The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-23
WALL PAPER WORTH 100000.
AN ALBANY ROOM DECKED WITH
STAMPS WORTH 500 EACH.
There Are 2.OOO Of Them and They We're
Pasted on the Wall by Little Girl
Their value Disco, cred Later-NOw
No Mans Hand Can Grasp the Treasure.

| Pasted on the Wall by Little Giri
Their Value Disco, cred Later-Now
No Mans Hand Can Grasp the Treasure.
WASHINGTON. Nov 80. Part Of one of tho
| walls of an old-fsshioned residence in
! Albany is adorned with wall paper valued
| at upward Of 500 600, or about $50 square
inch. This high-priced wall paper consists
| OF very rare revenue staps, priced In cur
| rent stamp catalogues at $50 each and
readily selling al 500 each.
Fairy tales of apartments having walls
plastered with stamps Of great value have
| gone the rounds Of stamp journals, but this
is a true story. A local stamp dealer has
inveet gated the matter personally and
vouches for the accuracy Of the statements.
A quarter of a century ago V. r. Powell
Of Albany manufactured a certain prepara-
ton which at that time required the affix-
ing Of a proprietary revenue stamp upon
each package.
| After time the law imposing stamp
ia xes vas repealed. Having several thou-
sands Of the unused stamps on hand and
there being no further commercial Use for
them and no market for their sale TO COLI
lectors, Mr.. Powell, rather than throw the
pretty things into the stove. took them homo
to his little daughter. then 10 or II years old.
/
| OF his surplus revenue stamps
One small room in the house had been set
apart for the exclusive Use of little Miss
Powell as a playroom. The room Was
located in an Il and the partitions we're OF
boards instead OF lath and plaster
She had long wanted pa pered room and
one day, when the novelty Of the stamps az
| playthings had worn of and she was de-
batting the problem what next 10 do with
| them, 1t occurred TO her that she might
| paper her room with them. Without delay
she set about the task and in the course Of
| three or four days had affixed the entire
lot of stamps. some 1900 in all, one by ono
| upon the wainscoted wall
There were enough of the stamps TO cover
practically one side of the room az high
as she could reach, and with the help Of some
| oil her girl friends she succeeded in pro.
duoing some pretty designs and fgures
upon the wall.
Years passed on; the little girl omgrew
her dolls and playthings and blossomed
into the real Miss Powell The playroom.
with its boarded partition and It's UNIQUE
decorations, was abandoned by her and
thereafter became the storeroom for tina
family. Some years later Mr.. Powell
erected residence in another part Of the
city and the old home was rented.
couple OF stamps escaped the paperinR
process and found their way into one of ,he
books in the library, although Just how
this happened is not known. In after
years young man, while visiting al the
new Powell home. came across the two
stamps in the book
This young man belonged 70 a guild
known as philateists, to use the scientific
term, or, in the common vernacular, stamp
cranks. and the instant his eye fell upon
one Of the old stamps he was nearly
overcome with philatelic paralysis, a dis
ease common TO the craft He knew he
was beholding the rarest and highest
priced specimen Of proprietary STAMP and
II made him faint.
! When the young man spoke about the
stamps and asked where they came from
and If there were any others. Mr. Powell
laughed and assured the young man that
there were hundreds and perhaps thou
sands of them pasted upon a wall in the
old house. The young man evinced
desire TO know more Of the old house. and
MIR. Powell accompanied him to the scenes
OF his earlier married life
The room referred to by Mr. Powell was
readily located and the wall was Of boards.
as had been said, but there were no STAMPS
upon the wall; nothing but light -colored
paint.
The young man whipped out penknfe
and attacked the painted wall, and after
some little scraping and peeling came
upon the wood. Sure enough. there upon
the board could be detected the coloring,
ana family. the design of the stamp. but
the paper Itself seemed TO ha We disappeared;
hare. $1,000 ,...., l.
Inquiry developed the fact that some
years before, when the house was UNDER
going repairs. the board walls had been
treated to two coats of paint The present
occupant of the house remembered that
there had been some doubt al 10 whet her
IT would be best to soak of the old STAMPS
before painting, but the painters had as
sured him that would be- entirely unneces-
sary. that there would he no stamps there
after the first coat of paint
The brush artists were good p,Iessers
There was not the slightest outward evil
dehce OF the existence of sos, coo worth
OF stamps upon the wall.
various schemes were employed in tho
EFFORT TO recover some Of the STAMPS hv
soaking the paint with chemicals by scrap-
| ing, by planning of the back of a board
untii the paint had been reached but With
| out success
1t was found that there was no longer
any body TO the stamps, the action Of 1be
on IN the paint had incorporated the paper
IN me paint itself The stamps had orig.
nally been printed upon very thin, tissue
IKE paper, and upon this fimsy material
| the pant had wrought its deadly work
And there 1900 stamps, more or less.
each one catalogued at $50, remain to-day.
hidden from view and beyond the reach II
man; Lake the uncounted gold living in
the hulks of wrecked galleons upon the
| oceans bottom, it IL known the trea sure
If there, but no mans hand can GRASP i,