PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 53

PHILATELY.

By Old Stamp,

KILLED FOR A VALUABLE STAMP COLLECTION.

At the trial of the man Aubert and his mistress, Marguerite Dubois, for the murder of the young stamp colleotor, Eugene Del&haef, in France, according to the theory of the prosecution Aubert induced Delahaef to go to his rooms under pretence of buying a valuable collection of stamps, murdered him for the cake of the price to be paid, and concealed the body in a trunk, whi'.h he conveyed by train to a email town in Brittany and left *t the railway cloak room. The odour from the box excited the suspicion of the railway official?, and led to the arrest of the prisoners. The table in front of ,ihe judge's seat was covered with articles connected with the crime. These included the box in whioh the body was found and the chopper with which the murder is alleged to have been committed. Auberfe was comparatively while the president queitioned him on his past career, but when the interrogation turned upon the relations between himself and Delahaef, Aubert relapsed into a state paiaful to witness. He literally foamed at the mouth. Iv the conree of examination Aubert asserted that he used tbe chopper in self-defence, accidentally killing Delahaef. The woman Dubois declared that she had nothing to do with the murder, and that she helped Aubert to diopose of the body out of affection for him. She said, " I would do the same again." The most interesting evidence was that of the stationmaster at Couville, where Aubert deposited the box containing the corpse. Aubert, he said, wanted the box registered to tha neighbouring village of Villiers. When it was placed on the weighing-machine a dark, evilsmelling iiquid onzed out of the bottom. Aubert calmly stooped down and, examining it, said some bottles inside must have got broken. After Aubert had left for Cherbourg the stationmaster and a porter disousaed its curious appearance, *nd the stationmatter decided to keep a sharp look-out on traius coming from Cherbourg. He was rewarded by finding Aubert two hours later ecsconsed in the corner of a carriage, evidently d«»irons of avoiding attention. The stationmmster tempted him out of rhe carriage by telling h'm that he had been overcharged on the box. He then locked him and his companion up in the waiting room and sent for the police, who opened the box and discovered the body. Aubert will live out the rest of his life in penal servitude, and his accomplice will languish in gaol for three years.

• . • Certain Italians have been detected In a neat swindling operation at the New York Pest Office. When the 5e stamp ia affixed to ». letter it is smeared with a transparent kind of ; gum. In the oonrae of transit this postage ! «tamp is supposed to be destroyed by an ' obliterating stamp, but the trick of the sender prevents the destruction. Several letters marked to Italy, where the « tamps hud been covered with this gum, wtre discovered. The shiny nature of the postage stamps attraoted the attention of the clerk whose duty it was to obliterate them. Taking a damp sponge, hs applied it to tho stamp after ifi was supposad to be destroyed, and found that the obliterating iuk was easily rfmoved, it adhering to the gum and nob defacing the stamp After the letter ha«i passed through the post office* and the stamp i» supposed to have performed its duty, the latter can be returned uninjured to the writer, and again made to carry a letter. A search among letters addressed tothe Continent, especially those for Italy, fully confirmed theso facts. *.* The ques'ion oE the "boy trade " and the "young collector" it engaging qnito * lot of the time of writers and authors in philatelic papers and journals all over the world. The prevailing idea of a number of collectors and others ia that stamp-collecting has not now the same attraction for the schoolboy that it once had. This idea ia a fallacy. The very facb that so much space is given to them in the columns of the journals in proof that they demand bsing catered for. The young collector j is quite as much alive in his small way to the ! advantages of collecting as the older and more advanced collector. The great thing that has j for so long hindered the young collectors is the enormou* quantities of varieties that have been and are constantly being discovered. Added to this is the fact that every little State in the world has its stamps. These, b»6ides the constant changing of the issues of some countries, have made the collecting by boys to any great extent almost out of their reach. It is nob that they have lost interest: it is because their pockets cannot stand the strain of daily parting with pennies to fill up vacant squares in their albums. I gay now, as ! I have said before, there is no better investment j for their surplus small change than sticking to the collecting. j • . • People who laugh and scoff at our bobby, j and who open their eyes when they read of £1000 being given for a stamp, should consider also what huge sums are occasionally paid for specimens belonging to other hobbies. At an auction sale the Eight Hon. J. Chamberlain, Secretary of Stite for the Colonies, paid £10,000 for a unique specimen of what is known as the Elephant moth orchid, the roots of which have grown through and over % human skull, filling the sockets of the eyes and the holes of the nostrils, and meandering down the cheeks. The enormous sum for which the flower was f^old was attributable, however, not j so much to itc<rar<ty aa to the keen competition ; for its po.«.«e3iiou. Amongst the boldest bidders | fit the sale were Lord Rothschild, Baron yon j Schroeder, Sir James Miller, and Mr Hamar- ' B*ss, of brewing tarns. Whoever cannot take encouragement from this is simply unable to read Rigns of the greatest significance. Just thiuk of it — £10 000 for an ephemeral thing like a flower, simply because of it 3 beauty, scarcity, and a great desire to obtain it by some of the ' nabobs of England ! If such a sum had beea

paid for a stamp world-wide astonishment would have prevailed among collectors, and this feeling would have been largely mixed with contempb and ridicule for tlxe purchaser in newspaper accounts of the transaction. Yet to the reflecting mind there would be more good sense in paying this sum for v stamp of the greatest rarity than there w&b in exchanging it for a perishable flower. To the stamp collector a philatelic gem would have all the attractions that this unique plant had for the orohid lovers, with the additional fact in the stamp's favour that it was not so liable to perish.