Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1887 — POSTAGE-STAMP SWINDLE. [ARTICLE]

POSTAGE-STAMP SWINDLE.

How a German I)«al«r Has Obtained an Enormous Fortune—One of the Most Gigantic Impositions Ever Perpetrated Upon Mankind. [New York World.] One of the greatest swindles that have fever been ]>erpetrated upon mankind is the work of a German dealer in old postage-stamps. There are in the world about 450,000 persons making collections of postage - stamps—one specimen of each issue of- each country —who may be classed as retail buyers. There are several thousand dealers, big and little, who buy to sell again, and about 1,000 publications devoted exclusively to postage-stamps and their history. Some stamps are very rare and very .high prices arc paid for them. The purchase of stamps in bulk from the non-philatelist is a lottery. No mnn knows when he is going to get a prize in any loose boxful that may be sent to him by some person not a collector. . About ten years ago a dealer in a small German town, whose capital was his brains, conceived the brilliant idea of making all the world collect stamps for him without charge, nnd send him, also without charge,, vast collections to sort out and sell again. Other dealers have to pay for this work and have to charge high prices for their stamps. He would have all but the sorting done for nothing. To-day this dealer had a capital represented by seven figures and a million enthusiastic agents collecting in every section of the civilized globe. His daily mail contains hundreds of thousands of postage-stamps sent to him without cost. He has the largest stock of any dealer and his prices cut under all others in the trade. How has lie done it? This was his brilliant idea: “People who are not willing to give money will give work to help the poor. I will represent the poor, and they shall work for me. I have a brother in Palestine. He shall start a ‘Syrian Orphans’ Home’ on the Mount of Olives or in his imaginationhut we will advertise it as the Mount of Olives. We will send a description of this great charity to all the churches throughout the world, telling them that for 1,000,000 stamps we will board, clothe, and educate an orphan until old enough to support itself. The stamps will come to me. My brother will supply the orphan—in his mind. ” His happy thought found a response wherever a Christian congregation gathered. There is not in any little hamlet in the United States, or England, or India, or Australia, or any civilized country a Christian congregation that has not from one to ten members saving up postage-stamps—beg-ging, borrowing, and even stealing them in order to help make up the million that will go to clothe and educate a Syrian orphan in this mythical “Syrian Orphans! Home.” But there* are many people, not church members, who do not take much interest in Syrian orphans. They require a little stronger meat. The Syrian orphan dodge worked so well that our little blue-eyed German stampdealer five years ago started an imaginary mission in the city of Chang Kiang, China, the holy sisters of which agreed, for every million stamps sent to him, to save from the jaws of the crocodiles of the Yellow Biver at least one Chinese baby. Furthermore, they agreed that after saving it from the jaws of the crocodiles .that they would support, educate, and Christianize it. All the stamps, however, were to be remitted to Munich or Stettin. They were not to be sent to tho asylum at Chang Kiang nor the Orphans’ Home at Jerusalem. If any conservative soul did send them there they would not be .lost. The brother or an agent secured them, sorted them, and sent the prizes to Stettin. ■ New circulars have gone out lately ■promising that for 1,000,000 stamps a home will be found for an old lady or an old gentleman for the remainder of life in one of three homes—one located in London, another in New York, and a third in Cincinnati. For half a million stamps a bed will be endowed in a hospital. For 100,000 stamps a home will be found for some fatherless or motherless child for one year. This is a bolder game than any of the others. No address is given for either of the hDihes, but the names of reputable people are given—clergymen, physicians, well-known philanthropists, society ladies—to whom the stamps are to be sent, to be forwarded. Inquiry shows that in every case those whose, names are given have agreed to forward the stamps to some one else, and that they know nothing about the location of the home or hospital, except that it is in New York or Cincinnati Twenty scattered inquiries revealed agencies in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to receive these stamps, the “Ultimate destination for all that are Valuable being Stettin. It is estimated that this swindler has collected over 100,000,000 postagestamps in the United States alone, and that he has obtained among them rare stamps worth from $500,000 to $1,500,000.