The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-22
a SHARP TRICK.
What q Certain Priest Was Doing
With 100000 Stamps.
From the Cape argus

From the Cape argus
think can tell you something funny
about the wonderful story of 100000 Of
used postage stamps. 1t is quite true that
in lS49 or 1850 there was an advertisement
In religious paper asking the benevolent
TO send all their used stamps to A B..
Something street, Somewhere-a distressed
virgin, whose hard-hearted popish father
would not allow her to 20 to the Protestant
chapel until she had collected 1000, 900 old
stamps wherewith to buy his consent. She
had been there, and still would go, but the
inexorable z. +. knowing pretty well what
l,0OO,O0O was, covered his refusal with this
all but impossible condition.
So went the story. l was shown a col
lection OF stamps, ready to be sent to Some
thing street by a sympathizing contributor.
There we're three quarts of them. Good
measure. l began to wish knew pious A
B. Was she nice lookingi Was she really
so anxious to hear sermons at Little Betnel9
Perhaps 1t was the minister that was nice,
and the convert had doubled on the con-
verter. There was queer flavor about the
advertisements The "popish father" was
suspiciously like ground bait to allure the
no-popery gudgeons into the net, for these
were the days when endownents to Roman
Catholic colleges were opposed by yelling
crowds, and good PROTESTANT peeped every
night under the beds to see If a Jesuit was
concealed beneath with evil intent. 1t was
neatly artful, but the art was not sufficiently
hidden. Clearly there was some object in
getting vast number OF these penny
drafts on postoffice labor. A few wouldn't
do.
While idly pieoing some Of the little
squares together on the label into geometri-
cal figures. curious thing presented ITSELF
Il struck me that the ma ority of the
stamps were defaced with the official ink
ktar, half Of l,n3-
Several trials with separate handfuls con-
WINGED me that this was the case. then
selected fifty with a clean left side, and
fifty with clean right side, and matched
as many as possible for exact shade Of
color, for some were a shade lighter or darker
than their immediate neighbors. began
20 feel that was getting to know Miss A.
b. httle-in fact. good deal. That
evening, in my private den the selections
were carefully laid UPON each other, and
CUT down ths center 50 that the two clean
halves could be adjusted mutually. Eureka!
Dear little ingenious Protestant darling
you deserve the handsomest of smashers or
a swell burglar as a husbandl Many WAYS
of piecing the halves were tried but it was
not to be done. Then reflected that per-
haps Miss A. B. used them solely for her
own correspondence, probably TO post cir
culars of racing sweeps, or erect tips in
which case the difficulty would vanish.
laid the halves on a piece Of plate glass
pared the edges deity with a razor and
fitted them in place on an envelope. When
dried under pressure and FURNISHED along
the junction you could just see that there
was something clever when you looked very
hard for it, so excellent was the result
that felt that it was duty to introduce
Miss. A B. 3 little game to st. Martins-le-
Grand. who doubtless would reward
her ingenuity aud mine. Then l boldly
fhn 30 h.
General, lnclosing an account OF
my evenings Amusement, the advertise
meat, and the probable loss to the revenue
should the young lady still be kept from
her chapel. Moreover, TO show how easy
the trick was when you knew how, and
how hard Of detection under the ordinary
conditions of the service; l engaged to post
letter to him, containing my name and
address, every day for week, with similar
A. B. stamps. and thus test whether the local
officers would of themselves detect the im-
position.
fulfilled my promise and was specula-
ting whether the reward would run TO a
trip to Paris, or only cover a week at
Brighton, when on the sixth day came a
huge official letter. The P. NJ. g. had the
honor to inform me that had committed
grave offense, tautamount almost to for
gerry, in uttering-good word that-com.
pounded stamps made up of parts of de-
faced issues. But that in consideration of
my evident bona fides and intention to
serve the department, the legal officer to
whom the matter mad been referred con-
sidered that the aforesaid offense might
safely be oondoned. After which the
writer had the honor to be my obedient
servant. My subsequent remarks used up
all the DIS In my natural font Of type. And
that Is all the thanks that st. Martin thought
proper to give me for showing him how to
maiden and her popish father. But
somehow-coiDoidents are so curious, you
Knoxville advertisement didn't pear any
more, and felt sure had put a spoke in
Miss A. rs little wheel have regretted it
ever since-for obvious reasons.