HARPER'S NEW CATALOGUE,

Thoroughly revised, classified, and indexed, will be sent by mail to any address on receipt of ten cents.

This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain many valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelman. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L.A.W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.

This week we give a map of the city of Chicago. It will be observed that all the streets of the city are not put down on the map, it being impossible, on a small scale, to include them. A sufficient number of the principal streets and avenues are given, however, to make it a simple matter for a wheelman to place himself anywhere in the city, and find the nearest route to asphalt, macadam, or wood-block pavement. The roads which are suitable for wheeling are so arranged in the city, as will be seen from the map, that it is possible to get to any part of it without having much disagreeable riding.

Starting from the Court-house and going north, the rider should cross the Chicago River and run out Dearborn Street, turning into Lincoln Park, and following the Lake Drive out through Evanston. This is not only the most picturesque ride in the city of Chicago, but it is the best method of getting out of the north of the city if you are on a trip by the Lake shore. By turning to the left off the Lake Drive a little more than half-way through Lincoln Park, crossing the park, and entering Fullerton Avenue, you will find good wood-block pavement. Running out to Milwaukee Avenue, and turning right into the latter, which is also block pavement, you are on the northwest exit from the city. To leave the city on the westward, cross the branch of the Chicago River, and run from the Court-house out Washington Boulevard—which is partly asphalt and partly macadam—pass through Garfield Park, and thence out of the city.

On the south from the Court-house and post-office is one of the famous runs in the vicinity of Chicago, or, as a matter of fact, in the middle West. This is a fifteen-mile run to Pullman City. It is a capital road all the way; it makes a good thirty-mile ride, and is one of the best roads for a road race that can be had. There have been several interesting experiments made on this route, such as military operations, soldiers mounted on bicycles, and carrying of despatches, and there are road races constantly being held. Leaving the Court-house, run to the corner of Jackson Street, and Michigan Avenue Boulevard over granite-block pavement, thence on Michigan Avenue Boulevard to the corner of Thirty-fifth Street, where you may either turn to the left on Thirty-fifth Street and run over to the Grand Boulevard, or keep straight on Michigan Avenue Boulevard to Garfield Boulevard, turning left into this and running into Washington Park. The former route is better on account of the fact that by this route the rider has the opportunity of passing through the entire length of Washington Park. On reaching the Midway in Washington Park, turn to the left, cross the park, and run eastward into Jackson Park, turning right into this, and thence proceed to the south of Stony Island Avenue, which is block pavement, and run by Hog Lake through South Chicago to Ninety-fifth Street. At this point turn sharp to the right into Ninety-fifth Street, turning soon again to the left, and running into Pullman City over a road of good rideable gravel. This is a run of fifteen miles, and for the entire distance the pavement and road-bed are not only good and kept in the best of condition, but some of the road is through parks and the rest through interesting scenery. At Pullman City you can get a good seventy-five-cent dinner, and the ride out and back, with the rest at Pullman, makes a capital wheelman's short tour.

Another possible ride in Chicago is to run north from the Court-house, through Lincoln Park, up the Lake Drive to Evanston; thence running back by the same route, but keeping to the right after passing through half Lincoln Park, running out Fullerton Avenue; thence turning left into Humboldt Boulevard, following this through Humboldt Park and on to Central Boulevard; thence turning left through Garfield Park, down West Jackson Street to Ashland Avenue; turning right into this, proceed to West Twelfth Street; thence by West Twelfth Street to Douglas Park, through the park and southward by California Avenue, crossing the south branch of the Chicago River, turning left into Thirty-first Street and running westward to Western Avenue Boulevard, turning right again into the latter and running to Garfield Boulevard at Tremont Ridge; thence by Garfield Boulevard to Washington Park, and so returning by Grand Avenue Boulevard and Michigan Avenue Boulevard to the Court-house, or running southward to Pullman City, as already described.

This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.

We Americans pride ourselves on our new inventions, and economical adaptation of systems and methods originated elsewhere. In postal matters we still have much to learn. For instance, twenty years ago Berlin introduced the pneumatic-tube system for the prompt delivery of local letters. In 1879 Paris adopted the same system, and London, Vienna, and other European cities followed suit. In London 60,000 letters are daily sent through the tubes.

Philadelphia has just been authorized by the P. O. Department to begin the work of constructing such a system at once. It is proposed to have a central pumping station at the new City Hall, from whence lines of pipes will radiate to every part of the city. The diameter of the tubes is to be eight inches, thus enabling packages of some size to be sent by this method. The capacity of the tubes is to be 50,000 letters per hour. When the system is completed Philadelphia will have the quickest local-mail delivery in the world. Probably the New York and Brooklyn post-offices will be connected by pneumatic tube in a few months, and the system is bound to expand rapidly. It would not be surprising to find Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington connected by tubes, enabling letters and parcels to be forwarded in as many hours as it now takes days. The telegraph companies will be seriously affected by the new system.

The operation is very simple. The letters are placed in a leather tube or carrier, which fits snugly into the pneumatic tube. Then a blast of air from behind, or the suction of air from the front, or a combination of the two methods, forces the carrier and its contents forward. As the friction soon wears out the leather carriers, American genius will be called upon to invent a metal carrier on "ball-bearings." With leather tubes about ninety per cent. of the power applied is lost in overcoming the friction and in waste, only ten per cent. of the total force applied being used to propel the carrier.

The charge for sending pneumatic letters in Paris was 15c. each in 1879, and the territory covered was but a small part of the city. To-day every part of Paris is reached by the tubes, and the charge is 10c. per letter, the same as our special delivery. Nine varieties of the Paris pneumatic letters are collected. Probably many of the readers of the Round Table have one or more of them. They bear a map of the city on the face of the envelope, showing the different sections served by this post. The Berlin and Vienna pneumatic letters are simpler in design. There are no special designs on the London envelopes.

The latest development in Plate No. collecting is the great advance in values of all the lower Nos. (say under No. 50) on water-marked paper, especially of the 1c. stamps. Probably not very many were printed, but the chances are that many of the smaller post-offices still have some on hand. One speculator in New York, who travels a great deal, makes it a point to look over the stock of stamps on hand in every one of the smaller post-offices whenever he gets permission. He has bought a very large number, and the U. S. Post-Office Department is just so much nearer a paying basis, as these stamps never get used in the way of paying postage.

At the last annual dinner of the London Philatelic Society, Mr. Castle in a very humorous speech divided the purchasers of stamps into four classes—bird, beasts, fishes, and reptiles. The birds were those who collected stamps for the gratification of a hobby; the fishes were those who watched the market and picked up bargains to sell them thereafter at an advance; the beasts were, of course, the dealers who preyed on birds and fishes to the best of their ability, and the reptiles were the speculators who cornered everything they could find, and locked them up while awaiting a rise of prices, and thereby prevented many collectors completing their collections.

C. H. Osmond, St. Clair, Dunedin, New Zealand, wishes to exchange stamps.

J. O. Hall.—The 1861 pink is so scarce that I have known a dealer to let his boy look over two million of the 1861-7 3c. stamps without finding a single copy. The ordinary rose-color comes in a multitude of shades.

A. Allen.—"Silk threads" means a stamp printed on paper in which a silk thread is embedded. The first stamps printed on this kind of paper were the Great-Britain 10d. brown and 1s. green of 1847. The paper is sometimes called "Dickinson" paper, from its maker. Bavaria 1849-1868, Würtemberg 1857, Switzerland 1854-1862, are also printed on this paper. Specialists in Switzerland stamps collect the different sets on green, black, blue, yellow, white, purple, and red threads. Other advanced collectors usually pay no attention to the color of the thread. "Silk paper" in U. S. stamps means a paper in which a lot of short fine filaments of silk have been embedded when the paper was still in a pulpy condition. Usually found on some of the U.S. Revenues.

J. Cooper.—Yes. The Cuban stamps now offered in packages at such low prices are genuine. It seems the Cuban government kept all remainders for nearly twenty-five years, and have sold out the entire lot of many millions to stamp-dealers.

John G. Saxe.—The 5-rouble gold piece is worth full face value. Any money-broker will give you the full value, less a small charge for exchange.

C. B. N.—The present 5c. U.S. stamp is found in two conditions: 1. From a new plate, very carefully printed; this shows a faint line at the edge of the background on which the portrait is engraved; this line is made by the engraver as a guide. 2. The ordinary stamp, which does not show the line, or simply traces of it. This refinement in varieties does not meet with the approval of philatelists in general.

Yreka.—There are many minor varieties of U. S. Revenues in colors (shades), papers, etc. They are worth keeping if you are making up a big collection.

Ned C.—The 1803 cent can be bought of dealers at 10c. each; the 1820 dime for 50c. The French coin; no value. The Prussian coin has no value in this country.

Cecil Rawson.—Your British Guiana stamp, from your description, is the ordinary 1c. green, worth 5c.

E. Stebbins.—The U. S. 24c. 1861 is very common. All the other U. S. 24c. are comparatively scarce.

W. L. McKinnon.—Your coin is a 3 skilling Norway. No value in this country.

G. H. Clark.—The stamps are the so-called "Dominical" or "Sabbath" stamps issued in Belgium two years ago. On the Continent of Europe it is customary to deliver letters on Sunday. Some years ago a large number of Belgic citizens petitioned the government to forbid the delivery of letters on Sunday, or at least to make it optional on the part of the sender. As a result all stamps were issued in the following form: The lower part of the stamp bears the instruction, in the French and Flemish languages, "Do not deliver on Sunday." If the sender wishes the letter delivered on Sunday he tears off this part of the stamp.

G. H. C.—The word "Julia" in small letters on the bust of portrait on some of the Spanish stamps is the name of the engraver. Funchal is the capital of the Island of Madeira, with its special series of Portuguese colonial stamps. "Continente" is the main land of Portugal. New Brunswick never issued any stamped envelopes.

Philatus.