Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-03-28
OLD STAMP COLLECTORS.
Gathering Tiny Pictures from Letters,
Match Boxes, Beer Kegs, and Wine
Hotties.
From the Phiiade. phia Times.

From the Phiiade phia Times.
.'Win you sell me lot Of unused stamps at
reduced rates If promise to paste them in an
album and never put them on letters2" hestat-
ingly asked queer little man the other day, as
he poked his head halfway through one Of the
windows In the post Office The matter-of- fact
dispenser of yirnettes of presidents gazed
bankly at the speaker and for a moment lost
TIE use OF his tongue Then he made u sharp,
cleau-cut negative exclamation. and the little
chan who had asked the question meekly turned
away
You jist bet" POLITICALLY responded the EN-.
IloyP AZ the stamp window OF the post office
In reply to the query OF Times reporter
whether such applications were common. He
SAID ne was much troubled by stamp collectors
vito favored under the deusiOn that post office
EMPLOYEES could procure for them postage stickers
of any nationality They often asked for United
States stamps lOTg since extinct and sometimes
swOSe shOckingly when they could not be sup
Diel with them. one man recently prOpoS ed
that certain number OF government officials
Should be kept constantly at work detaching
rarr stamps from letters that passed through the
mail, and marking them to show that the post
age mad been paid. The stamps thus detached
were To be distributed in a fair proportion among
The extensive family Of collectors. The logic OF
this was that the average man had no use fol-
stamps, and that they might well be turned
INTO the album OF the cOnnOisseur, who had.
HIGH-PRICED CURIos.
Stamp-c0llecting used to be mere school boy
occupation. II is no longer so. The man spoken
OF "a going to the post office pigeon-hole wore
whi~kyrs and 1t is said that two-thirds of the
deyotees of the stanp-bOok are past middle are
Persons who want to have good COLLECTIONS must
pay large prices for the stamps and this in itse
places the hobby beyond the reach of children
A few months AFRO a single book of stamps was
EDt N tDr = and
Sons in this city possess collections worth much
more than 81 COO each. The number of different
stamps which il is possible to get is about g. $50
OF these there are some kinds entirely controlled
by enthusiasts. who refuse to sell them. In 1852
the Freach government issued two different
sorts of cheap stamps for the Reunion Isles,
which are now valued at $50 each The rarest
klnd oi American stamps are probably the old
'.locaiS"
Very often large business houses are invaded
by men who want to go through the waste paper
baskets and rescue stray stamps from oblivion.
Such collectors are not particular, but seize
Whatever comes along. Firms having extern
siye foreign connections are the most troubled
In this way. Requests from abroad to consuls
at this port for complete sets of stamps are ire
9uent.
ORGANIZING CORNER IN STAMPS.
fnnumerabe efforts have been made to manip-
ulate the stamp market. A gentleman in Phila-
Gelphia Is at the present tine engaged in secur-
Ing ali the late department stamps possible
he pays very good prices for them, and he
already has many thousands He thinks they
cannot depreciatc. but must increase in value,
and 10y creating corner he hopes to make about
four hu ltlred per cent. on his outlay. great
many dealers say that the mans descendants
may realize some profit, but that he himself
never Will.
One of the coarser branches OF this particular
profession" is the collecting of revenue stamps
from barrels of beer and match boxes With
Some persons this il quite craze. They tumble
among the breweries on suferance scrape off
the broken labels and stick them together as
great curiOSities The .'match-stamp fend'
hOvers around groceries and tries to find stamps
which he has not already in his collection No.
body has ever exactly slain stamp scayenger.
but he Is not at all liked in places where matches
are sold.
STORY WITH EVERY BOTTLE.
There Is also the individual who collects labels
nom champagne. beer ale and lemonade bottles
He despises histellow man who loves matchbox
stamps, for he can show labels enough to stick
On every bottle In the wine cellar of king and
he can generally tell a pleasing incident con-
nected with each label
IL has always been mystery where wholesale
etampdealers get their foreign material Thereare
none but retailers in this city and they get their
stamps from New York 1t is known that some
stamps are sent from abroad by correspondents
but 1t is also said that quite large proportion
OF the European" and southern" ones sold In
thls country are manufactured ''Out west" or in
SAe land of the wooded ham.