Famous Hobbies of Dartmouth Men
Philately
STAMP COLLECTING OR philately, its highbrow synonym, is essentially a masculine hobby. Not that women collectors are non-existent, but they are only visible to the naked eye in the ratio of a thousand or so to one. As Andy would say, "Ain't dat si nil pin'?", in these modern days when men and women work and play together at all sorts of sports and hobbies, both indoors and out.
And there's nothing messy about this hobby! No shavings to clean up, no paints to spill, no blisters to prick and no stuffing of the laundry bag for the stamp collector! The fruit of his labor lies snugly in less than a five-foot shelf, and when the albums get too full, it is only necessary to get another one and make a little more room in the family bookcase! Where can you find a better specification for a hobby than this?
All men are instinctively collectors of something or other. They start with bird eggs, butterflies and stamps, and wind up, perhaps, with rare editions, etchings or even firearms. Some stick to one of their first loves. Others come back to it after boyhood has passed. That's the reason so many mature men are stamp collectors.
As a boy I had a really good collection, in partnership with my older brother. When I went to college, he bought my share "of it. It went back into circulation soon thereafter. In 1917 a daughter wanted to begin and in trying to start her off properly, I again came down with the fever, from which I have never since recovered.
You ask what it is good for,—this hobby. Forget the lure of the trail for some elusive item you particularly desire. Forget the friendships which frequently result from continuing exchanges of your duplicates for those of others. Forget the satisfaction with which you mount in your albums those treasures which you have acquired. What of the restful evenings at home, the relaxation from the cares and worries which are always with us,—particularly during the past few years. When you concentrate on the perforation, watermark or quality or paper in a stamp, you forget everything else. Then, too, the doctors say it is healthful to give your mind some thing else to do when mentally tired, and that the relaxation which comes from variety has avoided many a breakdown! Stamp collectors secure this relaxation to the fullest extent.
Collections are not necessarily good because of the number of "all different" they contain. You can buy ten thousand varieties for a fifty-dollar bill and that's that. Some single stamps are priceless, and we ordinary mortals will never own them. No stamps, however, are worthless, unless they are mutilated or too heavily cancelled. A good collection is, therefore, a nice lot of sound copies, neatly mounted, and attractively displayed. It may be small numerically, at the outset, but it cannot help but grow. Personally, I always try to avoid answering the naive question, "How many have you?", although I admit, to myself at least, a certain amount of pride in being the possessor of a collection of nearly 50,000 varieties, all acquired since 1917.
How I pity the golfer who has only his golf on a rainy week-end. As for me, I golf if the weather is fine, and I have my stamps when it isn't. I am never restless for something to do, or somewhere to go, for my stamps are always ready to keep me company. They fully repay me for the time I spend with them.
Stamps are acquired by purchase, gift and exchange. The first two methods need no comment. When you buy, you get those you want and you pay for them. Gifts are very welcome, but occur so seldom! It is in exchanging that the real pleasure comes. Frequent correspondence with collectorfriends in foreign countries brings its own reward. They have sources of supply unavailable to you; and you, in turn, can supply them with material which otherwise would be difficult for them to get. And all swapping is done on the basis of standard catalogue values, so all concerned are satisfied.
The general business situation has been so uncertain for the past two or three years, that many a collector has done what I have done,—declared a moratorium on all stamp purchases except for insignificant amounts. That forced me to get my duplicates in shape to exchange. It kept me away from stamp dealers and stamp auctions, but it also opened up possibilities for new acquisitions which, up to that time, were not considered worth the effort. Then came the awakening that a good half of the pleasure of collecting consists in ferreting out those who have duplicates to exchange, going over their material and finding therein some that I can use. Membership in a stamp club was an invaluable aid in this connection.
Really, I could not tell you which stamp in my collection I prize most highly. 1 know which one has the highest catalogue value and which one cost me the most in hard cash, but is that the answer? As I look over my collection I come across some from Turkey that a medical-missionary classmate sent me from that country. There are early air-mails from Persia, secured in exchange from an acquaintance who made a business trip there, to buy furs. There is the Cardinal Mercier set which my wife bought for me at the Post Office in Antwerp a couple of years ago. There are some nice Dutch Indies air mails, obtained from a Dutchman who lived in Java half a lifetime. How 1 originally got in touch with him and maintained contact for several years until his death recently in Holland would make interesting reading as a separate story. Almost every page I turn awakens a recollection of how this or that item was obtained.
I am a great believer in the general collection, which includes the whole world. It may be too tall an order, from the standpoint of attaining completeness, but there are no cramping limitations such as face those who specialize in certain countries only, and who finally reach a point where it is a real event to find something to add to their collections. New issues are constantly appearing. We collectors know what they are, sometimes before they are obtainable, thanks to the philatelic press. How to secure them for our albums is the problem to be solved. And what fun in the solving! For a noiseless, compact, engrossing hobby, stamp collecting is the peer of them all!
