Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/113

Rh on presentation of the letter, the Receiver instead of accepting the money as postage, might take it as the price of a cover, or band, in which the bringer might immediately inclose the letter, and then re-direct it. But the bringer would sometimes be unable to write. Perhaps this difficulty might be obviated by using a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash, which the bringer might, by applying a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter, so as to avoid the necessity for re-directing it. If the bringer should put the letter into the letter-box, there would be no resource but to send it to the dead letter office; but, if proper pains were taken to inform the public, and legibly to mark the letter-box, "For stamped Letters, Franks, and Newspapers only," such cases could seldom occur.

Probably, however, the preferable plan, in the first instance at least, would be to adopt a combination of the two modes, giving to the public an option, as regards packets not exceeding the half ounce, to use the stamp or pay the penny. If it were required that all packets exceeding the half ounce should be inclosed in stamped covers, (and the number being comparatively small, and their admission for the most part a novelty, no one could object to such an obligation,) the Receiver would have to account for penny letters only; and the index of the tell-tale stamp would at all times exhibit the exact amount of postage received: