THE YOUNG WOMAN AND THE STAMPS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXVII, Issue 8163, 1 July 1895, Page 1

THE YOUNG WOMAN AND THE STAMPS.

The town of Kaneville, 111,, is jasfc now swamped with cancelled postage stamps and letters containing them. With the idea of assisting thecrippled sisters of a young man to whom she was engaged to be matried, Miss. Edna Brown, of that place, began the task of . gathering 1,000,000 of cancelled postage a vidian in Chicago, who was said to bavo ■ made ancffer of £40 in cash for tbatnumher. Afc the present time Miss Brown has more than 8,000,000 stamps in hand, and they are still coming in at the rate of 200,000 daily. The Chicago purchaser and all other purchasers proved to be mythical, and the river of. stamps that has been turned in the direction of Kane* ville cannot be dammed except with a different style of orthography to that used herein. The young woman wrote three letters to as many friends, and asked each one to send her ten or more cancelled stamp?, and also to write three - 'letters to her friends with the same re- •■.: 1 quest. They in turn were to follow the same rule, thus making an ever-increas* ing chain of letters that was not to be completed until fifty persons had written,,. From 15,000 to 18,0001etters arenow be- . ing received in Kaneville every twenty*' four hours, and the poor postmaster, whose salary is only £40 a year, wonders what he has done to merit such an an* noyance, as the daily mail of Kaneville in ordinary times does not average much more than 100 letters. . The residents of the village are taking turns.in assisting the postmaster, as he has been obliged to bire a clerk, whom he pays out of-his own small salary. , Kaneville io a small hamlet six miles from the nearest railway station. The stage carries the moil between Ihe station and the town, and the stage driver wants very much to throw uphiscontrftctofcafryingthe mail. Formerly therewasonlycnesmallsackof mail daily; now the stage is laden with mail, so that there is little room in the coach. for passengers, and the driver i-, to the local slang," kicking likejx-steefand swearing like a pirate ,r< Since the trouble b-'gan Miss Brown has married/ the man lo whom she was engaged, and atfkst tlipy took Ihcir Ifttters away from . "the post office, opened them, and clipped cut the postage stamps. Later they h&d their neigbours to' assist them, bnt recently they have given up the work altogether.