The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1895-04-19

dreamed of possessing. A shy little
crippled girl has received an amount
of free advertising many an actress
might envy. The village postmaster
has had his accounts overhauled by
the postmaster general, with the result
that one or two postal clerks are likely
to land in the peuitentiarv. The gov
eminent threatens to break summarily
the endless chain of cancelled postage
stamps which has buried Kaneville I'M
der its links, and vet very few people
know what all the bother is about,
what it means or how it started.
Like other outbreaks of the Cancelled
stamp mania this one began innocently
and ignorantly. Wild stories are al
ways afloat TO the effect that somebody
will give fortune for a million can
celed postage stamps. There was a
poor old lady in Yonkers, \. Y, who
spent several years in collecting a mil
lion with which to get herself into an
old ladies' home. When she had the
million she sold them for thirty dollars
The newspapers spread all the knowl-
edge they can of the real value of cam
celed stamps, but the g.ip supersti-
ton has upon life was never better
illustrated than in the ease of Mettie
Garman.
Mettie has been called a fake. but,
far from that, She is a modest patient
little cripple, the life and comfort Of
the Garman family and the cherished
friend of every man. woman and child
In the village of Kaneville. Bright
and cheerful at all times, she is often
singularly witty in her quaint expires
sionS
But how did she become involved IN
this endless maze of cancelled postage
stamps? Mettie was born nineteen
years ago in Il little log house in the
edge of the woods locally known as
Charter Grove, part of the township
of Sycamore, Dekalb county, Ill. Her
father was a country blacksmith. When
Mettie was four years old he removed
to the village of kaneville in an adjoin-
ing county. Mettie at that tiU-e was
bright. healthy child. but tEo years
later, Just when she was a bout to enter
school, she was stricken with severe
attack of spinal meningitis. For weeks
she lay between life and death. realiz-
ing nothing but the acute suffering
which racked her little frame and re-
covering only to the point where the
terrible pain ceaSed-the life and ac-
tivity OF the growing child were appar-
emily gone forever. After a few
months the useless limbs resumed their
growth and gradually she developed
into young woman Of somewhat less
than medium height, but the paralysis
never departed.
Younger brothers and sisters came to
swell the cares of the already over
burdened father, and the hope of relief
for the afflicted one through medical
aid was placed farther and farther in
the distance At one time money
enough was saved to take her to Chica-
go for electrical and massage treat
ment. She remained there a short
time, deriving some benefit from It,
but the expense was so great and the
improvement so slow that she was
obliged to return home before any great
change was apparent. She afterwards
went to Aurora, H., but the old story
of big expenses and small income again
necessitated q return home before it
was proved whether she could be cured
or not Through this aid and by con
slant effort on her part, she recovered
the partial use of her hands, probing