WHAT'S THE GAME?

Observer, Volume XXI, Issue 1163, 13 April 1901, Page 3

WHAT'S THE GAME?

A Peculiar Chain Letter

The ' chain 'or ' snowball ' letter person is on the warpath with bis ' philanthropy ' again, and we have been one of the ' friends ' alluded to in the following letter. Here is No. 27 of the ' ohain ' : —

' We desire to provide a ward in the small Cottage Hospital of St. George's, which accommodates the siok and infirm of Coalsville, Roohdale, Sydney, N.S.W. For this reason this chain letter is Bent to you. At present, the children can only be accommodated in the men and women's ward (if there is room). This position is obviously detrimental to them (the patients). A sympathetic friend baa agreed if 100,000 used postage stamps are sent to him, to pay for them at the rate the Government allows ; whiob will be sufficient to build a ward. As the object is purely philanthropic, I have aided it by keeping the chain going. Your assistance is asked. All you have to do is to make three copies of this letter, only changing the dates and number at the top of each copy and numbering each copy the same, sign and Bend to three friends whom you think will not mind the little trouble involved, and return this oopy to Miss A. Griffin, Killage Hill, St. Rochdale, Sydney, N.S.W., enclosing ten or more used poetage stamps, also Bending the names and addresses of the three friends to whom you sent the copies. Anyone not wishing to do this act of oharity are asked to return this copy to Miss Griffen, and so we know the ohain is broken. This may seem a small thing to do, but the breaking of the ohain would mean serious lobs to the undertaking. The person receiving No. 180 of this copy will return without making any copies, aB this will end the chain.— Tours faithfully.— W. F. Meyenbebg.

The philanthropic perßon who^ill ' pay for the stamps at the rate the Government allow ' is the sort of person we should imagine would launch out into the kind of absurdity Bet forth in the epistle in question. Considering that the Government (presumably of the N.S.W. State) would allow nothing for defaoed Btamps, and that they would be of no use even to a batcher as waste paper, the contraot entered into by the philanthropist is aa easy one for his pocket, and the preliminary letter the simplest work of the series. The children whose hospital comforts are to be provided for out of the nothingness of waste paper are likely to have a hungry time.

It may be the rollers of the original ' snowball ' have a morbid philatelic craving, and hope that among the masses stamps of some monetary value may be found. We are quite convinoed, however, that the children of the alleged Coalsville Hospital will receive no benefit from the waste paper collectors, and we confidently expect to behold the results neatly enveloped and sold to stamp oolleotors. There is no doubt that credulous persona will assist the ' snowballers ' in their designs by Bending in their waste paper. No one oan possibly benefit but the exploiters, and it is not clear how they will benefit, except in the one way named. Beoipientsof any link in this ' chain ' should take a special delight in breaking it, for Sydney does not have to collect waste paper when its people want a children's ward.

— That John Henry Hannan has been aoffering from fearfally murderous nightmares dnriDg the last fortnight with a little axe in every one of them.

— That it is astonishing how quiet Mr Woolmer has become over the Short-land-street affair. Quite a pleasure to have his head broken on short notice, evidently.

— That Federation has produced such a state of ultra morality in the Australian Stateß that candidates at the recent elections could not purchase votes even with beer I

— That those who fear the plague should try to find a few good germs to counteract the bad ones. ' The good die young,' and that's probably why there are so few good bacilli.

— That each successive draft of men for Africa are despatched more dolefully, and that the ' Stony Seventh ' marched without a band and with soaroely a oheer to the wharf, en route for 'Death and Glory.'

— That the defaulting Sootsmen who have recently left barracks here were hardly examples of temperanoe, and that oar own regular artillerymen are models of sobriety in comparison with those ' good condnot men.'

—That King Barry, of Waihi, is evidently intent upon breaking a lance with King Dick, of Kumara, when he em barks npon the dismissal of hands wholesale from the Waihi mine while a dispute iB pending.

— That the employment of prisoners on outside public works is bo satiefac tory and the men have so good a time that there is likely to be quite a revival in small offences when the labour market gets overstocked.

— That, in spite of all entreaties from the leading residents of Devonport, E W. Alison has decided to leave the Mayoralty of that borough go by the board for this term, for between Conciliation, etc , hia hands are more than fall.

—That it is up to the Rev. Giilam to take the advice of ' Jumna Hibernicaa,' and obtain from one of the Roman Catholio clergy 'RituaOrdlnationom inxtra Pontificate Romanam.' Bat the odds are that it will give him neuralgia or lock-jaw if be geta it.

— That the Government's slowness in paying up ' army ' wages is sickening, and that men who have been home for three months are owed arrears of pay from Oot. 21st of last year. The Government has recently promised to 'go into the accounts!'

— That the daily paper headings the ' Latter] stages of the Campaign,' are premature, aDd that they should ace the laat fizzle of Botha and De Wet, before prophesying anything ao certain as a finish.

— That mounted police at race meetings should be armed, and that if the crowd at Ellerslie races had become thoroughly wound up on Monday, the men would have had a bad time with no chance of defending themselves.

— That the men who have ' struck oil ' and are working it at Orepnke, are not regarded aa public benefactors by farmers and other residents, the oily fames being destructive to both the crops and booses and polluting the drinking water.

— That at a recent ' living pioture ' Bhow in Auckland the pit decided the show wasn't genaine beoaase a dredger of the exact pattern of onr familiar Rangitoto clipper appeared in the film. They thought there coold not possibly be two in the world.

—That the crowd appear to have been in a playful mood at Elleralie on Monday. To give a polioeman an orange in hia eye instead of in hla hand macks a new order of things. They, are Binging ' We met, 'twas in a orowd.'