delphia and Albany,
and in 1844 to Baltimore and Washington. Their example was quickly
followed by a host of imitators, and soon a dozen express companies were
doing business between the great cities.

%408. Postage Stamps introduced.%--At that time (1840) three cents
was the postage for a local letter which was not delivered by a carrier.
Indeed, there were no letter carriers, and this in large cities was such
an inconvenience that private dispatch companies undertook to deliver
letters about the city for two cents each; and to accommodate their
customers they issued adhesive stamps, which, placed on the letters,
insured their delivery. The loss of business to the government caused by
these companies, and the general demand for quicker and cheaper mail
service, forced Congress to revise the postal laws in 1845, when an
attempt was made to introduce the use of postage stamps by the
government. As the mails (in consequence of the growth of the country
and the easy means of transportation) were becoming very heavy, the
postmasters in the cities and important towns had already begun to have
stamps printed at their own cost. Their purpose was to save time, for
letter postage was frequently (but not always) prepaid. But instead of
fixing a stamp on the envelope (there was no such thing in 1840), the
writer sent the letter to the post office and paid the postage in money,
whereupon the postmaster stamped the letter "Paid." This consumed the
time of the postmaster and the letter writer. But when he could go once
to the post office and prepay a hundred letters by buying a hundred
stamps, any one of which affixed to a letter was evidence that its
postage had been paid, any man who wanted to could save his time. These
stamps the postmasters sold at a little more than the expense of
printing. Thus the postmasters of New York and St. Louis charged one
dollar for nine ten-cent or eighteen five-cent stamps. This increased
the price of postage a trifle: but as the use of the stamps was
optional, the burden fell on those willing to bear it, while the
convenience was so great that the effort made to have the Post-office
Department furnish the stamps and require the people to use them
succeeded in 1847.

[Illustration: St. Louis postage stamp]

%409. Mechanical Improvements.%--No American need be told that his
fellow-countrymen are the most ingenious people the world has ever
known. But we do not always remember that it was during thi