The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-01-25
IT WAS A BIG FAKE.
Crippled Girl and Can
CeIed Stamps.
There is No Such Girl But There Is
Such a Town, and the Village POST
master is Distributing Twenty
Thousand Letters a Day.

Comes, now, Chicago paper ofeven
date and states that the ''chain of
letters" scheme which is floating
around the country and the partic-
ulars of which were given in the FREE
PRESS last week, is a big fake. The
article states that there is no medical
Institution that has offered to treat a
cripple girl at Kanesville, ILL.,, for
100000 Cancelled postage stamps, be-
cause there is no such girl and there
a is such town, but it is a small coun-
try village and one man does all the
work in the postoffice and he is mad
because the letters are coming in so
fast that the mails are blockaded
every day.
The postmaster has asked advice on
the matter from the department at
Washington. He says that the letters
amounting to 10000 per day and they
are still coming. They interfere
with his work, swamp him every day
and he wants to know if it can't be
stopped.
Cashier Cotton, of the Mankato
Savings bank who wrote the first let
ter in this city, states that he receiv-
ed the preceding letter from friend
in Minneapolis, and acting in good
faith he followed it up by writing
three others. The outcome of this
gigantic scheme is awaited with in
tereSt
Some person in this city who has
figured it out states that letter No.
so would bring in 1,000,000,000 cancel
, ed stamps
DR.. Andrews pronOunces this
scheme a fake. He states that no
medical institution would exact so
severe payment from an unfortunate
cripple, and they would have no use
for the stamps after they were re-
ceived. If the patient were deserv-
ing and was without means to pay for
her treatment there are many phySi-
clans who would treat her free Of
charge.
The Minneapolis Journal of yester
day says the following about the new
scheme:
Kanesville, an obscure village in Kane county,
H., is flooded with cancelled stamps. The viii
lage is situated about nine miles northwest of
Aurora and the nearest railroad station is
Sugar Grove, five miles south. In the whole &c
square miles comprising the township there are
perhaps 30 houses. and % letters a day would
be big mail. The hanesville mall is sent to
Sugar Grove by train and from there is taken to
the postoffice twice day. A few days after the
first letters in the chain were sent out the post
master began to receive a good many letters
for Edna Brown. The letters kept increasing.
Tney soon filled bushel basket daily. Then
they filled several baskets Instead of the usual
small pouch, the KaneSville mail required
several. Not only letters came, but boxes and
bundles of Cancelled stamps from well-lnten-
toned but idotic people. The stage coach be-
no room for passengers. The 'chaln" is still
not halt completed, and an average OF from
5000 to 10000 letters a day are received at the
postofiice for Miss Edna Brown, to say nothing
of boxes and bundles of stamps by mail and
express Wednesday the number received was
IL 600; Monday it reached 15,OOO Some of the
letters even contain money orders sent by sym
pathetic lunatics. The only one who seems to
be making anything out of the scheme is Uncle
Sam who is receiving from 500 to $500 day
postage sent to Edna Brown, of kanesville Ill.
Edna's collection has now reached nearly
100000, and out of respect for the outraged
public sentiment of the village, she has issued a
request that no more stamps be sent. AS a
matter of fact, it is stated on the authority OF
the Kanesville postmaster, that the story of the
cripple girl, the medical institute, etc., is en-
tirely hypothetical.