The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-02-24
A P0SToFFICE MYTH.
The Million Postage Stamps" Fraud
and It's Amusing Phases.

1t is believed by many that there Is
standing offer by the government or by
benevolent gentleman" of a large
sum of money TO be paid to any one who
will devote himself to the collection of
a million cancelled postage stamps. The
vitality of this absurd story would be
astonishing were it not for the well
known readiness for large proportion
of the public to accept any statement,
however incredible, which offers pecun-
iary advantage to themselves. Hardly
eekpasses that personal or epistolary
inquiries are not received at the post
Office on this subject. and it is often
difficult to convince the inquirer that
wealth is not to be acquired by the
laborious exploration of waste baskets
and the soaking of old envelopes.
As bore the cancelled postage
stamps" man or boy has come to be
considered second to none. The flatter,
ing tale of money to be gained varied
somewhat in details. Now it is the
Postmaster General who, as they have
heard, has issued proclamation offer.
ing a certain sum (ranging from $40, 900
to $100) to the first who shall bring to
the department the fruits of this queer
harvest; again it is benevolent but
eccentric old party, male or female, who
has held out as an inducement to this
stamp-hunting, the promise to furnish
collegiate education to the enterpris-
ing individual who shall first prove his
! or her industry and perseverance by
the collection of the mythical million;
then it is another philanthropist who
! has offered to dispatch fully equipped
missionary to Zululand or Patagonia,
or to give an organ to Sunday school
on. the same terms. Many of the vic
tins of this delusion make no inquiry
as to the truth of the tale that has
reached their ears, but calmly assuming
it to be gospel, limit their inquiries to
the exact address of the person to whom
the stamps are to be sent-whether
there is any restriction as to the denom-
nations of stamps whether foreign
stamps will be accepted, etc.
The sober fact is that cancelled post
age stamps with the exception of GER
tain ancient issues priced by those
value save as waste paper, and the col
lection of them is simply a waste of
time. One who has been at some pains
to trace the origin of this ensnaring
| legend reports that he has discovered It
! in the fact that about forty years ago
an advertisement appeared in an Eng
fish newspaper appealing to the charita-
bic to send the cancelled stamps from
their letters to a certain address in
Brighton to aid the efforts of poor lad
to cover the walls of his bedroom with
those defaced effigies of her majesty
the promise having been made him that
on the completion of the task the ex-
penses OF his education would be paid
for by some wealthy crank. The post
Office authorities took the trouble to in
vestigate the matter and found that the
advertiser was in fact a lad, but that
his educational least in one branch OF
learning-was already complete, the
stamps sent in response to his appeal
being cleaned by some process he had
/ discovered, and disposed of by him at a
| discount. His unjust industry" was
of course quietly suppressed, and his
operations having opened the eyes OF
the postoffice authorities to the danger
of extensive frauds, measures were
taken to guard against it by the use OF
! fugitive inks. which disappear when any
liquid is applied to remove the cancelling
marks.