The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-04
PAPERED ROOM WITH STAMPS.
Tireless Invalid Has Collected
1,OOO,O of Them.

FROM the New York Journal.
Doylestown, Pa.-For nearly seven years
with tireless devotion to purpose, Charles
c. Cox, resident of this town, has been
collecting common Cancelled postage
stamps, and he has but recently finished
his self-imposed task of getting 200, 600 of
them. Day after day and far into the
nights he has worked, gathering stamps
from friends, who laid them aside for him,
soaking them from the envelope paper and
packing them up ready for sale to dealers.
By marketing the bulk of them he has
netted something like $S5 in cash for char
ity. More TO the purpose however, he has
entertained himself during a period of
semi-invalidism.
His workshop, which is his living room
as well, is decorated as is no other in the
world. The walls are solidly papered with
stamps, laid out in neat designs. On one
spot there are blue and red '1-centers''
and ''2-centers," in checkerboard style. In
other places the patterns are more elabo-
rate. long, unbroken wall has them,
with larger blocks of red and blue Over
the mantelpiece there is an even block of
red Within the frame of the mantel
stamps of rarer kinds are arranged in tile
effect. Columbian stamps ornament corr
ner, and around in different places are
the collectors fancy and the material at
his command, The whole is decidedly
striking.
With the exception of a comparatively
small lot, only waste stamps, unfit for
sale, are on the walls. Torn and defective
specimens have been cut and patched to-
gether with the greatest care, and close
scrutiny is necessary to detect the splicing.
If all the stamps which decorate the room
uar hpIA uua Y
Many of them, however, are made up of
four or five bits. Altogether the wallpaper
is composed of considerably more than
10000.
In the process of fixing them in place
they were first pasted on sheets of paper.
These weIe put on the walls as paper
hanger would do il. and when dry were
covered with several coats of varnish, CIV
ing the stamps a fine gloss, preserving
them and showing them off TO the very
best advantage. A glance along any OF
the walls shows the stamps in exact align
ment from end to end, SO carefully have
they been set in place.
II took Mr.. Cox about two years of his
working time to get the job done. At no
period while 1t was under way did his pa
tience flag. or did he become careless in
the slightest degree. His exhibit complete
is a wonderful piece of mosaic.
The beginning of Mr.. Coxs stamp career
was in the spring of 1892, after he had
emerged from a hospital where he had
undergone an operation for appendicitis
Some one asked him to save Cancelled
postage stamps and turn them over to a
young lady in Syracuse, N. Y, who WIS
getting a million. From the sale of that
great number she expected to realize $40,
and with the money secure a home in a
certain institution for an old woman. Mr..
Cox started in to contribute 1000 stamps,
but as he progressed in his undertaking,
his ideas enlarged.
He found that the business of collecting
stamps was just fitted to his physical con-
dition. 1t gave him employment without
taxing his strength. At hours in the
night when he could not sleep and no one
else was about with whom he could con-
verse, there were the stamps to engage
his attention. In short order he had 1000
shipped away 10 the young woman In
Syracuse, and agreed to make 1t 10000.
Then he called on some of his friends TO