A Fine Stamp Collection

Selected

The exhibit made by the Postoffice Department at the Pan-American Exposition abounds with interest for all classes of visitors to the big show. The display is much more complete than any the department has ever before made, not excepting that at the World's Fair at Chicago. In this exhibit is a collection of all the postage stamps ever issued by the government. This collection is valued at $5,000, and it is the first time the government has made other than a partial exhibit of original stamps. There is also a very complete collection of confederate state stamps.

The most attractive part of the display is a collection of oil and water color landscapes through which the mail trains of the United States government pass, as well as marine views seen from the great ocean mail carrying steamships. This includes some of the finest scenery in the world.

The United States director of the post in Cuba and the directors in Porto Rico and Hawaii were desired to make a thorough collection of old stamps and the machinery for carrying the mails in these islands. The result is such a collection as was never before seen at any exposition on this or any other continent.

The equipment division of the Postoffice Department is represented by models of uniformed mail carriers of the United States and other countries, fully equipped with the insignia of the service of their respective governments. A model of the United States auxiliary cruiser, Yale, formerly the trans-Atlantic mail steamer City of Paris, and recently bought by this government, a model of the Mississippi mail steamer St. Louis; a model of the Florida River mail steamboat Ocklawaha; a model of the steamship Southerner, the first steam vessel to carry the mail across the ocean; a model of a United States postoffice car, completely furnished, one sixth the size of the regulation 60-foot car; two models of the ordinary mail cars; three models of German mail coaches and carts; an old western mail and passenger coach, in use for many years in carrying the mail between Helena and Bozeman in Montana, in which such distinguished passengers as Presidents Garfield and Arthur and General Sherman have traveled; a figure of an Indian mail carrier with toboggan, drawn by three dogs hitched tandem, typical of the service as it now exists in the snow-clad regions of the northern border states; a mounted mail rider; a large collection of United States and foreign mail bags and pouches; a collection of postmarking stamps and mail locks in use in this and other countries.

In the collection prepared to represent the dead letter division are articles which have been sent through the mails and forwarded to the dead letter office because illegibly addressed or prohibited by postal laws. In it are included explosive bombs, deadly weapons, tarantulas and rattlesnakes sent alive, and poisonous liquids and compounds. Other articles are letters written on collars, cuffs, and boards; children's toys, Indian scalps, skulls, stuffed birds, jewelry, etc.—Selected.

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