The morning times., 1897-01-10


haruton, N. Y..' the most unique collection
of stamps which any one ever heard OF.
Not so much does the oddness lie in the
stamps themselves, as in the method OF ar
rangement There are S62 600 OF them,
and they completely cover every portion OF
bedroom set, consisting of bedstead.
dresser, commode and chairs. The stamps
are secured TO the set with the aid Of glue
and then covered with heavy spar yarnish.
The stamps can be washed in their present
condition, without injury.
This curio of collections is owned by Mrs.
George Wilson, of 191 Vestal avenue,
Binghamton, n. Y. The beginning OF this
strange collection dates back many years
The first chair of the set that was dec
GRATED was owned by a colored family in
Virginia, in the middle of the last century
Gradually, the chair passed from hand to
hand and from cabin to cabin until at
last it came into the possession OF Mrs.
George Yancey, a colored woman who now
lives at Ovid, n. Y, enjoying that which
so rarely comes TO Inau or woman. the be-
ginning of her second century oflife.
This chair is noticeable in the accom-
panyinE illustration, which was drawn
from q photograph, by its general quaint
appearance and its particularly straight
back 1t came from the banks of the James
River, when Mrs. Yancey had been given
her freedom, and journeyed North to New
York State. She made a present of the
chair to Mrs. Wilson, and it was with the
idea of beautifying and preserving the
furniture that Mrs. Wilson began DECORATING
with postage stamps. 8 $3.50 -
Since this ancient relic of coloniair days
has been adorned in the unique manner
shown in the picture seven otfier articles
of furniture have received similar treat
ment, untilnow the whole forms Gne OF the
most peculiar results of the curio collect
or's art that Is extant. s-r --r' -
The collecting of postage stamps is
something in which many persons are
engaged and thousands more interested.
1t is really the only fad in which young
and old find equal enjoyment. The little
miss not yet in the grammar school and
her mother at home, both pursue with
equal eagerness the accumulation of
those little hits of gummed paper which
carry articles through the malt the world
over. Strange and unique are the forms the
collections take in order that they may be
properly preserved. But Mrs. Wilson'S is
the queerest of them all.
Included in the tiny specimens of stamps
which conceal every vestige OF woodwork
about the furniture which they adoTn, are
stamps from everywhere that the interna-
tional postal system reigns, and several
places where no exchange of mail matter
has yet been agreed upon. All these are ar
ranged in a manner as quaint as the fdea
itself. 1t must not be supposed that Mrs
Wilson'S patriotism is Of so light an order
that she would permit any other than the
stamps of the United States TO be in the
ma iority. There are the faces of every
President who has been allowed to be made
a sample OF the steel engraver's S art, from
Washington down.
There are old stamps which most people
have forgotten ever existed, stamps only
known to the stamp collector, as rule,
and which would be immensely valuable
by themselves. All these curios are of our
own make, that have borne missives OF
many a strange errand. Every one has
been Cancelled, and therefore each OF them
has had its use before it reached its present
condition. IL only these stamps OF the
United States alone could talk, they could
tell a composite story stranger than any
tale ever written by novelists. 1t almost
seems, as you see them so firmly stuck
upon the historical furniture, that they
are mute relics of experiences which his
tory would be so much more complete
if it contained and is SO wofulIy lacking
without.
There are stamps that journeyetl about in
the crazy postal conveyances which carried
no hat fllrrir. az
the days when civil war waged reIentlesSly.
Then there are stamps OF the day when the
missives from Southern battlefields to
Northern homes brought both joy and sor-
row, the latter quite as often as the for.
mer. There are one or two stamps that
were used when California was the Golden
Gate to So many fortune seekers, The ma.
tion's history is plastered all over this
furniture, and the story that might be
told about it, il the truth Were known,
would no doubt make it vie in interest, in
the eyes of the American people, with the
treasures of Mount Vernon, the saeredreiic.
at Springfield or those remembrances to
which all the world bows at GaIena.
There is no particular method of ar
rangement of this nearly million OF
staplps. Noble and peasant are side by
side, and the commoneSt hit or postage
evidence is just as likely to have a po
sition of homer as the big piece OF guImeC
paper with two figures on. it. Evidently
Mrs. Wilson believes with the poet, that
rank il but the guinea stamp.
Of the foreign specimens OF postal
| necessities, there are very many, and a.
odd as they are numerous. The queer
looking dark-eolored affair that come;
from the land of the Cessaok anu of ToI
stoi, seems strangely out of place. lodged
for life ON a bit Of wood d il. a town yvher
the very essence of freedom is III the al
itself. Properly enough, there nestles clos
to the reminder OF the Little Fathers coun
try the stately and benignahtr face of he
| gracious majesty on whose empire the SUI
never sets. Alongside of these two IS th
| jolly postal emblem of Roumania, ,Hhil