POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS. 304 POSTER. Year adopted Pate of statistiCB Number of banks Xumber of depositors Total deposits Maximum iiidiviilual account Maximum deposit any one year Rate of interest 1S61 M65 1876 1881 1900 1899 1900 1900 "987 5,143 7,697 6.987 4,205 3.958 "847 6,479 450 £122,365,193 £5,126,299 £8,058,153 608,440.774 tr. 682,n<J0.0UOIire 1,010,263.193 tr, .S4.0SI7 g. 180.0111,618 a. 32,674 cr. 69,934.1.56 kr. $152,861 $320.UU0.U(J0 S37,.5U7,456 200 60 2.5 1,642,678 3,993,340 3,564,464 829,131 1,527,265 389,083 556,544 31,204 3,172,868 150,987 1.565,498 785,729 • « 1,500 fr. 1.000 fl. • • • 1,000 rub. $3,000 60,000 fr. 1,000 lire 3 3.25 3 2.64 3 1886 1884 1886 1889 1868 18(35 1899 1889 1900 1898 1899 1900 3.6 3.61 1,000 M. 3 Russia , $1,000 3 96,464,466 rup.
- Unlimited. The above table is compiled from statistics in the Statesman's Year Book (1902), and from figures
given by Hamilton and Wanamaker. Consult: Wanamaker. Postal (facings /?«»/,. v (Wasliington, 1801); United States Post-Office Department, Annual Report (Washington, 1892) ; Hamilton, Savings and Savings Institutions ('Sev: York, 1902). POSTEL, po'stel', Guillaume (1.510-81). A French philologist and mystic, born in Dolerie, Normandy. He was poor and without patronage for many years, but by constant study he became versed in Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic. Francis I. sent him to Constantinople to buy Oriental manuscripts, and on his return to France (1539) appointed him to a chair in the College de France. But the idea of converting the world had taken possession of him and through the re- mainder of his life gave him little rest. His vagaries increased and he became disciple to an old Italian mystic, whom he calls 'Mother Jeanne' and whose spiritual dominion he prophesies. Professor in Vienna for a time, he then wandered through Italy, being repeatedly imprisoned by the Inquisition, and on his coming back to France was shut up in the Monastery of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. Postel brought to France many valuable manuscripts, and in 1.5.5.5 published tlie first edition of the Syriac Xew Testament. His De la republique (les Tares (1540; revised 1560) has some historical value. Consult Weill, De Postelli Vita et Indole (Paris, 1892). POSTER. A sign, usually pictorial, intended to be aflixed to a wall or board to convey some public announcement. The use of such signs is probably as old as civilization itself; but with the printing-press came in a class of signs more or less answering to the specific modern use of the word poster. In Paris in the seventeenth cen- tury, posters printed on colored paper of one tone, such as yellow for the Opera House, green for the Comedie Frangaise, and red for the Com- €die Italicnne. were generally used. The cus- tom is continued in Paris of the nineteenth century, where white paper is reserved for gov- ernmental posters, and even the great national educational establishments have to use another color, generally yellow. In Italy the play bills ■were more descriptive, and in the eighteenth cen- tury they were often ornamented with cuts, show- ing scenes and characters in the Opera. As early as 183B in France Lalance made a poster for the book Comment meurent les femmes, and Raffet, Grandville, C. Nanteuil. Gavarni, Gigous. Vernet. Daumier, Tony Johannot, Fr&re, and Edouard ilanet designed 'affiches' or posters, but not in colors. The modern poster was the invention of Jules Cheret. He commenced his long series of lithographs in color in 1801), and since then the art of poster designing has reached a high devel- opment. In France it has maintained a high standard, and the work of Cheret himself is notably clever and audacious. By the use of few colors in strong contrast, he produce<l the most fantastic pictorial effects. His subjects are ballet girls, clowns, or children, and his spon- taneity, his engaging gaiety, and the aptness of his detail make him without an equal in Ids restricted domain. Less suggestive, less conquer- ing in color, but more decorative if more subdued, is the work of Eug&ne Grasset (1850 — ). An- other more original poster maker is the often harshly realistic Toulouse-Lautrec, a powerful draughtsman. The poster has kept pace with the impressionistic, the symbolistic, the realistic, and the romantic movements in literature and art. Willette, Forain, Guillaume, Auriol, Ibels, Stein- len, Mucha, Revi&re. Boutet de Monvel, and Schwaebe, are only a few names among the many poster designers who have worked in one or more of these styles. Another interesting phase of the poster is seen in those designs which serve also for book-covers; the whole design, picture, letter- ing, and borders, given first as a poster three feet by two, and afterwards reduced to the size of an octavo page. These were first made by Cheret for .Jules Le^■y, the publisher, and the often artistic work done for the publishers of music. In England the first artistic poster w'as made bv Fred Walker for the dramatization of Wilkie Collins's WoDian iH W/ii7c (1871). After- wards Herkomer, Van Beers, Walter Crane, Dud- ley Hardy, and Grieffenhagen, among others, won fame in this line. But the most original of Eng- lish poster makers was Aubrey Beardsley, who Influenced a crowd of imitators by his masterly exotic art. The 'Beggarstaff Brothers,' Prycie and Xicholson. with their grave artistic effects in black and brown, are the most interesting of the very modern designers. The growth of the poster in other European countries was rapid, especially during the years from 1895 to 1900. The Spanish posters, especially those announcing bull-fights and fairs, are models of brilliant coloring and vivid treatment. The first American posters ad- vertised the circus and the stage, and one of the earliest of these poster makers was Matt Morgan, for some time head of a Cincinnati lithographing company. The makers of patent medicines then
