Stamp Collecting as a Pastime | Page 4

"but blue china has gone to the wall, autographs are losing caste, old
books and first editions are on the downgrade, pipes are relegated to the
lumber-room, metallurgical cabinets are coated with dust, and even
walking-sticks survive only at Sandringham!" Just so. We are
all--Governments, people, and weather--going to the bad as fast as we
can go, according to the croakers, the wiseacres, and the self-appointed
prophets. Nevertheless, stamp collecting has survived the sneers and
the evil prophecies of forty years, and so far as human foresight can
penetrate the future, it seems likely to survive for many a generation

yet.
And why not? In the busy, contentious bustle of the competition of the
day, the brain, strained too often to its utmost tension, demands the
relaxation of some absorbing, pleasure-yielding hobby. Those who
have tried it attest the fact that few things more completely wean the
attention, for the time being, from the vexations and worries of the day
than the collection and arrangement of postage stamps. In fact, stamp
collecting has an ever-recurring freshness all its own, a scope for
research that is never likely to be exhausted, a literature varied and
abundant, and a close and interesting relation to the history and
progress of nations and peoples that insensibly widens the trend of
human sympathies and human knowledge.
What more do we want of a hobby? We cannot ensure, even for the
British Empire, an eternity of durability: nations decay and fashions
change. Some day even stamp collecting may be superseded by a more
engrossing hobby. The indications, however, are all in favour of its
growing hold upon its universal public. The wealth invested in it is
immense, its trading interests are prosperous and international, and no
fear of changing fashion disturbs either dealer or collector.
[Illustration:]

[Illustration:]
IV.
Its Internationality.
Wherever you go you find the stamp collector in evidence. The hobby
has its devotees in every civilised country. Its hold is, in fact,
international. In Dresden there is a society with over two thousand
members upon its books; in out-of-the-way countries like Finland there
are ardent collectors and flourishing philatelic societies. The Prince of
Siam has been an enthusiastic collector for many years, and even in
Korea there are followers of the hobby. Australia numbers its collectors

by the thousand, and many of its cities have their philatelic societies, all
keen searchers for the much-prized rarities of the various States of the
Commonwealth. In India, despite the difficulty of preserving stamps
from injury by moisture, there are numbers of collectors; one of the
best-known rajahs is collecting stamps for a museum, recently founded
in his State, and the Parsees are keen dealers. There are collectors
throughout South Africa, in Rhodesia, and even in Uganda. Wherever a
postage stamp is issued there may be found a collector waiting for a
copy for his album. In no part of the world can an issue of stamps be
made that is not at once partially bought up for collectors. If any one of
the Antarctic expeditions were to reach the goal of its ambition, and
were to celebrate the event there and then by an issue of postage stamps,
a collector would be certain to be in attendance, and would probably
endeavour to buy up the whole issue on the spot. The United States
teems with collectors, and they have their philatelic societies in the
principal cities and their Annual Congress. From Texas to Niagara, and
from New York to San Francisco, the millionaire and the more humble
citizen vie with each other in friendly rivalry as stamp collectors.
Many countries are now making an Official Collection, and there is
every probability that some day in the near future most Governments
will keep a stamp collection of some sort for reference and exhibition.
Under the rules of the Postal Union, every state that enters the Union is
entitled to receive, for reference purposes, a copy of every stamp issued
by each country in the Postal Union. Hence every Government receives
valuable contributions, which should be utilised in the formation of a
National or Official Collection. And some day stamp collectors will be
numerous and influential enough to demand that such contributions
shall not be buried in useless and forgotten heaps in official drawers,
but shall be systematically arranged for public reference and general
study.
Not a few countries are every year rescued from absolute bankruptcy
by the generosity with which collectors buy up their postal issues; and
many other countries would have to levy a very much heavier burden
of taxation from their peoples if stamp collecting were to go out of
fashion.

So widespread indeed is our hobby that a well-known collector might
travel round the world and rely upon a cordial welcome at the hands of
fellow-collectors at