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envelopes the Ingoldsby Legends contained the followingditty: "The manager rings,And the prompter springsTo his side in a jiffy, and with him he bringsA set of those odd-looking envelope things,Where Britannia (who seems to be crucified) flingsTo her right and her left funny people with wingsAmongst Elephants, Quakers, and Catabaw Kings;And a taper and wax,And small Queen's heads, in packs,Which, when notes are too big, you're to stick on their backs." The "Queen's heads," of course, were the adhesivestamps. This furor and ridicule might well have ruined Row-land Hill's whole idea and, in fact, did result in thewithdrawing of the Mulready Envelope. But the need fora better postal system was so pressing, and Hill's planof universal postage proved so completely to satisfy thedemand, that the stamp idea stuck and became the basisof every postal system of the world today. For a fewcents, or whatever the rate may be, anyone in any civil-ized country in the world may send a letter a few cityblocks or many thousands of miles. |
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