ny a keen stamp
collector turns his years of wide experience to good account as a
bargain hunter, and at least one innocent amateur is credited with
netting a revenue which would make many a flourishing merchant green
with envy.

Many a match has probably been due to stamp collecting. Not long ago
we were told of a young lady who wrote to an official in a distant
colony for a few of the current stamps issued from his office. The
stamps were forwarded and a correspondence ensued. There was
eventually an exchange of photographs, and finally the official
applied for leave, returned home, and married his stamp collecting
correspondent.

Truly the scope of the stamp collector for pleasure, for profit, and
for romance is as wide as the most imaginative could desire.

[Illustration:]

X.

Philatelic Societies and their Work.

Most of the great cities of Europe, the British Colonies, and the
United States have their Philatelic Societies. They are associations
of stamp collectors for the study of postage stamps, their history,
engraving, and printing; the detection and prevention of forgeries and
frauds; the preparation and publication of papers and works bearing
upon postal issues; the display and exhibition of stamps, and the
exchange of duplicates.

The premier society is the Philatelic Society of London, which was
founded so long ago as 1869, and has as its acting President H.R.H.
the Prince of Wales. For over thirty years, without a break, this
Society has held regular meetings during the winter months. Its
membership comprises most of the leading collectors in Great Britain
and her Colonies and many of the best-known foreign collectors. On the
membership roll are three princes, several earls, baronets, judges,
barristers, medical men, officers in the Army and Navy, and many
well-known merchants. This society has published costly works on the
stamps of Great Britain, of the Australian Colonies, of the British
Colonies of North America, of the West Indies, of India and Ceylon,
and of Africa. It publishes an excellently-got-up monthly journal of
its own, which now claims shelf-room in the philatelic library for ten
stately annual volumes. It has held two very successful International
Philatelic Exhibitions, one opened by the late Duke of Edinburgh and
the other by the Prince of Wales, then Duke of York. At its
fortnightly meetings, papers are read and discussed on various matters
relating to the hobby. Othe