THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 363 5^/5 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/stamphuntingOOrobi ry.or jyjun«S fjRR&* STAMP HUNTING OC> : \ i) BY LEWIS ROBIE, Author of "Across Wyoming on Horseback." 1898: DONOHUE, HENNEBERRY & CO., CHICAGO, U. S. A. cyt COPYRIGHTED 1898, BY T. 8. ROSIE, CHAPTER I. SOMETHING ABOUT “STAMP FIENDS.” “I thought you were traveling for Seaburv and Johnson.” “So I was, Doc, the last time I was through here, but I made a change some time ago, and I am now with J. Ellwood Lee Co. of Conshohoc- ken, Pa.” “ Conso — what ? ” ‘ ‘ Conshohocken. ” “ How do you spell it ? ” < < C-O-N-S-H-O-H-O-C-K-E-N ;Conshohocken. ” “If I were you I would have your firm change the name of their roosting place. It would act as a hoodoo with me if I was on the road, but I know of your house. Their sponge tents and catheter, stuff blow in here once in a while from the jobbing houses, but I never bought any of their goods direct. They don’t make plasters do they? ” “I should say we did. We are right up to snuff on everything in that line.” 5 e STAMP HUNTING. “But S. and J. are the people on plasters.- I won’t have anything else but their belladonna goods, and Mead’s adhesive plaster in my drug store. ” “That’s all right, Doctor, goods of their manufacture are of the best quality possible and well known, but where quality and name are certainly essential, it is not everything neces- sary to sell goods now-a-days. Prices must play a factor. Now Lee’s quality is of the high- est, and first to be considered, but their discounts and prices are more liberal. The only thing you can say against our stuff is, that our plas- ters are not so well known out here, but we more than make up for it in the price, and judging from the gait we are now at, every druggist, not only in this country, but in all foreign coun- tries, will know of J. Ell wood Lee, as they do now of Seabury and Johnson, and Johnson and Johnson. Besides, we are parent people on hundreds of things these houses do not touch to any great extent; like ligatures, hypodermic syringes and needles; Lee’s patent solid end catheters, stethoscopes and many surgical and hospital specialties. ” STAMP HUNTING. 7 “ Yes, and I know they are all right on those goods, and on plasters too for all I know, but I am positive of S. and J’s. goods. Competition is pretty lively in plasters just now. How about Bauer and Black ? They are pushing things hard through here, too.” ‘ ‘ Bauer and Black ? Oh, they are a farm out- fit up herein Chicago, doing a two by four ten cent business. They take turns as to who milks the cows in the morning, and in the afternoon one of them builds the fire in the stove and fills the ket- tle full of dope, while the other goes down towm and buys the cloth in a dry goods store. They then spread their stuff on the cloth with a stick, and punch the holes in their plasters through with a gimlet. But no joking, Doc., Bauer and Black are all right. They are doing a rapidly increasing- large business, and they are fearless competitors. S. & J. are no competition out here in Illinois now at all, but in the plaster line, along this road particularly, Bauer and Black are much more so than any one else, not excepting Johnson and Johnson, who, at present, probably do the largest business in plasters in the West. Their man Spear through here is a stem winder and is giv- 8 STAMP HUNTING. in g J. & J’s. men, Cook and Brown, a hard chase.” “But I thought S. & J., and J. & J., were the same. ” “You don’t tell me so ? Why I have explained the difference a thousand times, and yet I believe one-half the doctors in the country, and many druggists still think that they are all of the same house, or of the same breed of pups. The fact is, some years ago R. W. Johnson pulled out of Seabury and Johnson, which firm consisted of him and George J. Seabury. He took his brother with him and started in competition under the name of Johnson and Johnson, while Seabury, who is really the whole push of S. & J. , still clings to the old name, Seabury and Johnson. It is unfortunate for Seabury, because Johnson and Johnson’s goods are really about the same, and most of the trade, and the physicians, would not throw up their hands for the difference be- tween the two, and J. & J. , selling at a little bet- ter inducement, give them the advantage. Besides, S. & J., antagonize the jobbers, which trade pushes out Johnson and Johnson’s goods, on account of their more liberal policy with them. STAMP HUNTING. 9 “That accounts for my getting so many of J. & J’s. goods from the jobbers. You speak of Spear being a stem-winder for Bauer and Black. How about their man Wilson who used to be with Seabury and Johnson ? 55 ‘ ‘ I know him. Smokes a pipe and is always busted.” “Yes, that’s the fellow. Not so windy and not half so much of a liar as you are, either, I reckon, but as you say, he is always busted. I had to let him have $2 to enable him to get out of town when he was here last, but it was returned all right.” “Yes, it certainly would be. I would rather he would owe me $500 than $5, and he is awful handy to have around if you are busted yourself. If you want a dollar and he hasn’t it, he will borrow $2 from some one else and give you half. He is a salesman too, but a mystery to most of us how he sells anything at all. He doesn’t say much, and when he does speak he talks in such a low tone you have to guess at half what he does say. He is so slow and indifferent that if a house fell on him he wouldn’t be surprised or would he move any quicker. Start us all out at the same time 10 STAMP HUNTING. and at the same gait, we’ll fall all over him the first two or three days, but in a stretch of ten days or so, he will bring in more business than any one in the bunch. He is a determined sort of a cuss, too. I used to work with him for S. & J. around Chicago with an open buckboard. One day it was cold enough to freeze the ears off from a jack rabbit, and I was beefing to pull in and quit, but he was determined to get in his average number of orders, and he kept at it long- after dark, till he finally landed his man. It was after nine o’clock though, before we got thawed out, and had something to eat. But speaking of Seabury and Johnson reminds me of the old revenue stamp they used on their Benson’s plasters years ago. Have you any of them, Doc. % or any old perfumery bottles, pills, face powders or patent medicines with the stamps on ? ” “ I don’t believe I have. 1 used to have a lot of old stuff but I got so tired seeing it lying around here so long, that last fall I made a big cart load of it and dumped the whole shooting match into the river. Most of it had stamps, too.” “You probably threw away several hundred STA.MP HUNTING. 11 dollars worth of old stamps, Doctor. Between yon and me, there is a value put on these old revenue stamps.” “ Is that so ? I didn’t know that. Who pays any money for them ? You can’t use ’em for postage, and the government won’t redeem them, as I tried to have them do so, myself, several years ago. ” “No, but collectors demand them, and the comparative scarcity of these medicine stamps now fixes a price, and some of them are worth more than you ever dreamed of, such as the six cent orange proprietary used on Osgood’s Indian Chologog, Wilhoft’s Fever and Ague Cure, and a few other dollar and a half remedies. There were so few issued, finding one is like finding thirty dollars in cash.” “You’re joking. Do you mean to tell me that there’s any old revenue stamp worth thirty dol- lars ? You’re crazy.” “Dig one up here, and see if I am. And then take Seabury and Johnson’s stamp. I will give you five dollars apiece for all you will trot out, of a certain kind.” “You don’t mean it. Well, come to think of 12 STAMP HUNTING. it, I believe I have an old box of these plasters and I’ll just call your five dollars. Let us step back into the back room and find out. Yes, sir, here you are; one, two, four, yes, eight of them. Trot out your forty dollars, old man.” 4 ‘But they are not the right color, Doc. The rare ones are a lake, sort of reddish brown color. These are black and are only catalogued five cents. The other is catalogued eighteen dollars, and worth it, because of so few known. In fact, out- side of a few in the leading collections, I only know of a dozen or so copies scattered through the country. None of the stamp dealers have any that I know of. You see, the law was repealed before many of these were used, but thousands and thousands of the black ones were issued, and are comparatively common. Another thing, here are three of the lot different from the rest. Do you see any difference ? ” “No.” 4 6 Look again. See the word ‘ porous 5 erased or obliterated on these and not on those. That was done because the Alcock people finally obtained through the courts the exclusive right to the words 6 porous,’ compelling Seabury and John- STAMP HUNTING. 13 son to erase the words from their stamps. First it was done with a pen, which fact made that stamp more valuable than the latter method of a die be- ing used like these .’ 5 “Well, I want to know; and people pay money for these old stamps. I can understand how one can becomes interested in coins, as there is value in them, but I thought this stamp fad was con- fined to ‘ kids 5 and postage stamps, and had died out long ago. Tell me who collects them, what class of people, etc. You may have these. Bring up your chair and sit down. It is stormy outside, and my clerk will watch the front. I’ll give you an order for a few things; but tell me more about these stamp fiends — you call ’em. The retail drug business is so confining that here in a small coun- try town we never hear of what other people are doing, outside of the newspapers.” ‘ i Stamp collectors, Doctor Bailey, are made up of all kinds of people in all parts of the world. It is a hobby once fastened can never entirely be shaken off. You may lose interest for awhile, perhaps altogether, but there will come a time when you will be back again, more enthusiastic than ever. I received a letter from one of Min- 14 STAMP HUNTING. nesota’s leading business men the other day, who said: ‘ A few years ago I had a very fine collec- tion of foreign and United States stamps, but the large number of new issues, and other varieties, induced me to part with it, and stop collecting. For awhile I had nothing to do with stamps, or collecting them, but the old craze again took hold of me and I made a specialty of United States. Again the minor varieties, etc., induced me to stop and sell out. For two or three years I made good my resolve not to collect stamps again, but at last the hobby has come back in full force, and I am at it now worse than ever . 5 ‘ ‘ I know many of my boyhood friends, who collected stamps twenty years ago, dropped it as they entered business life, but lately have had the mania come back, and are now collecting and as enthusiastic as when they were school boys. You would be surprised to know of the prominent men collecting stamps, and stamp enthusiasts. The Czar of Eussia is a stamp collector. The Duke of York has one of the largest and best col- lections known, valued at several hundred thous- and dollars. Other members of the nobility of all foreign countries are ardent lovers of stamps, STAMP HUNTING. 15 and in this country, many of the wealthy and prominent people in public and business life, of all vocations, sexes and ages are stamp collectors. It is hard, however, to educate an interest in them. Stamp fiends are generally born, not made, though of course many have become inter- ested by seeing others interested, but they prob- ably had the inward hobby or inclination toward it beforehand, and like a smouldering log, it needed only a fan to start the flame. I have a friend, a leading dry goods merchant in Highland, a little town near St. Louis, in this state, who has a very fine collection of stamps, especially in United States revenues, and is a very enthusiastic collector, but, try as he will, he cannot get his young son interested in them at all, and he calls his father an “ old chump,” collecting old stamps. Not far from him is another business man, w^ho has no use at all for stamps or stamp collectors, but has a boy who is as crazy over stamps as his business competitor, and his father thinks he has ‘ wheels . 5 “We all have our hobbies, and what seems foolish and ridiculous to one, may be the very life and existence of another; and collecting some- 16 STAMP HUNTING. thing is all the rage in the present day. There are collectors of monograms, jewels, autographs, old china, candle-sticks, medals, coins, armor, etc. Nothing could be queerer than the articles which some of these individuals make it the object of their lives to accumulate. A fellow up here in the northern part of Illinois is making a col- lection of rooster’s spurs. The druggist telling me about him said I was no better paying good money for old labels, costing about thirty cents a thousand. He thought I was a big chump. If he only knew I got six dollars for the stamps I paid him forty cents for, he wouldn’t think I was so chump-like. “There is a certain traveler of means who is getting up all the tattooed human heads he can find. Another person is collecting cigar butts, while the poster craze among the more fashiona- ble and better element of society is quite the fad now. Another collecting mania is for bills of fare from as many different hotels as possible. Patti papers the walls of her private sitting room with opera programs from all over the world, in which she has participated. But after all, stamp collecting takes the lead. ” STAMP HUNTING. 17 “In 1860 there were only about 500 stamps in existence, and were of no account, but since that time the mania for collecting them has grown to such an extent, that a rare stamp now is almost current funds in every quarter of the globe. But, gee whiz ! Doc, it is half past eleven. I must go. I’ll tell you more about stamps, etc. , when I get round again in about ninety days. What plasters and dressings can you stand ? Give me a trial order and see how our stuff opens up. “All right, I will do it. Put down — 2 boxes of belladonna plasters, 1 box strengthening plasters, 1 box belladonna and capsicum, 25 lbs. cotton in lbs., 10 lbs. cotton in % lbs. , 10 lbs. cotton in £ lbs., 5 lbs. cotton in oz. How does your gauze come, in glass or boxes ? ” “ Both.” “Well, I prefer glass. Don’t dry out so quick. 5 — 5 yds. corrosive sublimate 1-2000, 10 — 1 yds. corrosive sublimate 1-1000, 3 — 5 yds. 5 per cent, iodoform, 18 STAMP HUNTING. 2— 5 yds. 10 per cent, iodoform, ** 1 yds* 5 per cent, iodoform, 3 — 1 yds. 10 per cent, iodoform, 1 gross 3-piece silk court plaster, and you might add a half a gross of those commercial catheters, assorted sizes, 6 to 12. ” “ How about oiled muslin or oiled silk ? ” ‘ ‘ Don’t sell much. Have all I want any way. ” Lee’s sulphur torches, fifty cents a dozen? ” “Yes, put in three dozen of them. An d a half a dozen rolls of white silk isinglass plaster. That’s all this time. That will make a freight shipment, and I’ll see how the stuff compares with your competitors. I have been much inter- ested in your stamp people, and I’ll look through my cellar before you come again. Maybe I’ll find a six cent orange proprietary stamp you say is worth thirty dollars. ” “ I hope you will. I am much obliged to you for the order. If the goods are not up to the standard, jump on me.” CHAPTER II. STAMP COLLECTING IN 1875. “Say, yon red-whiskered stamp fiend, you fake plaster man, your iodoform gauze ain’t worth a sou.” “What is the matter with you Doc.? You’re talking through your suspenders now. Who is telling you Lee’s iodoform gauze isn’t all right ? ” c c It came back on me from Dr. Henry across the street. He said it was no good, and he couldn’t get any results out of it; said it wasn’t anywhere near ten per cent, and it didn’t look yellow enough. ” “You tell Dr. Henry he doesn’t know anything about iodoform gauze. I defy any one to tell by the color how much iodoform there is in it. Make him a proposition, or rather I’ll make you a proposition. Buy J. Ellwood Lee’s gauze on the market and give it a labaratory test, and if there isn’t the percentage of iodoform printed on 19 20 STAMP HUNTING. the label in the goods, I’ll pay for the gauze. If it does stand the test, you pay for it.” “ But, perhaps as you say, he didn’t know any- thing about it. I see the young man sold it again to a doctor out of town, and he didn’t kick any. Put me down for five more yards in glass, and a dozen one yards in glass, — but where have you been since you were last here ? You left me so interested in stamps that I have hauled over everything I had, and found quite a few. I ran across a couple of Palmer’s old perfumery bottles with thirty-two cents in stamps on each one of them. How do you account for that? My predecessor, whom I bought out here ten years ago, had the bottles in stock then.” u That’s explained, Doctor. The selling price of the goods must have been eight dollars, as it required a one cent stamp or one cent tax for every twenty-five cents. That is, a dollar article had to have a four cent stamp, and so on, but the reason so many were put on these Solon Pal- mer’s perfumery bottles was that the double tax was necessary — that is, Palmer slapped on sixteen cents in stamps, getting four dollars for the pound bot- tle, but the druggists sold it out generally at fifty STAMP HUNTING, 21 cents an ounce, or eight dollars by the bottle, and that necessitated sixteen cents more in stamps. It was a long time before the government found out about this, and that is the reason why I have found sometimes sixteen cents in stamps on them, and other times thirty-two cents. Here in Illinois and the West, I have found to date one hundred and thirty-six ten cent green stamps, worth at wholesale now about sixty or seventy-five cents each, and eight or ten of the ten cent blues worth seven dollars and a half or so, each, and hundreds of sixes, worth from five to twenty cents each, and most all found on Solon Palmer’s pound bot- tles of perfumery with glass labels. Palmer must have used at least ten thousand of these ten cent stamps, as it was only on perfumery bot- tles of this character and cans of opium that this denomination was used.” ‘ c Is that so ? But it makes me feel very tired indeed, to know all this now. I had thousands of these medicine stamps at one time. Why didn’t you come round six or eight years ago and tell me about it then ?” ‘ ‘ But I didn’t know it myself at that time, and if everyone knew of it and saved their stamps STAMP HUNTING. 22 they wouldn’t be scarce, and therefore of little value. It’s their scarcity and the increased de- mand that places the price on them. There are more collectors for this class of stamps every year, and fewer stamps. From the natural law of supply and demand, match and medicine stamps of the United States must, therefore, necessarily continue to advance in price.” ( ‘ But suppose collectors should take a notion to quit collecting and put all the stamps on the market; wouldn’t the price tumble ? ” “ Certainly, but such a thing, generally speak- ing, is impossible; as I told you when I last called on you, it is a hobby you can’t altogether throw off. Take away the postoffices, the railroads, telegraph and all signs of advanced civilization, place us once more where Columbus found us, and you won’t find any stamp collectors. But stamp col- lecting nowadays is different from what it was twenty years ago, when I was a boy. I first started collecting stamps when I was twelve years old, in 1875. In those days a dollar paid for any kind of a stamp was an enormous sum, as it looked then. I remember paying seventy-five cents for a six cent United States envelope of 1857 STAMP HUNTING. 23 issue, and my mother calling me a crazy boy for spending so much money on one stamp. ‘ Why don’t you buy one of those packets containing one hundred varieties for the same money and get so many more for your collection,’ she said. To-day this six cent stamp is worth fifty dollars and the one hundred, although advanced considerably too, are not worth more than ten dollars.” “ Isn’t that strange; to think that in twenty years a little piece of paper could increase in value fifty times. I could have had a fine collection of these stamps myself, if I had thought they would be worth anything. A young fellow offered me his collection for ten dollars; I think it was along about 1880, and he had a great album full of them too, but I wouldn’t have given a dollar for any- thing of that kind then.” “ You missed it, Doc.; but my old time collec- tion including this rare stamp and nearly 1500 other different kinds was stolen from me and never recovered.” “Is that so? That is too bad. How did it happen ? ” “ It was in this way. In 1883 I was in the employ of Marshall Field & Co., in Chicago, 24 STA.MP HUNTING. having started with that firm three years before when it was Field, Leiter & Co. Three dollars a week was the munificent stipend offered me at the * start. I was given a mallet and a hatchet and directed to knock the covers off from a hundred print boxes. By night time, I reasoned out as I dragged myself to my room that I had well earned fifty cents. Along about two months afterward, the head of the department came round and said I was getting along first rate, and they had concluded that I was worth more money to them, and had raised my salary to four dollars a week, and the first of January they would give me five. The first of the year came and on my receiving the five dollars, I swung clear of past help from home, and vowed I would stand upon my own resources. After paying board and clothes, and necessary expenses, the end of the week did not find me with a very large roll for spending money, but I knuckled down to it, and for five months lived and kept myself on five dollars a week. By that time I had so mastered the duties expected of me as stock boy, that I reached out to sell goods. I would light onto everybody roam- ing through the stock loose, and in this way STAMP HUNTING. 25 caught onto a number of customers and soon had quite a little trade worked up. But I didn’t get , any special credit for it. Only department sales- men received credit for sales, and all goods I sold, or any other stock boy sold, went in only as general credit to the department. I kept track, however, of the sales I made as near as I could judge, and tabbed the total amounts each day on a shingle. One day I reasoned out to myself that it was only fair that I should get credit, and a special book or record kept of what I did in the office, like the salesmen, so that after a while Mr. Marshall Field would know my name, and what I was doing. I concluded to interview Mr. Field, himself on the subject, and immediately sought him out in his private office. It was some little time before I could get by the outer guards, and private secretaries, but finally reached him, with the shingle of sales in my hand. I opened up that I was tired selling goods and receiving no credit or pay for it, and that I wanted to be a salesman known to the firm as well as to myself. Besides, five dollars a week salary was not enough to even live on. u Mr. Field is a very affable man, but answers 26 STAMP HUNTING. questions by asking them. He has a peculiar way of bowing and twisting his head when talking. “ ‘ What is your name?’ he said. I told him, and he asks, ‘ How long have you been here ? ’ ‘ ‘ ‘A little over a year, ’ I says. 6 He-he-ah-ah- oh-oh,’ in his peculiar drawl. ‘ You are getting now more than I got when I was your age.’ “ ‘That may be, Mr. Field, but you may not have been worth any more than that then. ’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Ah-ah-hum-hum-we can get plenty of boys in here whose fathers would be glad to have them learn the business without pay. You must real- ize you are in a business school. Where do you spend your evenings ? ’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Mr. Field, when I get through with paying my board and washing, there is not enough left of your five dollars to pay street car fare to a park concert. Besides, I am so tired out after hustling and sweating here all day, I haven’t any inclination to go any where, but to bed. ’ “ ‘ Ha-ha, -he-he,-um-um,-ril see about it. I’ll call the head of the dress goods department and find out what he says about you,’ bowing me out. “Later in the day, Mr. Ray, the department STAMP HUNTING. 27 manager, said that I had a good deal of nerve to talk to Mr. Field that way, but he raised my sal- ary to eight dollars a week. “When pay day came round, however, the same ten dollar bill for two weeks work was in my envelope, and nothing else. Mr. Ray said it must have been a mistake — to see the paymaster about it. I did so, but he did not know anything about any change in my pay. “ ‘ Well, I’ll see Mr. Field. I say he raised my salary a week ago to eight dollars a week. ’ “ ‘But he has sailed for Europe. See Mr. Fair about it.’ “Mr. Fair did not know anything about it, and he called Mr. Ray, and was advised that I must wait till Mr. Field returned, and then the back pay would be given me. “ ‘That’s all right,’ I said, ‘but I am depend- ing on it to live on, and must have it.’ “ Finally one of Mr. Field’s private secretaries was seen, and the memo authorizing the advance was found, and I was happy. But I am getting off my subject, Doctor. I was going to tell you about losing my stamp collection. Well, I stayed in Marshall Field’s for three years; my salary 28 STAMP HUNTING. was advanced several times, bat my health, from a lung trouble, finally gave out, and I was obliged to seek ranch life in Wyoming. I was out there for a year, living and sleeping in the open air. Of course I had my stamps with me, although since entering business in 1880 I had not touched them, and there wasn’t, therefore, any stamps in the collection issued since that date. Late that Fall I was in the valley of the Big Horn in northern Wyoming, one hundred and sixty miles from the nearest railroad, working on a horse ranch. The residents of Big Horn City, our nearest postoffice, got up a fair, the first ever held in Wyoming Territory. I thought of my old stamp collection as being something to exhibit, and when the diplomas were passed round after the show, 1 received first prize for a collection of stamps from all over the world. The reason I came first, I think, rested in the fact that mine was the only one exhibited. Anyhow, to-day, Doctor, the col- lection would catalogue many hundreds of dollars. Soon after the fair I returned to Chicago in charge of six hundred head of beeves, leaving six head of horses 1 owned, and my trunk, containing all my personal effects, as well as the stamp album. STAMP HUNTING. 29 I expected to have returned to the ranch, but friends advised me to stay East during the winter, and I concluded to do so. I sent back word to forward trunk by freight, but I got no answer, and after investigating, found that the ranchman had sold my trunk for a song to a freighter, who had skipped with my horses and other property entrusted to him, headed towards Montana. ‘ ‘ I tried every way, Doc. , to get some trace of my property, especially the contents of the old trunk, but without success, and my treasured stamps were probably dumped into the creek with other papers, etc., as being of no apparent value. ” CHAPTER III. STAMP COLLECTING AT THE PRESENT TIME. “You look down in the gills. What is the matter with you? J. & J. and Bauer & Black selling all the plasters? ” ‘ ‘ No, Doc. Business is all right. I am having a good trade, but I am in hard luck. I lost two hundred dollars last week.” “Well, that’s too bad. How did it happen? Playing up against a little poker game? ” “Not on your life. When I left you three months ago, I worked down the Big Four, and while in Olney discovered sixty boxes of Hum- phrey’s pills, each having a two cent rouletted proprietary cataloguing five dollars apiece. The druggist seemed satisfied with an exchange of a dozen porous plasters for the stamps, but I was in a hurry to get my train for St. Louis and only took time to sponge off a half a dozen of them, leaving the balance. Well, I swung around there last week on purpose to get the stamps and found my friend, the druggist, much elated over the 30 STAMP HUNTING. 31 fact that while he was out one day lately a fellow came in and bought from the clerk the whole lot of them, paying the full retail price of fifty cents apiece, pills and all . 55 “By Gorry, that was too bad. Who was it, Gurley ? ” “No, it wasn’t Gurley. He doesn’t have to buy old pills and medicines just to get the stamps. His limit for a lot is about twenty-five cents. Sometimes on a large number of rare stamps I have known him to go as high as fifty cents, but it isn’t often. I think it was a chap that travels for a New York cloak house. He is a medicine stamp fiend of the most rabid kind. He skates into drug stores and calls off a list of old medi- cines and pills, and if the druggist has them, the stamp, if found in good condition, is worth a great deal more than the article. He then makes an offer for the lot, takes the stamps off and makes the druggist a present of his medicine back again. He got one on me in Decatur last summer in West’s drug store, opposite the St. Nicholas Hotel. I thought I had swiped every- thing off of any account, but this fellow found three dozen old porous plasters with the Demas 32 ' STAMP HUNTING. Barnes stamp cataloguing a dollar and a quarter, and bought the old plasters at ten cents each. I therefore think this was the same chap. Anyhow, I am not losing so much. This druggist in Olney took pity on me and" dug up a half dozen boxes of M. A. Simmon’s pills of luka, Miss., each having a strip of four stamps cataloguing two dollars a stamp, and we swapped even stamps for corn plasters.” “ So I see; your two hundred dollars you lost is not so bad after all. What else have you found? any six cent orange proprietaries? ” “Not yet, Doctor, but I am on the lookout all the time. I’ll land one some day. ” “I hope so, but I am getting stuck on this stamp collecting myself. I sent for a Scott’s catalogue the other day, and a mixed revenue packet, and have them in an old scrap book till I know what kind of an album to get. Your speak- ing of this druggist in Olney getting fooled by your stamp fiends so, reminds me of one on me, a good cigar story, but this was a dead open and shut swindle and I only tell it to show you how the best of us will get taken in once in a while. “Well, along last fall a fellow, came along here STAMP HUNTING, 33 and came into my drug store and introduced him- self as a lawyer on his way to California to spend the winter. He was faultlessly dressed, wore an expensive silk lined overcoat, a diamond pin on an immaculate shirt front, tan colored gloves, plug hat, etc. Altogether he was the sprucest looking duck that ever came down the pike and, like you, was an amusing kind of a cuss. I like a good smoke as well as anyone, and when he of- fered me one of his fragrant Havanas, I readily accepted it. ‘Now,’ he says, d am not selling anything, but I am placed in a rather peculiar position. To make a long story short, I am as- signee for Smith and Jones, manufacturers of fine cigars, who failed some time ago in Phila- delphia. Previous to their failure, they had con- signed to themselves to a number of cities throughout the West, from five to ten thousand of the same kind of cigars that we are now smok- ing. The court, however, ruled that they be- longed to me for the benefit of the creditors. As a matter of fact there are ten thousand of these cigars down to the freight depot here in Punkville — at least I understand so, but it is possible that the cigars may be an inferior grade and not 34 STAMP HUNTING. worth anything to speak of, still, I don’t want to re-ship them around the country and would like to have you make some kind of an offer for them. ’ Ten thousand fine cigars would last me over two years, and I didn’t think I could use so many at any price. ‘ Anyhow, ’ said the fellow, ‘ let me have them wheeled in here and we will open them up and see what they look like. There may be some fake about it and, as I say, may not be worth anything to you or anybody else.’ He went out and in a half hour’s time returned with an expressman with the case of cigars. We knocked the lid off and the box he picked out and opened were the same kind that we were smoking and worth at least sixty dollars a thousand. He wished that I would take them off his hands as he did not want to re-ship and truck them around the country. I asked him his price and terms and he replied: ‘I tell you what I’ll do; I’ve got money enough — you give me a note for $250 for the ten thousand cigars, $25 a thousand, for one year; and I’ll make an agreement with you to take back all unsold at full purchase price at the end of that time. ’ I accepted the proposition and started to make out the note when the chap commenced * STAMP HUNTING. 35 to tell me how he would get for me and my fam- ily railroad passes to California and back, etc., etc., and I became a little suspicious. I excused myself a minute and directed my clerk to take an unopened box in the case over to a cigar factory across, the street and get their opinion on what it was worth. In the meantime I busied myself with a prescription. The boy soon returned and pronounced the cigars worth about $8 a thousand, and I could see myself that they were made of the cheapest kind of tobacco possible. My f riend was out in front, but I decided not to let on about it. I simply said to him that I could not go into the deal, that I found I had more cigars than I thought I had. He must have suspected that I had tumbled to the fake, but he did not show it. He was sorry that I should pass such a rare cigar bargain. He nailed up the case and said he would send an expressman around for the box. Well, sir, would you believe me; that fellow took those cigars back to the depot, went into the druggist’s on the corner, gave them the same song and dance and his worthless contract, and came out with their note for $250, for which the bank gave him $225 in cash, skipped out on the first 36 STA.MP HUNTING. train over $125 ahead, and my neighbors now have to pay $250 for a lot of truck cigars that they won’t get $100 out of if they ever sell them at all.” “ Pretty tough on your neighbors, but I have heard of that fellow before. He has worked the same game in a number of places through Illinois. I heard of him last in Paris, in the western part of the state, but the druggist suspected some- thing wrong in time. It is funny, Doc. , how that note act is still worked all over the country. Your story reminds me of a case that happened up here near Dixon, early last spring. A wealthy farmer living not far from town was rounding up his stock one night, when he heard a great noise and hulabaloo out in the street opposite the house. Investigating, he found a couple of fellows seem- ingly stalled in the mud, with a big piano looking box in the wagon. One of them asked the farmer if he could pull in and leave their piano in his barn till the roads were better; so they could get through to a certain party three miles distant. ‘ Certainly, ’ replied the farmer, ‘ wheel her in. The roads are worse over the hill and you’re wel- come to leave it here till they dry up. ’ STAMP HUNTING. 37 “It was a pre-arranged scheme. They put the piano in the barn all right, had supper with the old man, and were ready to drive back to Dixon four miles, when one of the fellows said, ‘ Now Mr. Farmer, we appreciate your kindness, and we have no doubt of your honesty, but in case any- thing happens to us, we want our firm to have something to show where their property is. You, of course, don’t object to signing a little receipt, stating you have it? ’ “‘No, certainly not,’ replied the farmer, and he readily signed what seemed to be a receipt for a piano valued at two hundred and fifty dollars. The men drove away, and three months after, the Dixon National Bank notified our friend that his note for two hundred and fifty dollars would fall due the following week, for a piano which proved to be a rattle trap of an affair worth not more than fifty dollars. I should think, Doctor, that people would tumble to such schemes, but we hear of them every day. They say that a new fool is born every minute.” “ I guess that’s right. We get them in here every day with some fake or another. But, to re- turn to stamps, what would you advise me to col- 88 STAMP HUNTING. lect ? As you have said there are so many new issues coming up all the time in postage stamps, and shades and varieties of shades, etc. , I am a little at sea just where to draw the line . 55 “ I should say start in on the United States revenues including the document varieties, and when you get those practically complete, take up Canadian revenues. These latter stamps are very beautiful and interesting and will constantly increase in value, particularly the Canada bill stamps. These were issued in the early sixties when Canada was young and of little importance. Few of these stamps were issued and as new col- lections are coming in every day their price is bound to advance. Start in on the cheapest match and medicine stamps. Confine your col- lection at first to only one paper of a kind, and gradually increase it as they come your way by exchanging with other collectors, buying and finding them. Aside from the great pleasure you will soon find in collecting, you couldn’t invest your money better than in this class of stamps. They will constantly increase in value. They don’t take up much room and there are no taxes to pay on them. Be careful, though, in getting STAMP HUNTING. 39 only perfect specimens. A slightly torn or in any way damaged stamp, unless it is very rare indeed, as I have told you before, is of no market value, and it is a great deal better to pay more for an evenly centered perfect stamp, for if you ever want to sell your collection, damaged or imper- fect stamps hurt the value of it. Better pay full catalogue price for a perfect stamp than one quar- ter catalogue for a damaged one. Years ago condition wasn’t hardly considered; anything went. If a stamp was a little torn or discolored or heavily cancelled, its value wasn’t so much hurt by it. Collectors took them in, but nowadays, condition is everything. You say you sent for Scott’s catalogue. That is the standard, and although it has its defects and imperfections, it reflects the actual condition of the market value of the stamps, allowing about fifty per cent, off on the average. u Of course there are many stamps that cannot be obtained at full listed price, but there are many also that are catalogued too high, and are slow sellers even at half catalogue. Fashion chancres in stamp collecting as in everything else, and where it may be at this time all the rage to col- lect the Spanish West Indies, Philippine Islands, 40 STAMP HUNTING. revenue and match and medicine stamps, another season may see some other countries more in favor. Therefore, the prices listed in the catalogue are bound to fluctuate, and that is the reason why you see all dealers advertise stamps at various dis- counts, from 10 to 60 per cent. The makers of Scott catalogue receive all manner of criticisms, more or less harsh, as to the prices they compile from year to year, but when one considers how impossible it is to anticipate what the demand for certain stamps will be, the possible large finds of some rare stamps, or remainders in postoffices showing up, etc. , it is surprising to me that there are no more mistakes and errors than there really are. As Mr. Luff, the leading compiler of the catalogue says, 4 Criticism is so much easier than productions. The man who never raises any crops of his own has usually a well-developed talent for leaning over the garden gate and point- ing out the small potatoes in his neighbor’s har- vest. 5 Like the student who said it was easy enough to make Proverbs like Solomon did: ‘Quite right, Mr. Student, but just make a few.’ ” “Yes, it is like the successful business man in the community. The unsuccessful always rise up STAMP HUNTING. 41 to find criticism and fault. It would seem that most people know how to run every other business but their own.” 4 4 That is about right, Doctor, and it is a hard world to satisfy. Like the story of the jackass, the old man and the little boy; you can’t please yourself and everybody else. For getting his hair cut Samson got into trouble, and for not getting it cut Absolom got into trouble too, but you will never get into trouble collecting stamps, Doc. In fact your troubles and worries of life will then be forgotten.” 4 4 1 hope so ; I need something to compensate for the ceaseless drudging and dissatisfaction of the drug business. ” CHAPTER IV. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MATCH AND MEDICINE STAMP. “ You were going to tell me more about the history of these medicine and proprietary stamps when you got round again. I am not busy to-day and I am now a full-fledged stamp fiend, and want to know all I can about stamps, especially the United States revenues. By the way, there was a fellow along here last week representing Hum* iston, Keeling & Co., of Chicago. Says you bought thousands of stamps of them, but you had to take the pills in order to get the stamps. How did you take them, internally ? ” “ Not all at once, Doc., but that was a deal I didn’t make very much on, although I didn’t lose anything. This firm makes it a business of buy- ing up and trading for old pills and patent med- icine, and in this way gather a lot of old stuff hav- ing stamps. I looked over the lot they had in stock and made an offer of taking everything at one cent apiece, just as they come, but I would 42 STAMP HUNTING. 43 never have made it if I had known Mr. Keeling had a Scott’s catalogue in his desk, and a son a stamp fiend. The rarities, of course, were all taken out beforehand; still, a number of good things escaped, for I found quite a few rouletted proprietaries and a one cent inverted medallion of the 1871 issue, worth about fifteen dollars. This is a very rare stamp in good condition. 6 ‘But going back to the history of the stamps. In September, 1 8 6 2, the first adhesive stamp tax became a law. Under its provisions any manufacturer of playing cards or patent medicines, or anything containing a secret or private formula, could have their own design or die made for the revenue stamp, to be used by them exclusively, provided the design was approved by the government and at the manufacturer’s expense. At first there were not many that took advantage of it. The great civil strife had by this time nearly paralyzed the main industries of the country, and many preferred to buy the regular issue and surcharge them, or write or stamp their name or trade mark over the stamp. The thirty-eighth Congress on June 30th, 1864, passed another internal revenue act, to be in force from August 1st of that year. 44 STAMP HUNTING. This law increased some of the duties, abolished others and made many minor changes. The tax on medicines remained the same as in the original act, which was: Where the retail price was 25c or less . . lc. Over 25c and not more than 50c 2c. Over 50c and not more than 75c 3c. Over 7 5c and not more than $1 4c. For every 50c or fractional part thereof, over and above $1 2c. ‘ ‘ There was besides this an addition covering matches, requiring on any package containing one hundred matches or less, a one cent stamp, and for every additional one hundred matches or less, one cent. The special die privileges were also extended to the match manufacturers, and by this time the many firms, seeing a permanent and prominent advertisement in their special stamps, took advantage of it. The income from this source, with all the other internal revenue taxa- tion, was enormous, the government collecting for the year ending June 30th, 1866, over three hundred million dollars. During that year there was a change in the schedule, where playing cards, STAMP HUNTING. 45 which heretofore were taxed according to their selling price, now had a uniform stamp of five cents per pack. “An addition was also made at this time taxing canned goods, but was not in operation long, owing to the difficulty in collecting it. Kensett & Co., canners, of Baltimore, were the only firm taking advantage of the special die privileges, and that is the reason, Dr. Bailey, you find that stamp worth fully the price the Scott Stamp & Coin Co. catalogue it, fifteen dollars. “Use of specified paper in the manufacture of stamps commenced in 1876. The first distinct variety, other than various minor kinds of thin hard paper, catalogued as “old paper,” was silk paper, containing silken threads similar to our paper money. Early in the year 1877 a wove paper of pink color was experimented with, but not with the apparent success that was claimed for it, for in 1878 the department adopted another white paper, this time water marked, the capital letters U. S. I. K., ingrained into the texture of the paper. There was therefore, four distinct papers used: old paper consisting of a thin hard paper, eilken, pinked and water marked, and you can 46 STAMP HUNTING. readily see why some stamps of the same appear- ance to one not knowing or interested, are at variance with each other as to their value; the pink being more rare than the others as a rule, owing to fewer issues of that particular paper. On July 1st, 1883, an act went into effect abol- ishing the tax on all duties for which the private stamps were issued. “As every manufacturer having his own special stamp wanted to be different from anyone else, either in design, color or size, a collection of these stamps must therefore, afford a very inter- esting study. Patriotism at that time was ram- pant and many of the stamps had designs of the flag, the stars and stripes, Liberty, American eagle, the clasping hands, etc. t The pine tree of the Orono Match Co., of Orono, Maine; the vol cano on the Pierce Match Co. ; the rooster on the Eisenhart matches; the bear on the Thos. Allen issues, and the deer on those of W. D. Curtis, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and many others are more or less unique and historical. “The original dies of all these stamps have been destroyed, and you can therefore readily understand, with the constant decreasing supply STAMP HUNTING. 47 and increase in collectors, that the stamps are bound to steadily go up in price, more par- ticularly the match stamps. Stamped medicines and pills, as you can see Doc. , are still kept in many drug stores for possible calls, but I never have found but very few matches stamped, the latter being used up and not carried from year to year as dead stock in the store. But there will come a time when all the old medicine stamps caused by the great civil strife will have disap- peared from the drug stores, and you and me and other collectors having them will be the only sources where they can be found. So I am digging through the drug stocks in my travels as fast as I can for these old stamps — can you wonder at it? ” “No, and you have an exceptionally good opportunity of finding them, and with no expense getting round. Which is the rarest of all the pri- vate proprietaries ? You said the six cent orange proprietary was worth thirty-five dollars. Is any match or medicine stamp worth more than that ?” “Yes, I should say so. There are many worth many times that. The Caterson Brotz & Co., five cent playing card stamp is probably the rar- est, and, though unpriced by Scott it is safe to 48 STAMP HUNTING. put down its value at two hundred and fifty dol- lars. There are only two known, and I doubt if this sum would buy one of them. This firm ordered their special die just before the repeal of the act, and several thousand of the stamps were struck off, but they did not use them and were all destroyed save two. The Thos. E. Wilson four cent black is also a rare stamp. Scott catalogues it at two hundred dollars, but cannot supply it at that price. I never saw but one copy of it, in the Yanderlip collection in Boston, and it is the only one known, although it is not certain but that there are a few more. The reason the stamp is so rare, Dr. Wilson’s partner objected to it, and a quarrel between the two partners resulted. The doctor, in a fit of anger, went to the safe and thrust all the stamps into the stove, and not more than half a dozen copies escaped. “The Rock Island stamp of the American Match Company is a very rare, probably the rarest, of all the match stamps, not over eight copies of it being accounted for. My friend, Mr. J. A. Pierce, one of the old-time dealers of Chicago, obtained one of these stamps for a cent. Years ago a fellow came into his place of busi- STAMP HUNTING. 49 ness with an album containing a general collec- tion, and said he wanted to sell a sheet of revenues in the back part of the book. Mr. Pierce was busy at the time, too busy to pay par- ticular attention to the stamps, but asked him what he wanted for them, to which the boy re- plied ‘a dollar.’ The dealer wasn’t long in plumking the ‘ wheel,’ though he did not discover till after the boy had gone that the lot of one hundred stamps not only contained this rare match stamp, but others worth a great deal of money. Many of these match and medicine stamps are listed altogether too high, but there are more catalogued too low. In my opinion, all stamps on pink paper are worth more in com- parison to their listed price than the other papers. Only about fifteen copies of the F. Browm on pink are known, and as there are thousands of collec- tors after it, its price should be more than thirty- five dollars. The J. J. Macklin match stamp is catalogued sixty dollars, but no dealer can supply it. I doubt if more than ten copies of this stamp exists. The four cent J. C. Ayer red is a stamp unpriced by Scott, but worth seventy-five dollars. There is also a four cent lilac of this stamp, also 50 STAMP HUNTING. a four cent green, but many doubt the genuine- ness of the color, though the lilac shade is no doubt genuine, and well worth the price a Mr. Phelps paid for it, one hundred dollars. “Mr. Farnsworth of Portland, Maine, has the eight cent James Swain uncut on silk, uncata- logued and the only one known, and also has many others, not listed by Scott. The Powell match wrapper, entire, is a very rare stamp, and its catalogued price, fifty dollars, cannot procure it. This stamp wrapper has been seen in two differ- ent sizes, but both are among the rarest of the private proprietaries, particularly when complete and not cut to shape. I am told the four cent J. B. Kelly and Company exists perforated, as well as the one and six cent Schencks’ on pink paper. The Woodworth one cent perfumery stamp on silk paper exists unperforated, and there are also unperforated copies of the one cent Her- rick’s plasters on old as well as water marked paper. “Mr. E. B. Sterling, for years the leading authority on these stamps, listed a one cent blue, Young, Ladd & Coffin perfumery stamp, but Scott fails to do so. There is such a stamp, however. The Bousfield & Poole match stamp comes in two STAMP HUOTIKG. 51 distinct shades. Only about three of the one cent red Ayer exists; Mr. Jonas D. Rice has one of them and the other two probably rest in the Deats and Adenaw collections. The R. Y. Pierce, on old paper, is only catalogued $5, but is worth many times the price. Many doubt its existence, as it is impossible to find a copy at the present time. Mr. Sterling catalogued it and is positive it was issued. The two cent rose on water marked paper is another doubtful stamp and should be catalogued twenty-five times the price. Mr. Adenaw said he had a copy of the four cent His- cox & Co. , on water marked paper and it is prob- ably the only copy known as no one else has ever seen one. “Up to 1895 the Standard catalogue listed a, one cent red Jock & Wilner match stamp. No> such firm ever was in business and was a fake issue foisted onto collectors by a New York engraving outfit, who issued only a few copies and sold them at very high prices. There have been one or two counterfeits of match stamps, one in particular was an imitation of B. & H. D. Howard.. The government $oon discovered a falling off in the Howard orders) and investigating. 52 STAMP HUNTING. they discovered a counterfeit plate in the hands of the Howard company. The stamp manufactur- ers were arrested on the charge of counterfeiting o o government securities, but the stamp is so much scarcer ‘ than the original, that a copy ismore val- uable than the genuine. ’ ‘ 1 A complete history of these stamps as well as of the regular proprietary and document varie- ties is in preparation by a committee appointed by the Boston Philatelic Society, consisting of Mr. George L. Toppanof Boston, Mr. Alexander Holland of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Mr. H. E. Deats of Flemington, N. J., three well known philatelists who have given the subject careful study and are thoroughly posted. Some years ago Mr. Deats purchased of Butler & Carpenter, the contractors for all stamp work from 1862 to 1875, all of their office records, thus acquiring the material for a very elaborate and exhaustive treatise on this subject. “A copy of this book should be in the hands of every collector, Doc. , who appreciates the his- torical and artistic side of philately.” ‘ 1 All right, when you get round again, if the work is out, bring in a copy and I’ll take it.” CHAPTER V. THE STAMP DEALER. “ How are you making it dealing in stamps? I notice your ads. in the Philatelic Era I sub- scribed for the other day. They sound like you, and ought to bring business.” “ So they do, Doc. They are written to sell stamps and they do sell stamps. It’s as much as I can do to take care of the mail they bring.” “Who are the leading dealers in stamps for collections in the country ? I suppose the Scott Stamp & Coin Co. take the lead ?” “Yes, they are the largest and best known in this country. In fact, their total sales are prob- ably three times greater than any other dealer in the United States, and now aggregate an annual business of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. It seems almost incredible that a such a business could be created and maintained out of stamps and coins; but Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., of London, England, the largest in the world, exceeds even this amount. The best proof that stamp collect- 52 64 STAMP HUNTING. ing is universal and is constantly spreading, is found in the enormous increase of those making a living and making money in dealing in stamps. They are to be found in all parts of the world.” “The first dealer in the United States was a fellow named John Bailey. Along in the year 1860 he opened up in a corner of City Hall Park in New York. Albums, approval books and cards, stock books, catalogues, etc., were un- known in those days, and the number of varie- ties of stamps could be put in your vest pocket. His method of display and sale, was to nail them or tack them to boards; one board would be two for a cent, another one one cent a piece, and the highest at that time could be got for a quarter. Stamps that to-day cannot be bought for twenty- five dollars cash. “ About the same time Mr. William Brown and J. W. Scott opened up in New York as deal- ers in stamps. They w^ere keen business men, and to-day you will find them doing a large and very profitable business in the sale of stamps. The J. W. Scott Co. , as it is now, is capitalized for over twenty thousand dollars, and its stockholders in- clude many of the leading collectors of the coun- STAMP HUNTING. 55 try. During the thirty-five years that Mr. Scott has been in the stamp business, he has had many interesting stamp experiences. One day in the early seventies a fellow came into his place of business with a very fair collection of stamps to sell. Mr. Scott offered him four hundred dol. lars for it, but the owner would not take it and went out. A year afterward he came back and wanted an offer for the same collection. Mr. Scott took him as a complete stranger, but as his stock was largely increased and business very dull at the time, he only offered two hun- dred dollars for it, which was indignantly re- fused. A year later in came the fellow with the same collection for another offer for it. By this time the stamps were more in demand and there were some in the lot that Mr. Scott was anxious to get. Simply as a joke he offered him one hun- dred dollars for the collection, expecting to hear all kinds of language in reply. To his great sur- prise the stranger did not say a word, but held out his hand for the money and went away seem- ingly satisfied. “ Mr. William Brown is full of amusing and in- teresting stamp stories, gathered during his nearly 56 STAMP HUNTING. forty years experience in stamps. Some other time, Doctor, I’ll tell you more about this veteran dealer. He first sold stamps from a street stall for a few pennies, and you can readily see how philately has advanced when you compare the way things were in the early sixties with the condition of things at the present time.” “ Yes, I should say there was an improvement. But speaking of New York dealers, I noticed an advertisement of a Mr. E. T. Parker and have got quite a number of stamps from him at good discounts. Do you know him ? ” “Yes, I know him very well. When last in New York I had the pleasure of going through his immense stock of stamps, and was surprised at the quantity, as well as the quality of what he had, particularly in the match and medicine stamps. Many of the dealers who advertise very largely, myself not excluded, carry their stocks around in their pockets, or can confine it to one or two small stock books, but there are no if s nor ands about Mr. Parker’s stock. He has the stamps — not only his desk and show cases full, but three mammoth safes, as well as a heavy re- serve stock stored away in safety deposit vaults. STAMP HUKTIKG. 57 But you can say the same of a number of other large New York dealers, as it is in this city you find the center of philatelic interest in this country, and more stamps and more stamp deal- ers than in all the rest of the large cities put to- gether, excluding Boston. “J. C. Morgenthau & Co. on Nassau street, have a very extensive stock, especially in gilt edge foreign and under the management of my former Chicago friend, Mr. E. B. Power, do a large business in stamps. They recently acquired the large stock of the late Henry Gremmel. “Mr. Krassa does one of the largest counter trades in Few York, and makes a specialty of dealing in rarities. “The Bogert & Durbin Co. are reliable and well known dealers, and figure prominently in auction sales, their catalogues going all over the world. “My friend, Mr. M. C. Berlepsch, is a rising, up-to-date dealer in New York, doing business at No. 2 West 14th Street. Up to a few years ago his specialty centered on the old German states, and only let up when there was nothing more to collect. His collection now consists of postage 58 STAMP HUNTING. and revenue stamps in an unused condition, and is equalled only by a few either in this county or abroad. As a dealer in stamps, he is widely known and an extensive advertiser, and an authority on United States revenues, especially the match and medicine varieties. His stock of these stamps ranks among the very first and when you have failed to find what you want in this line else- where, Doc., try him. I would also advise you to get one of his albums for the reception of these stamps as soon as he gets it out. It is prepared especially and exclusively for the match and med- icine varieties, and is something very much needed. I am waiting for one. ” u All right; I am glad you told me about it. I was going to ask you if there was any special album for these stamps "on the market. I sup- pose the dealers get all kinds of amusing and cranky letters from peculiar people in this busi- ness, both in wanting to sell common stamps at a high price, and in wanting to buy rare stamps at a cheap price, and all sorts of foolish questions ?” “Yes, Doctor, I should say so. Most of my business is done by mail, in fact all of it, and un- like writing my drug friends, I hardly know who STAMP HUNTING, 59 I am corresponding with in the stamp business. Like the yellow fever, this stamp disease hits all kinds of people. I wrote one lame duck the other day to ante up or I would draw on him. The return mail brought most of the money and a great whine and howl not to arrest him, that the balance would come in a few days, evidently thinking my draft would draw him into jail. I have been telling one of my regular customers to ‘ hustle while he had the legs, 5 and I found out last week it was a young lady I have been telling to hustle. “One day I was in my office at 208 Randolph Street, Chicago, when a i Gazaba 5 looking kind of a chap came in, with an air like one whom the the world owes a favor for living, and just de- manded five dollars for the commonest kind of one and two cent postage stamps and a few odds and ends in envelope stuff, worth at a casual glance about five cents. I offered him fifty cents, so as not to hurt his feelings, and he went away thinking I was a stingy cuss, because his sister got five dollars for one stamp. Well, after he had gone I looked over the stuff, and was about to throw it in the waste basket, when I discovered 60 STAMP HUNTING. three wide die, 1853, worth about six dollars each. I will now gladly give my friend the dif- ference desired, four dollars and a half, if he ever shows up again. “ One day a fellow came in with a far-away, vacant look in his eye, and a breath that would bore a hole through Washington Monument. He proved to be a cheap, ten cent customer of mine from a town out in Iowa, and said he was shy five dollars in the necessary railway fare back to spend Thanksgiving with his family. T dug up a five spot and he went away with joy depicted in his countenance and happiness in his gait, saying he would return me the money immediately on his arrival home. I neglected to ask the gentle- man what road he would go over, and possibly he went via the Klondike, or round by the Cape of Good Hope. Perhaps he meant next Thanksgiv- ing. Anyhow, Doc., my mail up to this time has failed to reveal anything that looks like five dollars from the gentleman. Still, like the little dog with his tail cut short, when the small boy came along with a tin can and string attached, 1 have something to be thankful for. He might have touched me for ten dollars. ” STAMP HUNTING. 61 “Yes, I suppose you would have given him twenty if he had kicked hard enough for it. So the drug business is not the only line that is worked by these traveling buncoes? I was hit only last week for five dollars myself, by a cock and bull story, similar to yours. Who are the other leading stamp dealers in the country, now that you are on the subject ? ” “In Chicago, P. M. W r olseiffer and F. N. Massoth, Doc., are the the two best known, and do the largest business. You have already had stamp relations with Mr. Wrolseiffer. There are other dealers who have larger stocks, and make larger sales in the East, but there are none more prompt and square in business dealings than he. His auction sales at the Great Northern hotel have been one of the features of stamp life in Chicago. In this special business, he probably takes the lead over all others, and it is no uncommon thing for one of his auctions to realize thousands of dol- lars to the owner of the stamps. His patented blank album and approval cards have an enorm- ous sale, and are the best yet known to the stamp collecting public. There is only one thing peculiar about him. Up to a few weeks ago I 62 STAMP HUNTING. never could understand his great antipathy for certain brands of well known soap. When he goes East to the conventions, or traveling any- where, he always carries his own private soap, fearing he might strike some hotel with no other but these special brands. Recently, I accidently discovered the cause of it. Years ago, a young son of this Chicago millionaire soap maker came into his office and wanted thirty dollars worth of stamps on credit. Mr. Wolseiffer gave them to him, but failed to get more than ten dollars out of the boy. Finally he wrote his father the cir- cumstances, and the reply read something like this: ‘I can do nothing for you; my son is a minor, but he had no authority from me to buy your stamps . 5 “Mr. Massoth does a general stamp business reaching all over the world, and carries a very large stock of all kinds. No matter what you bring in to him to sell in the way of stamps, whether it is a thousand dollar collection, or a bushel basket full of the commonest kind, he is ready with the cash to buy anything that may be offered, provided the price is right. He has connections where he can dispose of anything in the stamp line. STAMP HUNTING. 63 “Mr. J. A. Pierce is one of the old timers still in business in Chicago. When he first went into selling stamps in the early seventies, the United States departments were almost as common as the Columbian stamps are now. Ten cents was all he asked for a full set of usecj treasury, now catalo- gued nearly seventeen dollars. Aset of executive now is worth about thirty or forty dollars. Fif- teen years ago Mr. Pierce bought all he wanted at seventy cents a set, and could practically corner the market on these stamps. A son of the private secretary of President Grant had secured the majority of them and wrote the stamp dealer from Dixon, 111., that he could have the lot for a very low price, but Mr. Pierce was afraid to buy over one hundred sets, which he secured for seventy dollars, now cataloguing six thousand dollars. “C. F. Pothfuchs, now in the stamp business in Boston, ranks far front as a leading dealer in stamps for collections. There is no question but that he has the largest stock of departments in the world. Till recently his stamp business was located in Washington. He well anticipated the great rise to follow in all kinds of the United 64 STAMP HUNTING; States varieties and years ago laid in an immense stock at a very low price, and has become rich from his far-sightedness. Generally it does not take much of a wagon to move a stock of stamps, but when he transferred his business to Boston, you would think he was moving a stock of dry goods or boots and shoes. Trunk after trunk and box after box full of nothing but stamps, were piled up onto a big dray, and still it had to go back for more. There is no telling what he has in his possession, but when a collector is in doubt who to send to for a certain stamp, the answer in- variably* is, ‘ try Rothfuchs.’ “The New England Stamp Co. is another firm in Boston doing an immense business. That they have unlimited resources for handling valuable lots of stamps was proven a short time ago when the celebrated collection of Mr. N. C. Nash, of Boston, was placed on the market for sale. Mr. A. W. Bachelder, the executive head of the com- pany, closed the deal under which he paid Mr. Nash fifty thousand dollars, spot cash, for it, the largest sum of money ever paid by an American dealer for a stamp collection. “But I must go, Doc., and will only add a STAMP HUNTING. 65 word about my friend, D. W. Osgood of Pueblo, Colorado, although there are many other dealers in various parts of the United States I would like to tell you about if I had time. This Mr. Osgood is very reliable and one of the characters in the stamp business. ‘ ‘ His Pumpkin Colored Stamp Man , 5 as he calls it, a stamp paper published by him every month, reflects the good nature and humorous characteristics of the man. ” “ Yes, I read what he said about you in one of his write-ups about i eminent men, ’ and came to the conclusion that like you, he is built on pretty much the same lines, especially on the inside.” c £ I don’t know about that, Doc. , but he is cer- tainly very clever, and stamp collectors look for- ward to the coming of his £ Stamp Man ’ as an essential part of their existence.” CHAPTER YI. THE STAMP SPECULATOR. “ Well, here you are again I see. What’s new now ? Found a six cent orange proprietary ? ” “ Not yet, Doc., but I am digging for it all the time. How are you getting along with your stamp collection ? ” “Fine, but my wife can’t understand what has got into me lately. I was thumbing and hinging a lot of stamps I purchased from Wolseiffer into my album last night, and she declared that I must be in my second childhood, as it was twelve o’clock before I turned in. I must have had the disease in a dormant state for some time, and it only needed some chap like you, in the last stages of the mania, to come along and stir it up in me, till now I have it pretty nearly as bad as you have. I am determined now to get a fine collection of the United States revenues, and match and med- icine stamps first, and then go into Canadian rev- enues. I find a good deal of pleasure in it too. It diverts my mind from the annoyances and hardships of the drug business.” 66 STAMP HUNTING. 67 “ Yes, that is one of the great pleasures I find in stamps myself, is the diversion it gives me from business cares. Many judge by my adver- tisements that I am purely a speculator in stamps, and am interested in the hobby for the possible financial gain only. Where that of course is a pleasant thought to know or feel your stamps are increasing in value all the time, my ‘ Stamp Hunt- ing 5 and collecting and dealing in them is a recre- ation and solace well worth the time and trouble spent, even if at the er.d of the year the books show no profit. But there are a class of people that speculate and gamble in stamps, as they would do in anything else. There are even stamps made for speculative purposes. The Hamilton Bank Note Co., of New York, of whom Mr. Seebeck is the head, has for some years received the contracts from South and Central America Bepublics to print their stamps, not for postal purposes exclusively, but more especially for sale to collectors at large profits. The Island of Trinidad, situated in the South Atlantic, does not possess a single human inhabitant, and is almost inaccessible, being nothing more thanamassof rugged rocks, about three miles long and two 68 STAMP HUNTING. miles wide, the central peak rising up over two thousand feet above the level of the sea. Sea gulls are the only sign of life that ever existed or ever could exist on this barren place. In 1894 a fellow by the name of Hinckley landed in New York, and styled himself ‘Prince James I., Ruler of the Island.’ He succeeded in having printed seven varieties of labels, from five centimes to five francs; these he called ‘ postage stamps for the Principality of Trinidad,’ and they were very attractive, with a design representing a sea view of this populous and fertile island. How many of these stamps got into the hands of collectors is not known, but there were thousands ready to buy them at ten per cent, above face. “Another swindle on the stamp collecting pub- lic was a year later when a fellow issued a lot of labels, bearing a face value of five cents, and an eagle and ‘ Clipperton Island ’ engraved thereon. I have yet to discover where this island is, but it is said to belong to the United States, which fact would stamp it as a fraud, as it could not have legally issued a stamp at all. “An ex-officer of the French navy titled him- self ‘King Marie the of the Sedangs,’ a tribe STAMP HUNTING, 69 of half civilized people inhabiting a small district on the borders of the French Colony of Annam; he had printed a set of seven stamps, and placed them on sale in Paris as genuine postage stamps of the French Colony. They of course, never saw postal duty; the French government tumbled to it, and put a stop to his proceedings. But these in- stances are open frauds and swindles. ‘ £ The business of Mr. Seebeck, or the Hamil- ton Bank Note Co., was legitimate and above board, but their methods of manufacturing stamps threw onto collectors each year hundreds of varie- ties of stamps that were perfectly needless issues, and were printed primarily to sell to collectors. Representing the company, Seebeck would bind himself for a period of years to supply small governments with postage stamps free of charge, changing the design every year. In return the governments would cede to the company any sur- plus stock remaining, and the Seebeck Co. , retain- ing the dies and plates, could re-print stamps as they chose, for sale to collectors. 55 ‘ i But I don’t collect that class of stuff. I sup- pose there is no danger of United States revenues being reprinted and issued is there ? ” TO mxm huktisn*. 44 No, the dies and plates of these stamps were all destroyed and the forger would have to show his hand to duplicate anything but the original stamps.” 44 Your speaking of stamps made this way, re- minds me of the old 4 Sprinkle ’ dollar, a specimen of which I have kept as a curiosity, although I do not collect coins. Do you know what I mean ? ” 4 4 No, Doc., I don’t think I do.” 44 Well, they were called the 4 Sprinkle’ dollars from the name given them by the maker, Josiah Sprinkle, who once owned a silver mine in the West. One day, along in the thirties, he appeared in Washington, his old home, then a thriving town near Peoria, with a buckskin pouch full of silver dollars made by his own hand. They were not counterfeits, but had on one side the stamp of an owl, and on the other side a six- pointed star. They were pure silver, weighed more than the regular dollar, and really worth more than one hundred cents. He had no diffi- culty in passing his coin, but the government found it out one day and caused his arrest for counterfeiting. He was set free, however, as his money in ncyway imitated Uncle Sam’s and be- sides, was worth more.” STAMP HUNTING. 71 “I never heard of that story before, and I should think, Doc. , you had a rare coin there. ” “ Yes, it is. A coin man offered me twenty- five dollars for it.” 6 6 That reminds me of a postage stamp that made more noise and comment in the world than any other ever made, although it was a legitimate issue and not speculative in any way. In 1860, Mr. Charles Connell was Postmaster General of the British Colony of New Brunswick. Soon after his entry into office the currency was changed from ‘ pence ’ to ‘ cents. 5 A new series of postage stamps then became necessary. Brother Connell wasn’t very pretty, but he reasoned out that his ‘ phiz 5 would look first rate on one of the stamps, the five cent variety, and a half a million of these stamps bearing his portrait were struck off by the American Bank Note Co., and delivered to the New Brunswick authorities. No sooner had the stamps arrived than his polit- ical opponents came together, and decided that Charlie was too ambitious, the same trouble that brought our Roman friend, Caesar, to grief; that he wanted to be king of the realm. So they marched in a body to his residence and with a 72 STAMP HUNTING. ‘ Marcus Brutus’ style of argument, gently jumped astraddle of the Postmaster General, and off went his head, at least from the stamps. A new design of the Queen was substituted .and the 500,000 bewhiskered stamps were destroyed. Only a few were saved, and that is the reason why you find that stamp, Doc. , hard to get at full cat- alogue price of one hundred and forty dollars. “ During the civil war in this country, postage stamps came into unusual use. In 1862 small change had almost entirely disappeared from cir- culation, and postage stamps were forced into use as currency. They were put up first in small envelopes, stating amount enclosed, with the name and advertisement of the firm that issued the envelope. The plan worked so well that later in the year a Mr. Gault patented a brass recepta- cle, circular in form, and faced with mica, about the thickness of a silver quarter. The case con- tained a stamp the value of which could be plainly seen through the mica, varying in denomination from one cent to ninety cents. These stamp- coins passed readily as government currency and are of great interest, appealing to the coin collect- ors as well as to stamp people. This makeshift STAMP HUNTING. 73 money was not long in operation. The govern- ment soon issued a series of small bank notes known as ‘ postal currency . 5 The notes were of the value of five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents, and bore the inscription, 4 postage currency, furnished only by the assistant treasurers and designated depositories of the United States.’ The five and ten cent had representations of the postage stamps then in use of the same denomina- tion, engraved in the center. The twenty-five cent note had five five cent stamps, and the fifty cent note five ten cent stamps engraved in a row, overlapping each other. “The Columbian issues of the United States show many sad failures of speculation in philately. Hundreds of persons, yes, thousands, saved and hoarded these stamps, both in a used as well as an unused state, thinking they would rapidly advance in value, and prove a great financial investment. Parties having no knowledge of stamps at all, or any love for them either, bought full sets of these stamps, thinking that they could double their money or more in two years. One party in the East anticipated a profit of fifteen thousand dol- lars by trying to corner the fifty cent and two 74 STA.MP HUNTING. dollar Columbian stamps. They obtained tbo exact number issued from the government and immediately put the American Express Company and other express companies in touch with every postoffice in the United States, advancing money to buy all the stamps of these denominations re- maining. They then advertised in all the stamp papers offering, in some instances, seventy-five cents for fifty cent stamps and four dollars for the two dollar ones. I sold the party a lot of fifties myself at that price, but it wasn’t two weeks afterward when the attempted corner fell through, and he was glad to sell them back to me at a loss of twenty per cent. He spent thousands of dollars for the stamps, but the collapse came, like Leiter’s wheat deal, and he was obliged to unload at a loss, and to-day these unused stamps are sell- ing at from five to fifteen per cent, less than their face value. The only denomination that did not collapse altogether was the one dollar issue, and this tumbled fifty per cent. , but a leading firm in New York anticipated that this stamp would be the best, and succeeded from the start in obtaining the greater part of them. One of the speculators in these stamps died a short time ago, after invest- STAMP BUimm 76 ing his entire fortune in them, and now his widow has thousands of dollars worth of the high value World’s Fair stamps, that cannot be sold for the money paid for them. “But I must run down with my stamp wind for this time, Doctor, and hustle. I want to earn my salary. What have you got for me in surgical dressings this time ? You look a little shy on mustard plasters.” “Yes, put down a dozen boxes; also — 2 lbs. lamb’s wool in ounces, \ doz. catgut ligatures, £ doz. silk ligatures, A box of Lee’s kidney plasters — I am push- ing that plaster — I believe it is a good one; also give me — 10 lbs. cotton in lbs., 5 lbs. cotton in ozs. “I guess that’s all. I am not selling much gauze lately. My leading physician has gone to Europe for the summer. You might give me about one dozen boxes of plain gauze in yards. We sell that once in a while to our general run of trade. That’s all. When you get round again I hope to have a larger order for you. ” CHAPTER VII. STAMP COLLECTING AS A PASTIME. “ I don’t notice that infernal odor of creosote about you that used to be so noticeable. Have you quit using it?” “Yes, Doc., I had to. I have taken so much of it that I perspired the blamed stuff; my friends shunned me; my folks drove me out of the house, and even the hotels turned me away. But it was a good thing for my throat trouble. I had it down to a regular system, and worked it up till I could take twelve drops without turning a hair. I even got so I liked the stuff, and the odor was never disagreeable to me, though unbearable to many people. I carried it in a little vial in my vest pocket, and after finishing my meal would call for a glass of milk and drop the stuff into it. You ought to see the dining room girls look at the glass after I left. They would carry it out as if it were going to bite, and many a traveling man would exclaim as I went out, ‘What to h — 1 STAMP HUNTING. 77 is th3 matter with that feller ? 5 The day clerk at the Union Hotel, Galesburg, is very sensitive to anything of the kind. I had hardly registered the last time there when he cried out, 4 Whew ! what smells so ? For mercy’s sake, porter, see if the gas isn’t leaking somewhere.’ 4 c I didn’t say a word, but after bursting a bot- tle of it in my pocket in the next town, and being obliged to stay, in bed a day or two while my clothes were being renovated, I concluded it was time to quit using the stuff. “ Years ago I was in the moth ball busi- ness in Boston, and all I had to do to secure a seat in a crowded car was to carry my pockets full of the balls. I don’t know what my sensi- tive and cultured Boston friends would do if I walked into the street cars now, perspiring cre- osote. The conductor would probably give me the car. u But speaking of those moth balls as killing moths, it may drive them away, but it will onlj r be temporary. They will gather up their sisters and their cousins and their aunts and come back to the feast. To prove moths grow well on it, I put a nice fat one, a piece of woolen carpet about 78 STAMP HUNTING. two inches square and the loudest smelling moth ball in the barrel into the safe one day and forgot all about it for thirty days. I then happened to think of it and opened the box, and what do you think I found, Doc ! ” “I don’t know; a large family of moths, I suppose.” “A large family? I should say so. In the first place there was no carpet and no moth ball, only the odor of it left, and moths! well, the rea- son there w T asn’t any more was because the box wasn’ bigger.” * £ I sell a lot of it here in my drug store, but how they do kick when they take their goods out in the fall. I sold a lot of the same kind in flake form to our military company here, to store away their overcoats. They had considerable trouble with moths before, and they must have shoveled this stuff in. Last week they turned out at a funeral of one of our prominent men. It was cold and rainy and they donned their overcoats for the first time since they were stored away. Well, talk about your odor of creosote; you ought to have been to our church when those fel- lows came in out of the rain ! But how about STAMP HUNTING. 79 stamps % I am more interested in them now than I am in anything. Have you made many big strikes lately ? ” /; Not to speak of since I was last here, Doc., except one find out here in the western part of the state. The druggist had been in the same location for fifty years. Years ago he was in the wholsesale business, but I never could get him to put any price on his stamps, or even to let me look over his store at all. Last summer a young fellow came into the store and asked for a few old medicines, a number of which the druggist had with the stamps on. I don’t know what they were, but he gave the druggist $3.00 for the stamps only, and when I asked him last week about his stamps, for I knew he had a lot of them, he seemed interested and wanted to know what I gave. I said I would give him as much as anyone else, but I would have to see the stamps first. He then told me of this fellow paying him three dollars for six stamps, and I replied that I would give him three dollars apiece for certain stamps.” c ‘