The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-28
GATHERS STAMPS. D YEARS; STILL. H ENTHUSIASTIC
Oldest Collector Tells Of Huge Sums Spent For
 Rare Specimens

BROOKLYN, N. Y, Sept. N-I Psychologists are fond of telling the public that hobby riding is fine thing, but when the hobby you ride has a good financial gait and leaves you actually richer in pocket besides affording you any amount of fun, well --gallop away. William P. Brown, the first stamp collector in the United States, smiles when he hears of the thrilling ride it gives.
 In his home in Richmond Hill MT. Brown is very modest about the dis tinction of being the one who started the jolly little hobby, which has put many man up in business, and whose riders are immediately welcomed into the best circles anywhere in the world where stamp collectors pursue the lit tie squares of brightly colored paper. The late King Edward VII and the present King George of England, the Khedive of Egypt, Mrs. Harding, the widow of our former president; the late Count Farrari, whose collection the French government sold at auction for $2,50O,0 ,000, great industrial mag mates, senators, statesmen, all are game toaconjure with when the magic word philately is mentioned. The little boy
  a stamp album has at once established ] a strong bond of friendship with any one the world over, no matter what his rank or station, who follows the lure of the stamp. Our recent guest, the Prince of Wales, once gathered stamps. One of the most prized treasures of the British crown is the finest collection in the world of stamps of the British Empire.
 Mir. Brown declares it was purely through circumstance that he became the first collector.
 Some time in 1859 I lived with my father in Jersey City," said MT. Brown. He had been a translator in | India for twenty three years and had brought back many interesting memen- tos of his work, among them coins, | which he kept in the cabinets in his | parlor, where he had meetings of the | American Philogical Society, of which l he was president. E sI became interested in the coins, which comprised many rupees of India. Soon I began to pick a collection in different stores:
 Interest In Stamps
 "A few months after this," contin-
 
 of his narrative, Il heard from boys who were trading with me in coins that there was a great fancy springing up for collecting stamps as well as coins but for several months it was only done by exchange. Suddenly the style changed, and money began to be- of fefed by those who could afford to buy them. The highest price then known was one dollar, which was. the value of the ninety-cent of 1857, and the large five-cent black of New York post office stamp of 1S45.
 'tIt began to be exciting" said MT. Brown, his eyes sparkling. Collect ors used to congregate in the corridors of the old post office, corner Nassua and Liberty streets to exchange stamps and the boys said to me: Why don't you buy and sell sonic of them? You ! could do as good business in them as in coins.
 t Oh, nor said this is only fancy started up which will blow over in a month or two But instead 1t seemed to increase and l finally woke uprto the situation"
 Spreads Like Wildfire
 The craze spread like wildfire, until today men earn a handsome livelihood as collectors. In 1917 the $2,5OO,0OO collection of the late Count Farrari (Philip la Reneture), which he had be- Qlieathed to the Berlin Museum, was seized by the French government and sold at auction. One stamp alone sold foFl$32, 300, and was bought by Arthur Hinds, of Utica, New York, a carpet manufacturer, who is said to have the finest collection in the United States.
 This little patch of colored paper, which set the Philadelphia world agog, is only a one-cent stamp, crudely de- signed and set up from ordinary print ers type. For years it lay in an at tic in South America, affixed to an | old love letter before it was discovered i and authenticated. It was issued in | the colony of British Guinea in 1856. A report of this famous stamp by a | celebrated expert states that ''the copy | is a poor one, dark magenta in color, and somewhat rubbed. It is initialed | ED. w and dated April l.. the year not being distinct enough to read.
 To any one in doubt of the real sue cess of the business end of this inter- esting hobby let him know that an other stamp, the unused copy of Mau- retAflia No. 1, commands no less than $20O00; and that there are hundreds l of stamps valued at $3,0O0 apiece.
 And litle stamp has been known to drive man actually mad to possess. Not. so many years ago a Frenchman went so far as to murder his friend for a two-cent Hawaiian specimen, now known as the Murder Stamp" which | inSa recent auction brought 15O,OO0 | francs in Paris. It got its nickname in 1892, when Gaston Leroux, famous Parisian collector, was found murdered in his apartment. Hector Giroux, a friend of Leroux's, and a rabid stamp l collector, later confessed in court that he had killed his friend because he "could not live without that stamp"
 GETS TWENTY YEARS