls the special attention of the community to the government stamped envelopes, as being cheaper and affording greater security to correspondents than ordinary envelopes. Moreover, though the stamps may not be cut out of the envelopes and used separately, if any are spoilt in directing, they may be exchanged against adhesives in the office of the town where they were bought.

Letters are now delivered free at the recipient’s house, and a number of rules are given with respect to modes of addressing them; among other things it is requested that letters sent to strangers or visitors to a town, whose special address may be unknown, be marked “Transient” on the lower left-hand corner.

The arrangements for quarterly prepayment for newspapers are very liberal; dailies may thus be pre-paid at the rate of thirty-five cents per quarter, but any paper of which the quarterly postage has not been pre-paid is charge two cents; there is, therefore, a great encouragement given to the public to subscribe for at least a quarter to their paper.

Rates for foreign letters seem, on the whole, lower than ours. They average ten cents per half ounce; the highest rate is twenty-eight cents for letters to Buenos Ayres, Spain and Portugal, viâ England; the lowest rate is three cents (the same as the inland postage), to the Bahamas, and Nassau, New Providence.

We have now come to the end of the interior of the pamphlet before us. At the back of the wrapper we find a further instalment of poetry, an address containing a hint to which we imagine the readers would hardly fail to respond:

The letter carrier’s New Year’s call;
He’s waiting at the door;
How many times within the year,
You’ve met him there before?
You’ve learnt to know his footstep,
To listen for his ring,
And hasten eagerly to find
What tidings he will bring.

Though scorching be the summer’s heat,
Though wintry winds may roar,
He brings his treasures daily,
And leaves them at your door.
These letters, what a volume
Of smiles, and doubts, and fears;
Of hopes that quickly vanish,
Of joys that last for years!