Posters

3804

Post Office

ings depository offices, ami ertTiled a board
of trustees, consistina of the Postmaster Gen-
eral, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the
Attorney General, with power to designate
such post office* a» they might select to be
depository offices, anil to ha\'e supervision
and control of the same. The Act provides
that any person of the age of ten years or
over may, in his or her own name, open an
account in any postal savings bank deposi-
tory; but no person can have more than one
account in his or her own right. Accounts
may be opened by the deposit of a dollar or
a larger sum in multiples of a dollar, or by
purchasing a postal savings card for 10 cents
and affixing thereto, at convenience, nine
specially prepared postal savings stamps
costing 10 cents each. In 1941 there wci\
about 3,000,000 depositors.

Posters, advertising sheets of considerable
size, usually printed and often illustrated,
and bearing large letters so that when posted
on a wall, or any similar spot, they may easily
be read. Poster work in the United States
had its origin in the old circus and theatrical
show bills printed from wooden blocks. The
use of the lithographic stone was introduced
in the early 'So's, but it was not until after
1890 that modern poster work took its rise
in this country with the development of such
poster artists as Maxfield Parrish, Louis
Rhead, Will H. Bradley, Edward Penfleld,
Ethel Reed, J, C. Lcyendeckcr, Will H. Low,
George Wharton Edwards, and others. Post-
ers are not now as noticeable in the United
States as they were some years ago; but the
poster character of design is introduced far
more extensively in advertising and cover
reproduction, even entering the field of il-
lustration.

Post Impressionism, a name given to the
art development following Impressionism and
representing not a continuation but a reaction
from the former movement. It combats the
attitude that art is a matter of imitation, and
holds rather that its chief concern is creation;
that its aim, as has been said, is 'not at illusion,
but at reality/ Among the acknowledged
leaders of the movement arc Cezanne, former-
ly associated with the Impressionists, Gauguin
Van Gogh, and Matisse. Of the various mani-
festations of Post Impressionism the two
which have attracted the greatest attention are
Cubism and Futurism.

Post Mortem, or Autopsy, an examina-
tion after death to ascertain the condition o;
the various parts of the body, to note any
changes in the organs, and to determine

is far as possible, the cause of such changes.

Post Office, a government service designed
primarily for the despatch of written com-
munications, but comprising in modern times
i number of other services, as tiie transmis-
-ion of merchandise and of printed matter,
>ostal savings banks, the issue of money or-
lers, and in some countries telegraph and tele-
phone facilities. In America the first step in
the establishment of a postal system was the
appointment by the General Court of Massa-
chusetts, in 1630, of an official to take charge
of the delivery of letters.

Under the Constitution, a postal service was
authorized by Congress in 1780, and Samuel
Osgood became the first Postmaster-General
of the new station, the office being subordinate
to the Treasury Department. Seventy-live lo-
cal post offices were in existence at that time,
and the mails were carried on 1,87$ miles of
road at an annual cost of less than $25,000. In

.56 the postal service was reorganized on its
present financial basis. In 1847 the use of
postage stamps was officially authorized; and
in the same year the first postal treaty with
a foreign government was concluded with
Bremen, then an autonomous German state.

On the basis of receipts, post offices are di-
vided into four classes, as follows: first class
offices, with gross receipts exceeding $40,000
per annum; second class, with receipts from
$8,000 to $40,000; third class, from $1,500 to
$8,000; and fourth class, less than $1,500.
Postmasters in the first three classes are ap-
pointed by the President with the advice and
consent of the Senate. Fourth class postmast-
ers arc appointed by the Postmaster-General,
those receiving annual compensation of $500
or over being appointed after competitive ex-
amination, and the others on the recommenda-
tion of the post oftkc inspectors after personal
investigation. Clerks and letter carriers in
places where free delivery exists, assistant
postmasters at first and second class offices,
and all clerical positions at the same offices
arc subject to civil service rules-

Railway Mail Service.—Mail xvas first car-
ried by rail in 1834, but the railway mail serv-
ice, providing facilities for the separation and
distribution of mail on the cars while inmotion,
dates from 1864, when George B. Armstrong
of Chicago opened the first railway post of-
fice in the United States on the Chicago and
Northwestern Railway, from Chicago to Clin-
ton, la. The experiment proving successful,
the system was rapidly extended to other lines,
and in 1875 the fast mail service was inaugu-
rated. Air Mail.—A daily transcontinental air