mpending evil;
"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 Some day even stamp collecting may be superseded by a more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 h