New-York tribune., 1900-01-07
SOME LIGHT ON PHILATELY
JUST A PEEP INTO THE EARLY CHAP
TIERS OF AN ABSTRUSE SCIENCE.

and in those institutes many mansions
called sections. The multiplicity of sections Is
in proportion to the multiplicity of the arts and
sciences. which are ever multiplying.
Within the last few weeks one of the leading
institutes Of New-YOrk City has been busy in its
section of phately with most interesting lect-
urc Philately is quite different from telepathy.
is it. many of the vulgar think, a mama,
or as a Hiberno-Dutch committee on resolu-
tions might call it, "a crazy lunacy; it is, on the
authority of this lecture. science. Like poll
tics in the words of Count Smorltork, it sur
prises by himself a study of great magnitude.
1t appears to be one of those studies to which
man may devote lifetime, to the exclusion or
all others-even grammar-without ever getting
to the bottom of it, In fact the author of this
lecture in one passage implies an uncertainty as
TO whether it has any bottom.
These statements. of course, apply only to ad-
varced philately of which the simple collectors
and stickers in of foreign postage stamps have
no more idea than newsboy has of military
press censorship The study now for advanced
collectors" says a resume of the above men
toned lecture must be in the direction or
sh ades. varieties of paper, thickness. texture
methods of separation" etc. Who but phllate-
lists and the Secretary of the Treasury would
suppose that ''at rare intervals something thaI
Is startling" in the way of United states reVe-
nuCS'' up? For the nerves OF the IRAN
advanced philatelicaI student have been strung
up to the pitch where he will shy violently at
the sight of a part rouletted So 1898 issue
AT the same time if ne be sound in his learning,
he will not be startled at every little thing
creased stamps" for example, and "an sorts
of fantastic perforations." AS to collecting the
former the lecturer says, in a becoming spirit
of loyalty ''it is making much of wrinkled pa
per used by the Government" AS to the lat
ter drawing upon the sister science of ethics,
he points out that If they became popular
80. there would be opportunities for no end
of fraud"
GETTING INTO THE SUBJECT.
1t would be futile for any not member
OF the section of philately in an institute of arts
and sciences to carry serious study of this Iect
ure further than its earlier paragraphs. To the
reader not versed in philatey the text becomes
obscure as he goes on. Such cannot hope
to appreciate intelligently the import of the
question why is the Alexander blue so rare?'
Even the lecturer seems afraid to go very deeply
into this problem. The passages about the "5Oc
Mortgage" the saw TOOTH the "25c. Power of
Atty" the blocks of four" and the unused g.
pair" are terribly difficult, though the key of it
all seems to be a proper understanding of the
vertical pair" The unlearned reader who is
not wise enough to skip most of this part may
mistake philately for a Sherlock Holmes affair
when he reads My theory is that these were
used by those who used a great many stamps,
and the office boy detailed to do this cutting
in his unoccupied moments; then again it glides
once more into some strange unpublished theory
of ethics, bitterly denOuncinS "unscrupulous per-
sons'-perhaps those same office boys with ''un-
occupied moments"-whO ''haVe trimmed at the
sides" Now it will look like article on sur
gerry gambling and anon suggest highly
condensed treatise the fourth dimension Of
space And if the unbalanced reader has not
a care his perusal may end in hCmicidal mania
To he sure. there points in the lecture
which the general student may tOlerably well
apprehend. "a beginner even in philately can
tell a stamp by the simple description" as the
lecturer acutey observes Any SchoolbOy with
brand new stamp album can see that this lect-
urer rejects Mr. Sterling's theory of surface
coored paper; that he really does not think
very much of a recent work published by the
Boston Philatec Society, although he seems
inclined to hedge this. and that, while he
emphasize wrinkles in Government
paper, his loyalty does not prevent his openly
blaming the Federal authorities for giving
eleven different stamps for in paying
two-cent tax" as we'll as for not Furnishing one
DR.. Kimer
OBJECTS OF THE SCIENCE.
OF the immediate object of the science in it's
advanced form the lecturer only speaks in pass