Did You Know? Did you know that mail used to be delivered across the country by horse? The Pony Express took just under eight days to deliver a copy of Abraham Lincoln's first speech as President thousands of miles across America, from Missouri to California. Did you know that R.S.V.P. is what people write when they want a reply to an invitation? It's short for a French phrase. "Réspondez-s'il vous plaît" means "Please write back." Did you know that paper was invented nearly two thousand years ago by a Chinese official, Tsai Lun? The process was a closely guarded secret for a thousand years. Mostly people didn't know how to write then anyway so they weren't worried that it was a secret. Did you know that the first stamps used to pay for postage were made in England about 160 years ago, and are now worth many thousands of dollars? When they were made they only cost a penny.