Evening star., 1905-11-04
TIE GRIFFIN snowBAL1.
Strange History Of an Appeal for q
Sydney Hospital.

From the London Truth.
A recent issue OF the South Australian
Register OF Adelaide contains long and
instructive article on the history. present
position and future prospects of the famous
Griffin SNOWFALL letter. 1t is now nine or
ten years since this "snowbalr' or 'chain
letter" was started.
It will be remembered that the thing orig
mated In a small and Insignificant local
project to add childrens ward to a cot
tage hospital in a suburb Of Sydney. On
the committee was a gentleman named
Griffin who was professional stamp deal
er. In conjunction with his daughter he
proposed to the committee that chain let
ter should be started by his daughter. In
her own name. for the collection Of mil
lion used penny stamps, and that he would
cient to make up the sum required.
Something in the wording of the original
probably the reference to the need OF
children's ward in a hospital-appealed to
public sentiment which was easily gratif1ed
by the fact that all that was asked for was
ten old postage stamps and the repetition
of the appeal by the recipient. The letter,
therefore, at once spread like wildf1re. pass
ed from New South Wales into the other
Australian colonies. to England. the United
States and to any number OF foreign coun-
tries. l have myself seen copies OF 1t IN
French. German and Spanish, among other
South America: and the South Australian
Register states that the replies have come
In almost every known language and dia-
lect'
The original letter contained in the usual
form an intimation that when the redupli-
cation of the appeal reached a certain num-
ber-I believe 1t was eighty-it should be
stopped; but, as always happens, this num-
Der was speedily altered through the thick
headedness of the copyists who never seem
to reflect that the mere reduplication of the
letter to the eightieth power implies the
dispatch and receipt of more letters than
there are human beings in the world. In
the same way the address. and even the
name. of Miss Griffin became mangled be-
yond recognition, and many letters are now
in circulation directing the contribution of
stamps to be sent to places and countries
utterly remote from New South Wales.
As regards the results of all this letter
writing and stamp collecting, the informa-
ton given by the South Australian Regis
ter is most interesting. l have been under
the impression myself that some time ago
the New South Wales post office took the
drastic step of stopping the delivery of the
letters; but on this point find that 1 have
been miSinformed. 1t turns out that the
letters have been, and still are being, deliv-
cred, 50 far as is practicable. 1t seems,
however. that Mr.. and Miss Griffin them
selves long since became tired Of the labor
and expense involved In merely opening the
letters. and sorting their contents, as we'll
they might under the circumstances; and
ever since 1902 Mr.. Griffin has handed over
his mails in bulk to the hospital. He says
that he has thereby lost many private let
ters addressed to himself which serves him
right
And what does the hospital do with these
mountains OF correspondence? 1t simply
sells them In bulk to any buyer for what
they will fetch. The present rate is lis. per
thousand. The secretary of the hospital Is
OF the opinion that OCCASIONALLY the buyars
make good thing out of it. for the simple
hn Izts
tain contributions in cash as well as in old
stamps, and 1t has happened that a pur.
chaser who has found money among the
letters has been so conscientious as to re-
turn 1t to the hospital Such cases how
ever. are, l should think, rare.
AT any rate the hospital evidently consd-
ers that the chance of finding an occasional
post office order or check instead of stamps
Is 100 speculative to justify the expenditure
IL would have to incur in opening and sort
ing the letters. Between 1897 and 1902
when Mr.. Griffin worked the thing himself
ne pald over to the hospital G131. In 1882
the pospftai sold letters to the value of COG.
In 1903 1t sold some 10000 for ESQ 1os. lid
and in 1904 the sales realized 929 IS. 4d. In
ABOUT nine years, therefore, the total re-
SUITS OF this monumental appeal to charity
or the civilized world were s237
Bearing in mind "a that this is very far
from being the full market value of the
contents or the letters; CO that a great
par. OF them cost the senders 211d. each in
postage ana the rest Id each, and (3) that
many thousands OF letters have never
reached their destination at all. some Idea
may be obtained of the portentous wasre
whlcn TINS loiotic scheme has involved from
beginning to end. The postages alone
would account for many thousands Of
pounds. For all this the hospital gets e237.
inaiiy, TO crown the absurdity of the
Whole thing the children's ward which wa.
tne object Of the whole business. was nro-
Vioed long ago. the hospital having con-
strnctea a new mems ward. and appropri-
dren. NOV oA ehe GILL;
me SNOWFALL, however. is still rolling on
with apparently unabated energy. and II e.
likely to do so indefinitely. NN - 10