Questions and Answers.
Irving R. Kenyon asks what paper should be used and what rules should be followed by persons submitting manuscripts to editors. It is not a matter of paper or rules that determines the value of poetry or prose articles. True, there are a few rules, but they are those dictated by convenience chiefly. For instance, write on one side of the paper only. Do not roll manuscripts. Fold them. Use common letter-paper, any convenient size. Write plainly, punctuate according to your judgment, and insert paragraphs where needed. If you can do so, have your manuscript typewritten. This is not a condition to its acceptance; merely a more easily read form for it. Put your name and full address at the top of the first sheet. A long letter to the editor is unnecessary. You can say that the manuscript is submitted at the publisher's regular rates, if you wish. These rates vary from ½ to 3 cents per word, with perhaps 1 cent per word as the average. Newspapers pay by the column, but rarely more than 1/8 cent per word. Anything beyond these simple rules is needless. Whether or not your production is accepted depends on many conditions: Its merit; its suitability to the publication to which you send it; the supply of such matter which the editor has already in hand, etc.
Archibald R. Smith asks if there is a national flower, and if there is none, which is the favorite American flower? There is no national flower, and no pronouncedly favorite one. Efforts are always making to have a flower selected as the national one, but they meet with indifferent success. Everybody seems busy, and there is no authority competent to decide, save, perhaps, Congress, and that is busier than the rest of us. The golden-rod and the rose have, we believe, their partisans. Harry R. Harbeck, 183 Elm Street, Albany. N. Y., is interested in photography, and wants to hear from others who have amateur photographs of interesting spots near their homes. He has many good Albany views. Edward C. Wood, 156 School Lane, Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa., is well posted on the medals and souvenirs prepared to sell to visitors to the United States Mint in his city, and kindly offers to procure for members any of them at actual cost. There are fac-similes of the Liberty Bell and medals bearing the Lord's Prayer.
Forest Gaines, 703 North State Street, Champaign, Ill., wants to buy Nos. 644 and 655, March 1 and May 17, 1892, Harper's Young People. T. J. Pleavin, 61 Bland Street, Alexandra Park, Manchester, England, wants to hear from members describing their home scenery, industries, and interests, and he promises to reply in the same line. E. Raymond Jefferis is informed that the Table has at present no badges in stock. If new ones are in hand in future, due notice will be given on this page. David Blondheim says he has read Recreations in Botany, recommended in the "Handy Book," and now asks for definitions of genus, family, species, and classes. Genus is a group, having so many points of structure in common that they receive a common name. A genus may not be the lowest group, for all the species of oak may form a single genus only. In the animal kingdom the lion, tiger, and leopard species form a single genus, namely, the cat. A family is a group of organisms, more comprehensive than the genus, because based on fewer points of likeness. A species is an ideal or single group that proceeds from a single ancestor, and reproduces itself in readily identified forms, as the dog, the rose. Classes are general divisions of things having general points in common, but capable of being subdivided into species, genus, and families. Suppose you write to the author, in care of the publishers, suggesting definitions of these terms in future editions.
The centre of population of the earth is asked for. It would be impossible, we think, to determine such a point. Carrie Brush, Chelsea, Iowa, is interested in natural history, and wants specimens and correspondents. Harry J. Blunt asks again that question about entering the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Apply to your member of Congress. Only one cadet is allowed from each Congressional district at one time. There is no expense attached. Each cadet receives a salary equal to his board, tuition, and uniforms. Edith F. Morris is secretary of the New York Stamp Exchange, which issues comprehensive rules. If you want these rules, enclose a stamp to her at 95 Third Avenue, New York.
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.
One of the leading English philatelic journals says, "Some day we may be able to publish a list of postmaster dealers" (those who make or cause to be made new surcharges, etc.). Such a list would be most instructive. It would explain much, and open the eyes of many collectors to what is going on in certain quarters.
Of the rare wood-block Cape of Good Hope errors it has been definitely ascertained that only 201 of the 1d. error and 386 of the 4d. error were printed. Each sheet contained 64 stamps, and only one stamp on each of the 587 sheets was an error. It is wonderful that any copies should have survived.
One of the Boston papers claims that the P.O. clerk who sold the first U. S. stamp in 1847 and the first U. S. envelope in 1853 is alive, and in the Boston Post-office to-day. His name is James Lafitte Smith, seventy-nine years of age, and he has been in the service of the U. S. Post-office Department for more than fifty years.
The movement to encourage collecting "straight" issues of stamps and to disregard minute varieties is gaining ground. One dealer in New York printed a catalogue omitting different perforations, etc., etc., and his album corresponds with the catalogue. Now another of the large dealers has sent out circulars notifying customers of a catalogue and an album on the same lines. It is a step in the right direction. Let the millionaires—and there are many of them—who are stamp-collectors, make up albums showing different perforations, inverted water-marks, double impressions, etc. They have the time and the money necessary. But ordinary collectors of moderate means are not wise in trying to follow them. The whole tendency hitherto has been to force the money values of stamps into prominence, and naturally this has attracted the attention of speculators. The pleasure in collecting stamps has been lost sight of. I hope the corner has been turned.
Harry T. Lees.—Send your address to the stamp editor.
G. Tarletan.—Before postage-stamps and stamped envelopes were used it was the custom to collect the postage from the receivers of the letters. The postage was charged according to weight and distance. For instance, I have a number of letters sent from Illinois to New York, on which the postage was $1.87½ each. The same letter could now be sent for 4c. In the few cases (comparatively) where the postage was prepaid the postmaster either wrote the word "Paid," or else printed on the letter "Paid 5c." (10c., 25c., etc.). As such letters are neither stamped envelopes nor do they bear adhesive stamps, they are not collected by philatelists. Consequently they have no value.
Wurtemberg.—You say you have a "complete" set of unused Wurtemberg stamps. If you mean a set from 1851 to date, you have a fortune in your grasp. Some of the earlier issues, used, sell for 5c. or 10c. each, but unused they are worth $50 or $100 each.
Philatus.
The frequent use of a good soap like the Ivory will purify the complexion as no cosmetic can.
The Procter & Gamble Co., Cin'ti.
Second-hand printing-presses. All sizes and makes. Catalogue free. F. L. Garbutt, Garbutt, N.Y.