ONE-HALF A MILLION DOLLARS FOR POSTAGE.

Western Star, Issue 899, 22 November 1884, Page 2

ONE-HALF A MILLION DOLLARS FOR POSTAGE.

We have received from the publishers, George Stinson and Co., of Portland, Maine. U.S.A,, four proof copies of magnificent steel engravings, executed in London (England) under the direct personal auperintendance of Sir Henry Graves, the celebrated art publisher. They each measure 30 by 40 inches, and are admitted by connoiseurs to be, as specimens of the engraver’s art, unexcelled. The subjects are “ The Usurper, ’* “ A Beam of the Future,” “ The First Step,’* and “Nobody Axed You, Sir.” They,were carefully packed and arrived in excellent order. The published price for proof copies is quoted at 15 dollars (or say £3 sterling) each, but the ordinary copies will doubtless be much cheaper. The engravings are in course of being framed, and when completed they will be on view for a few days at this office. The company have also forwarded a packet of their Christmas, and other cards, in mats of assorted? qolorsw These are positively gems of the first water, and would excite admiration in the moit stolid mind. Judging by these tw,o specimens of Messrs Stinson and Co.’s productions their art publications as a whole must be of rare merit. It would pay any of ouf local business people to establish-an agency for these works. As evidence of the standing and amount of business done by" the company, we quote the following interesting particulars:— . ... George Stinson and Go., the celebrated Art Publishers, of Portland, Maine, undoubtedly pay more money for postage stamps than any other firm in the world; for the last five years their postage bill has averaged over two thousand dollars per week, making • grand aggregate of over fire hundred and twenty thousand dollars; this is about the three-hundredth part of all postage of every description collected by the United States Government during that time, and in thi« connection it must be home in mind’that the country now has over fifty million .souls and fifty thousand post offices. But the enormous sum paid for postage represents only the cost of sending the fight packages, lettdjrrf|and circulars, for large, heavy packages are sent by express and freight. Messrs Stinson and Co. publish every kind of pictures of the better class, and their trade now extends over the entire world. As an illustration that their trade reaches the uttermost parts of the earth, the following may be interesting: A short time ago an order for an assortment of over three thousand largo and expenaivs pictures was received from Tasmania, away down under the South Pole. Not many years ago Tasmania was a penal colony of England, and its population was entirely of convicts and their keepers. Since tho removal of the convicts it has become a thrifty colony; this place is so remote, that three months are required for an ; answer-tp a letter. Tons of high-class sent to South America by Messrs Stinson and Co., and West Africa sends to Portland for works of art: they have trade in every part of the globe where civilization has gained a foothold. Commencing at tha bottom, they have worked their way up to the top, step by step, and thereby, added to tho greatest push and enterprise, they have that solid, practical experience that is always necessary to tho best results, in all things. They carry in stock millions of pictures, and are at a moment’s notice ready to fill a five Dent order, or one for thousands of dollars ; they employ some five hundred artists, clerks, and workmen; their machinery and appointments are on a magnificent scale, and a trade of ton thousand dollars a day, on an average, is required to keep them moving in full blast. Their assortment of steel plates is especially fine, and ranks very high in artistic merit; many thousands of dollars aro spent on a single plate. They appreciate the value of printer’s ink, and know how to use it to tho best advantage; therefore they advertise largely and liberally in tho newspapers—newspaper advertising was an important factor in laying tho sound foundations of their great success, and without it, they state that it would have been utterly impossible for thorn to have reached their present position.

Stinson and Co. are a striking illustration of what can be accomplished by energy, industry, and good judgment. There is “ room at the top ” —all honor to those who fight their way up. This firm believes in standard goods and low prices, and on that principle their business is. American homes should be made beautiful by refined and meritorious works of art'; no one has any excuse for not adding to thtir homes the charms of pictures,-fog fine work* of high art are within the reach of all.