The Democratic Press

Every United States postage stamp in use is made in New York. This contract was held by the American Bank-note Company - from July 1, was for three terms of four years each. The Continental Bank-note Company at that time offering to do it for one-half the amount required by the other company, the contract was awarded to them. The office of the Continental- at is at the corner of Greenwich and Liberty streets, but as it was desirable to have the postage stamps made in the Equitable Life-Insurance Building, on the corner of Broadway and Cedar street, was rented by the company for that purpose.

The office here is for the use of Mr. Daniel M. Raval, the government inspector of the company. The facts given in regard quite making the postage stamps obtained by your correspondent from Mr. Henry Bond, Mr. Bond's assistant.

From them, the only entrance to the post-stamp rooms is through a small door which is constantly kept locked and guarded by a janitor who always sits just inside to answer the bell, which is on the outside on the right hand side of the office and printing rooms to the left, at the front of the building, are the other rooms used in making the stamps.

In printing steel plates are used, on which stamps are imprinted - as many as are kept hard at work covering them with the colored inks and passing them to a man and a girl, who are equally busy printing them with large rolling hand-presses. Three or these little squads are employed all the time, although ten presses can be put into use in case of necessity. After the small sheets of paper on which the 200 stamps are printed have dried sufficiently they are sent into another room and gummed. The gum used for this purpose is a peculiar, composition, made of the powder of dried potatoes and other vegetables mixed with water, which is better than any other kind, for instance, gum arabic, which cracks the paper badly. This paper is also of a peculiar texture, somewhat similar to that used for bank notes. After having been again dried, this time on little racks, which are fanned by steam-power for about an hour, they are put between sheets of pasteboard and pressed in hydraulic presses, capable of applying a weight of 200 tons. The next thing is to cut the sheets in half; each sheet, of course, when cut, contains a hundred stamps. This is done by a girl with a large pair of shears, cutting by hand being preferred to that of machinery, which method would destroy too many stamps. They are then passed to two other girls, who, in as many operations, perforate the sheets between the stamps. Next they are pressed once more, and then packed and labeled and stowed away in another room preparatory to being put in mail bags for dispatching to fulfill orders. If a single stamp is torn or in any way mutilated the whole sheet of 100 is burned. About 500,000 are burned every week from this cause. For the past twenty years not a single sheet has been lost, such care is taken in counting them. During the process of manufacturing the sheets are counted eleven times.

There are 36,000 post offices throughout the country and they use in the course of one year 700,000,000 postage stamps. A week or two since 64,000,000 and 57,000,000 unfinished stamps were put into the safes. The New York Post Office alone uses 140,000,000 a year, somewhat over one-sixth of the whole number used, or equal to the amount required by 6,000 other offices. Four times a year the different post offices send an order for the number of stamps they expect to have occasion to use during the coming three months.

Of course, if they run out during that time, they are at liberty to send for more. The office here in New York is supplied differently. Twice a month an order is sent for about 500,000 of various denominations. Three cent stamps are, of course, in much greater demand than those of any other denomination. In answer to the orders the stamps are made and sent to the offices, and there counted immediately in the presence of a witness. An accompanying blank receipt is filled up and sent to the Third Assistant Postmaster at Washington, who has charge of this branch of the Post Office Department. - Philadelphia Age.