Looking Back #124 - Spanish-American War Patriotics

Spanish-American War Patriotics

There are many patriotic covers seen in the mails today,
there were many in Civil War days, and there were some
during the Spanish-American incident, and these are
the scarcest.

Frank A. Hollowbush has shown me two interesting
examples used by an infantryman in Manila, 1900-1901.

In December, 1900, he sketched out his own stamps,
"F. Wetherington's United States Postage, Two Cents,"
but took the precaution of adding, alongside it, a 2¢
Philippine stamp of the accepted issue, to his envelope,
and it went home to his mother in Kentucky, without
further ado.

But in January, 1901, in his next letter, he endorsed
his envelope, "Soldier's Letter, No got Stamp." This
time the Paducah postmaster supplied one, a 2c
Postage Due, and presumably collected the fee.

- George B. Sloane
Sloane's Column
Stamps
August 15, 1942