Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-24
LOOKS VERY QUEER.
The ''Crippied'' Girl at kaneviEie Ill.
Is in Great Luck.

The following clipping taken from The
Milwaukee Journal will undoubtedly
make interesting reading for many of
our subscribers who have been assisting
In Edna r. Browns chain of letters
and stamps. We know there are several
such in the twin cities as the writer
himself gathered large handful of old
stamps for Que of our philanthropic
Young ladies which were sent to the
above mentioned young lady. The
article is as follows:
There appeared in The Star of Jan
6 an article reprinted from the Chicago
Tribune entitled "Again the Million
Stamp Craze telling of the efforts of a
Young crippled woman at the mythical
village of Plunkville, Ill.,, to raise suf-
iiciert money to pay her fees in a
medical institute. This came to the
attention of MIR. J. C. Koechlin, a
member of several philanthrop c
societies, who sat down and figured out
the possibilities of the scheme detailed
in The Tribune's article, and discovered
that the sum of $34, 900 would be in
volved IN stamps, for which the cripple
would eventually receive 1925 million
A person at Gardner, Kan, signing
himself ''R. t." also communicated
with The Star, sending letter he had
received, in which he was invited to
lnn i'll I
R. Brown of Kaneville, Ill. ''R. T."
called attention to the fact that if all
the chains remained unbroken the
post-office at Kaneville, H., would have
to be enlarged considerably to accom-
modate the 30,000,000 or SO of letters
that Edna would receive.
A Kansas City railroad man, who was
twice asked to participate in this scAeme
of philanthropy, wrote to the agent Of
the Chicago Burlington and Quincy
railroad at Sugar Grove, H., the nearest
railroad point to Kaneyille, asking if
Edna's appeal was bona ide; if there
existed such a person. and if she
expected to be benefited by the stamps
which she must be receiving. The
agents reply will be interesting to the
many persons who have sent stamps
and money to the fortunate young
woman II is as follows:
edna r. Brown lives at Kaneville,
ILL.,, but she is not cripple. She has d
sister-inlaw who is cripple. They
have received between 100000 and
1900, 900 stamps and considerable
money during the last three months.
Edna Brown has received thousands of
letters every day. Last Monday she
received $1,000 and Tuesday 10000;
most of them, containing money orders,
post-office orders, etc. They have
already received more stamps than
they known what to do with, but can
not say how much money; the amount
must certainly be very large. 1t would
simply be nonsensical for anyone to
send her any more stamps or money"
1t was also ascertajned that Kane
Vile is mere hamlet, with four or five
houses, general store and windmill,
and the "medical institute" in which
Edna proposed to have her physical
deformities corrected existed wholly in
her mind.
Computing modestly, Edna has re-
ceived nearly $4,000 worth of cancelled
stamps at the current price for such,
and if she received money orders OF
ihe average value of twenty cents each,
she has received considerably over
81 900 day for at least two days from
| that source.
1t is to be presumed that very many
pe rsons, charitably inclined, have gone
into this scheme of enriching Edna r.
Brown and her accomplices, and they
| will probably learn the facts In the case
| with pleasure and profit.-Kansas City
Star.