The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-02-01
AT LEAST II BUSHELS
That Is the Daily Amount Of Mail Which
Resulted From the "Chain."
HOW THE SCHEME WORKED
Miss Brown Has More Stamps Than
She Knows What to DO With
Millions of Letters Sent
TO the Young Lady.

AIssoULA, Jan. 31.-The STANDARDS
readers will recall the account recently
printed in this column of the ''lotter
chain which was to bring relief TO n
crippled young lady through the medium
OF Cancelled stamps. The following clip
ping from the Washington Post indicates
that the Chain" has, in ITS ramnIfica-
tons, reached the far East, and Will also
shed light upon tho development OF the
plan. The STANDARDS calculation of the
number of letters which tho young lady
would receive looked incredibly large, but
the statements made in the Post show
.hat the estimate was not wrong. The
clipping is as follows:
The very old "million-canceed-postaC
stamp" trick has been sprung on Washington.
1t has been worked to a considerable extent,
but there is a tired pos master in kaneyille, ILL.,,
who Is begging the public that 1t may not work
any more.
Every one who has read the papers during
the past decade can hardly fail to have seen
notice OF some one somewhere who was trying
10 collect million Cancelled postage stamps.
The object given was usually TO educate a Chi
nese baby at some missionary station, or for
some similar charitable purpose, but the scheme
has seldom been traced home To Its originator.
This time, however, 1t appears that the pro-
moter is an ingenius young lady out in Illinois,
who has been reapinc quite harvest Of stamps,
though. what she can be doing with them is
something Of mystery.
Ii was some time late in December that the
stamp fake struck Washington. IL came TO tho
firm of Sanders a Stayman, 034 street. through
their main house In Baltimore. lt was In the
form OF geometrical chain letter. the sort that
has been used before for charitable schemes.
Messrs. sanders & Stayman stated TO their
Washington house that there was young lady
In Kaneville, ILL.,, who had been a cripple since
she was 10 years old. medical institution
there had offered to treat her II she would Sc
cure a million Cancelled postage stamps. Tho
gst OF the scheme was in the following para
graph:
"Please take three copies of this letter. as we
have done. only changing the letter at the top,
numbering them al the same. ana sign your
own pame Return this letter with 10 or more
Cancelled postage STAINS 10 Miss Edna Il Brown,
Kaneville, ILL.,. also the names and addresses OF
the three new letters, ana they are asked 10 do
the same. Any one not wishing to doJnis will
please notify Miss Brown so that she may know
the chain has been broken. The person receive
ing letter No. 90 will return 1t without making
any copies, as that ends the chain"
The charitable Washington firm complied
with the request. and the "chan" went merrily
spinning out over the city w. b. Moses &
sons, Woodward 4 LothrOp, u. III. Warner, q
Co., and a number OF lawyers and hers about
the city hall were all caught In the scheme. The
revelation came when Moses & sons, in reply to
=
from Hartford, Conn:
HARTFORD, Jan. %, 1895.
William b Moses q sons.
lGENTLEMEN; | nclOSe you n clipping from
one Of our daily papers In response o your let
ter. but we had already written the three let
tiers you requested. am sorry that among your
able representative, senators. congressman and
large business firms OF the national capital, 1t
should take an Insignificant little Yankee To get
on to this fraud We have enjoyed the joke a
good dea, and have no doub. you Will. know
OF no space large enough 10 hoo that 7.OOO,OOl.-
coo of stamps unless 1t be your eX ensive ware
rooms In Wash ngion. Would YOU ike 10 have
them sent on and stored? Yours truly.
HENRY ROBERTS,
President Hartford Wire Mattress Company
The clipping gave quite an extensive account
of the way the stamp fraud had struck Hart
ford Herbert Il. Fitch, a draughtsman there.
had been one OF the recipients of n chain letter
from friend In kalamazoo, Mich Being of a
mathematical turn OF mind, Mr. Fitch sat down
10 figure out what would be the geometTica in
crease at the end Of the JOth letter. He found
that instead OF netting a paltry iOOo,OOO stamps.
the result would be expressed In eight places OF
figures. As there are a little less than 2,OlO-
10000 people on the earth 70 viii be seen IN {
there are not enough To 20 round IN the artful
Miss Browns chain
But Mr.. Fitch went further than computing
the mathematical possibilities OF the scheme
lie wrote TO the postmaster at Kaneyille III =,
and the following Is the reply which will inter
est many people In Washington:
hANEvILLE, H., Jan. II, 1895.
~. n. Fiich:
DEAR SIR-Edna Brown does receive letters
at this office. In fact. she received e bushels
OF them to-day. She IS collecting stamps for
her siStrr-in-law. OF this place, who has been a
cripple since years Of age, They collect she
stamps and sell them, but no medical iustitu-
ton has offered To tire her f.. Cancelled STAMPS
She has already many times a million and
please do not send any more.
ALTA RAVIIN,
For John ShellhOrn. T. VI.
Where Miss Brown sells her stamps is stin q
mystery. but it IS not likely that she will get
any more 10 sell either from Hartford or Wash
!ngton