Evening star., 1934-03-25
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.


The wise collectors who hurried
back from st. Marys City Friday and
secured flrst-day cancellations in
Washington have the prize pearls of
the occasion. Only a very few COW
ers bearing the new issue passed
through the mails here under date
of March %, and in time to come
they should be especially valuable.
But Capital cancellations of yester-
day also should be rated high. The
law of supply and demand is at
work in such circumstances, and
there also is discernable trend in
the direction of preference for Wash
ington as a mailing point of particu-
lar philatelic significance.
To illustrate: The Kosciuszko
stamp was a national tribute to the
great Polish patriot. Out of Difference
to certain citizens of Polish descent
1t went on first-day sale in a selected
list of cities among which the Fed
eral seat of government was not in
cluded. A mixed metaphor was i'm
piled by the arrangement, and Off
cials of the Post Office Department
realized the contradiction
Third Assistant Postmaster General
Clinton B. Eilenberger wrote october
IL, last: There appear to be valid
reasons why Washington should par
ticipate in the first-day sale of every
new issue of postage stamps, but this
Office has been deferred heretofore
from authorizing such action for the
reason that the facilities of the
philatelic agency are altogether in
adequate to undertake the preparation
of first day covers. AS soon as the
agency is transferred to larger quar-
ters in the new Post Office Depart
ment Building it may be possible to
adopt the arrangement proposed"
Other department officials have
urged exclusive Washington flrst-day
sale on the ground of the improved
efficiency and saving of expense which
would follow such decision. Small
post Offices, like st. Marys City for
example, are unequipped for such
rushes of business, and a flood of
complaints invariably comes in
whenever emergency methods of serv-
ice fail.
The Mothers day stamp. it is sup
posed, will establish the new prece-
dent, and the Maryland stamp may
be the last ever to have initial dis
tribution outside the Capital.
Research data for the Maryland
stamp was supplied by Michael Miller
Baltimore philateliSt, and the sketch
used in executing the design was fur
nished by Edwin Tunis. Baltimore
artist. Representative Ambrose ]
Kennedy of Maryland also is entitled
to credit in the circumStances-he
gathered an entire album of historical
facts and illustrations for the con-
sideration of the Post Office Depart
ment and the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing.
The original painting used in de-
signing the N. R A. stamp has been
presented to President Roosevelt.
william H Seely. president, the Os-
borne Co., Atwood, Clifton, N j.. was
the donor. The canvas. attractively
framed. has been valued at several
thousand dollars.
A reader asks philatelists to sup
port an appeal for commemorative
stamp for Osceola. and the suggestion
recalls one of the most dramatic
chapters in the history of the United
States.
The heroic Indian chief was the
grandson of a Scotchman but all his
sympathieS were with the aborigineS
rather than with their white enemies.
He was born in a camp near the
Chattahoochee River, Georgia, in
1904 and his childhood and early
youth were passed in an environment
which taught him to hate the oppres-
sors of his tribe Not a leader by
birth or even by formal election. he
nevertheless manifested the qualities
of chieftainship while yet only lad.
He was the spokesman of his people
in opposing the cession of the Semi
mole lands of Florida.
But his resentment against the in
roads of the whites was stirred to a
still more passionate blaze in 1885,
when his wife was seized and carried
into slavery. A protest filed with the
Indian agent earned him no salts
faction. Instead on the ground of
"rudeness" on his part, he was i'm
prisoned and kept in irons.
His release was the signal for the
Second Seminole War, a struggle
which ended when Osceola was cap
tured by trick involving violation
of flag of truce.
Incarcerated at first in an old
Spanish prison at st. Augustine, and
then at Fort Moultrie, S. c., the In
dian survived his betrayal only until
January 80, 1888. His death was
ascribed to a broken heart.
Another reader pleads for stamp
in tribute to the officers and men
lost in the U. S. S. Akron April 4
1888, and also for stamp tor the
Army flyers killed in the mail service
during the past few weeks.
An interesting variety of the 2-cent
carmine, type v, offset, Washington
medallion portrait stamp of 1913
1920 has been found. 1t shows the
STAMP DEALERS.
p. s.; orig. covers. etc. HUGO MEYER, /,