St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-02-22
9lliseellatiu.
ANNA BROWN AND HER EIGHT MIL
ED' LION STAMPS.

rhe million stamp tallacy is an old
.d ~ 70 philatelists. Most of us are
s sbtCo'r;ouehly familiar with the meth
lI as of that unique class of collectors
those only aim is quantity and
"h goal is good round million.
Ntnst If us have, nevertheless, read
Nth much interest all that the news
"aners have lately had to say re-
pl'ard;ng Miss Edna r. Brown and
RCr million stamp scheme.
Her story is an unusually roman
40 one. 1t seems that Miss Brown,
Who resides at Kaneville, small
hamlet in northern Illinois, was en-
"aoed to be married to one Ohm
Garman, the village blacksmith of
Taneville. Garman has sister who
mr. some years has been a cripple, as
the result of an injury to her spine;
and early last fall medical exami-
nation disclosed the fact that her af-
Action was durable, if she could be
sent to a certain institution which
makes a speciality OF treating such
cases. The charge for treatment at
that institution, two hundred dol
lars was however, wholly beyond
the means of the Garman family, and
the matter would have been reluct-
ontly dropped had not Miss Brown
come TO the rescue and undertaken
70 raise the money which was to re-
store her lovers sister to health and
strength.
She had heard that man in Chi
cago was willing to pay two hun
dred dollars for a million cancelled
stamps. Believing that the collect
ing OF million stamps, through the
sympathetic efforts of the public,
ormed the surest and easiest method
OF securing the sum needed, she i'm
mediately started the famous chain
OF letters which has since penetrated
to every corner of the United States.
Most OF my readers are probably ia
miliar with her plan. She started
the ball rolling by writing three let
ters to as many friends, requesting
each one to send her ten or more
cancelled stamps, and to write three
letters more to other persons. These
in turn were to follow the same mode
OF procedure, thus making contin-
ually increasing chain of letters, not
to be complete until the tttieth letter
was written.
The simplicity of this system was
at once its strongest and its weakest
point. When once the chain had
ueen started, all that Miss Brown
had to do waste sit down and await
results. Results were not long in
clming. Soon stamps began to
plur in at a very rapid rate. The
youme of Miss Browns mail, of
course increased, and before very
ong a million stamps had been re-
yclyed.
An attempt was made to hunt up
The Chicagoite who had figured as
Prospective purchaser; but he was
not to be found, and Miss Brown
was informed by Others to whom
She attempted to dispose of her ac-
emulation that the lot was utterly
yaueless. Wholly discouraged she
abandoned all hope of turning her
stamps to financial account. Not SO
the stouthearted blacksmith. He
married Miss Brown in December
and then in his turn attempted to
dispose of the mighty accumulation
but without success.
This, however, was not the end OF
their troubles. The stamps kept or
coming in in greater numbers thar
before; and each days mail PROVED
larger than that Of the day previous
Soon instead of a million stamps
Miss Brown (now Mrs. Garman
''und herself in possession of two
million of the same. The food of let
terS kept on increasing, and belor,
very long, she had three million OF
land. And SO effective has been. tn
working OF that ever widening chair
nat at the present moment, Mrs
Edna Brown Garman has on he
hands almost nine million stamps
md is receiving daily about 1900
ietters containing on an averag
10000 stamps.
Both Mrs. Garman's house and tn
neutrality-suspicious. (neither OF whicl
are OF palatial dimensions) are liter
lily filled to OVERLOOKING with letters
and unless the avalanche of maj
natter is soon checked, Cancelled
stamps will entirely fill every house il
haneville,and lie five feet deep on it
streets before the opening of spring
1t has not been deemed advisable t
ourn the unopened mail, owing t.
me tact that many OF the letters hav
'een found to contain money order
and postal notes for the aid Of tn
crippled girl. The working force c
ne GAINESVILLE post Office is being as
sisted by almost every ablebodied in
aabitant, and business is PRACTICAL
suspended. But all efforts to handl
ms postal avalanche will have to b
oandoned if high-water mark is no
soon reached. The figures of locs
mathematician who estimates tn
lumber of stamps to be received a
=, 965, SIS, O23, 436, 131, TIA, 700
W. furnish, it is scarcely necessar
20 say, scant comfort to the woe.b,
gone populace of Kaneville.-[L. {
!uackenboss in Mckeel's Week.