The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-01-01
THE CHRISTMAS STAMP.

:
/ haps it was a conuudrum News from
| Boston and New York is that the sale
of these stamps will continue until the
end of this week, for the purpose of
raising further funds with which to
/ combat tuberculosis f.. p. Bissell
writes pretty story in the Ladies
! Home Journal describing the motive
behind the Christmas stamp. He says:
What is the Christmas stamp"
! This question was asked by tens of
thousands of people in Delaware and
Pennsylvania last December. 1t will
be asked from one end of the United
States to the other this Christmas
That is why this article is written
For to understand what the Christmas
stamp means will surely be for all
readers to desire to help 1t along, and
to add II to their Christmas as part OF
the spirit of the most beautiful day in
the year.
On December T. 1907, the inhabi-
tants of Wilmington, Delaware. found
staring at them from every trolly-car
fender these words: For sale now;
the Christmas stamp; ask anybody.
This was quite enough to rouse pub.
lie curiosity; but, in addition, every
prominent drug and department store
had in its window, or somewhere
along it's counters, the legend:
BUY the Christmas Stamp
And in the corridor of the postoftce
young girl, dressed as a Red Cross
nurse, sat behind a table with roll
of stamps, the like of which no one
had seen before: each stamp bore a
wreath of holly, a tiny red cross, and
Merry Christmas
What sort of stamp was this that
had come to town? First and fore
most, questioners found out that it
was issued by the Red Cross, that
great organization that comes to the
rescue in times of war pestilence,
famine and disaster But what war,
pestilenCe, famine or disaster was
there in prosperous Wilmington? The
answer to that set the buyers think
ing There was a pestilence in VIII
mington, claiming one death out OF
every seven. 1t had reigned for years,
claiming the best and brightest out OF
many a family. The Delaware Red
Cross had issued its stamps to aid in
attacking this pestilence-the white
plague of consumption-and to stamp
+, II out III conjunction Will IhS oo
cieties already at work.
Every Christmas stamp cost a
penny; every penny from its sale was
to go for active work against con-
umption-paying for nurses, dis
pensary and sanitarium work, relieV-
ing the consumptive poor, preventing
infection and educating the public.
The little stamp was not good for
postage 1t could not carry a letter,
but any Letter or package could carry
1t. and it bore with it a message that
was good for those who sent and for
those who received it. 1t was con
> crete expression of goodwill to
men" 1t meant help and healing I'm
= His Name"
No wonder all Wilmington bought
it. The newspapers took it up. The
womens clubs all over Delaware
aGopted it enthusiastically The pub
lie school children did the same.
In a weeks time the stamp spread
to Philadelphia, where the Pennsyl'
vania Red Cross joined hands to help
it along. Five great department stores
put it on sale in the city of brotherly
: love, and girls in Red Cross uniforms
sold it in the corridors of the Phila'
delphia postoffice. One great Phila
> delphia newspaper gave it a front page
STORY" every day and sold 1t in It's
, business offices. The first one to buy
It there was one of the newSboys, a
ragged child who bought one stamp
The next was a banker who bought
= five dollars worth. Rich and poor
d. young and Old bought the little
"stickers." Business firms put them
= on every letter that went out at
r Christmas. They were gummed on
, packages. stuck on parcels. put on
>, boxes of candy, and used in every way
The Delaware Red Cross had hoped
e to sell fifty thousand stamps at the
/ most. The sudden demand for many
q more found them unprepared. Printers
and presses were hardly able tc
: satisfy the rush for more stamps The
t whole thing was so short and sudden
s only eighteen days to Christmas
that the stamp could not be ade
uuately put upon the market. But, il
spite of all that, the results were re
markable. Nearly four hundred
p thousand stamps were sold, and
nrofit of almost three thousand dol
lars was realized.
e One nurse was Immediately EN-
! ployed in Wilmington to look after the
n consumptive poor, and another to hell
=
at the tuberculosis sanitarium outside
the city. These two nurses have beer
t at work ever since, and drugs, mill
= and eggs have also been furnished al
+ year to many consumptives in theil
homes.
An educational anti-tuberculosis eX
e hibit was also brought to Wilmington
!. and attended by twenty thousand PEG
:, pie in ten days.
From all over the union, wherever
1 the stamp had gone on Christmas let
= tiers, the question came back at once
why cannot we too have the Christ
mas stamp" So the National Rec
Cross, with the secretary of war as It's
e president, and branches in every
S state, has adopted the Christmas
O stamp, to make it national this year
The announcement of its adoption was
e made by William II. Taft, as secretar!
e of war and president of the American
+ National Red Cross, at great Rec
Cross meeting in the Waldorf-Astoria
in New York, last April
8 Fplx,, ,,nur national Gt1mDS were de