Today’s card is a creepy card (does that statement make you think of The Minister’s Cat?).
In 1896, the Washington Post issued a warning about “postage stamp tongue” — a result of “The Deadly Stamp.” Readers were urged to avoid licking stamps as this led to sores on the tongue and, potentially, a sore throat. The WP was not the first periodical to print such a warning. Germ theory was fairly new, but news of it was spreading…eh-hem..like a virus.
The answer? “Sanitary Stamps.” Sanitary stamps were sold in sealed packets and did not have much contact with human hands or other nasty things previous to being in the possession of the consumer. To further reduce passing germs around, vending machines known as Silent Salesmen became popular.