%407.  Express Companies.%—­In 1839 a young man named W.F.  Harnden began to carry packages, bundles, money, and small boxes between New York and Boston, and thus started the express business.  At first he carried in a couple of carpet bags all the packages intrusted to him, and went by boat from New York to Stonington, Conn., and thence by rail to Boston.  But his business grew so rapidly that in 1840 a rival express was started by P. B. Burke and Alvin Adams.  Their route was from Boston to Springfield, Mass., and thence to New York.  This was the foundation of the present Adams Express Company.  Both companies were so well patronized that in 1841 service was extended to Philadelphia 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]