[193] Most of our readers will have heard or read stories of curious articles passing through the post, and without doubt the records of the Returned-Letter Branch of the London Office will present strange appearances in this respect. Sir Francis B. Head, who was permitted to peruse an extraordinary ledger in the General Post-Office where several notable letters and packets were registered, has strung together a catalogue of them, which reminds us of the articles passing through the post before the revocation of the franking privilege. He tells us he found amongst the number--two canaries; a pork-pie from Devonport to London; a pair of piebald mice, which were kept at the office a month, and duly fed till they were called for by the owner; two rabbits; plum-pudding; leeches in bladders, "several of which having burst, many of the poor creatures were found crawling over the correspondence of the country." Further, there was a bottle of cream from Devonshire; a pottle of strawberries; a sample bottle of cider; half a pound of soft soap wrapped in thin paper; a roast duck; a pistol, _loaded almost to the mouth with slugs and ball_; a live snake; a paper of fish-hooks; fish innumerable; and last of all, and most extraordinary of all, a human heart and stomach.--_Head's Essays._ [194] The annual return just published (February, 1864) shows to some extent how far the public prefers the stamped newspaper, which can be sent through the Post-Office, in fact, until it is fifteen days old. The number of stamps issued to the principal London newspapers from June, 1862, to June, 1863, are as follows:-- _Times_, 2,782,206; _Express_, 261,038; _Morning Post_, 260,000; _Daily News_, 124,888; _Morning Herald_, 103,256; _Globe_, 140,000; _Shipping Gazette_, 261,000; _Evening Standard_, 80,020; _Evening Star_, 75,000; _Evening Mail_ (thrice a week), took 345,000; _St. James's Chronicle_, 89,000; _Record_, 423,500; _The Guardian_ (weekly), 219,300; _The Illustrated London News_, 1,136,062; _Punch_, 129,500. Eleven English country newspapers took 100,000 each, the principal being the _Sussex Express_, 336,000, and the _Stamford Mercury_, 334,276. Thirty country newspapers bought more than 50,000 stamps.