wound up the evening with a nice game of crib, écarté, or even double dumby, but no chance of that now. I think the black and red of a clean pack of cards worth all the postage stamp colours in the world;-chacun à son goût. I had remarked several times in the course of the evening that my host seemed on the point of saying something, and checked himself, as if uncertain of the opportunity. Out it came, at last, with a vengeance. You know, my dear fellow, you can write on any subject.' I think the reader will perceive I have no mock modesty, and consequently my disclaimer was drawn very mildly. "The first two numbers of our magazine have sold wonderfully, and the publishers want a tale written for the third number, but the liberal introduction of postage stamps is a sine quá non, and I was thinking you are quite the man we want to write it.' I was just putting the glass to my lips, when the cool audacity of this proposition tallied so ill with the hot gin and water, as to cause such a convulsive start that the liquid went the wrong way; and much was the mopping of the eyes, and many friendly pats on the back were needful to set me to rights again. My good little man,' rejoined I (I have the advantage of nearly half an inch over him), 'what can you be thinking of? I know no more of postage stamps than a tom cat.' 'Not after all the pains I have taken to explain all about them? Look here, now.' And he fetched the blessed album from the other end of the room, where I had fondly hoped (shortsighted mortal!) it would take up its resting-place for that night at least; and for another clock hour I had the dose repeated,' till I was fain to fairly give in at last, and, like the man who married a wife to get rid of her, pretend a sufficient conception of my lesson, and agree to do the best I could for the 'mag,' as he called it. The fact was, I was getting sleepy, which my crafty friend knew full well. I believe nothing but sheer violence would have ensured my exit till breakfast time; so pertinacious is he with an object in view. PART II. THE CONSEQUENCES. "The ancient Nox, at Indigestion's call, Summons a lurid courser from her stall : Then on the panting breast, with savage force, Resistless treads that phantom female horse.' 'HOME to the sylvan shades of holy John' I got at last, after a four-mile walk, having outstayed the last omnibus, and not choosing to afford myself a cab. I was really dead beat, and never threw myself upon my bed with greater pleasure; but whether I had bustled about too much all day, or indulged too plentifully in the toasted cheese, or the last glass of grog was too strong, or the night walk too long, or, which was more likely, the din of the postage stamps had muddled my brain, or from all these causes combined, not a wink of sound, refreshing, digestive sleep could I get all night. I slept, it is true, but what a sleep! I should have stated that my friend had trusted me with a sheet of postage stamps of different countries, to assist my memory, as he phrased it, that I might make no mistakes in the subject of my tale. I was not allowed to put these in my pocket, or to fold the sheet, so had to carry the things all the way daintily in my hand. Oh! how strongly I was tempted to chuck them into the gutter; but I bravely resisted the evil one, and laid them down carefully on my table. If they would only have stayed there, but no all the live-long night the creatures were flitting around my head,-my poor aching head!sometimes singly, sometimes in clusters, dancing, talking, and singing. When an uneasy start woke me up from this, and I dropped off again, I became a little schoolboy, standing up to repeat a lesson I knew nothing about, and my friend, swollen to a gigantic size, and flourishing a huge whip, was talking me blind. How marvellous are the workings of the brain! how wonderfully, that more than magical faculty ignores both time and space!" 'How long a dream the busy mind conceives In the midst of my tossings and tumblings recurred to me the experience of the drowning man, quoted, if I mistake not, by Abercrombie, as instancing the well-nigh incredible power of concentrating a life's events in a few moments of time; and the amusing eastern tale of the sultan, who, discrediting the legend, related to him by a learned and pious dervish, about Mohammed, who, having been conducted by an angel through the courts of heaven, and shown all the glories of paradise, found, to his great amazement, on being re-transported to his chamber, that all the water had not yet run out from a vessel which he had upset in his hurried exit with the angel. The story runs, that the holy mollah, offering to give the incredulous sultan undeniable proof of the possibility of such an occurrence, in the presence of the assembled courtiers, requested his highness to plunge into a large bath of water which he had ordered to be prepared. No sooner had the sultan done so, than he found himself, to his great amazement and indignation, suddenly transported to the sea shore of a region perfectly novel to his eyes. To condense the circumstances as much as possible, I must merely add, that he found his way, with much difficulty, through a barren region to the nearest town, in a pitiable condition, after being attacked and stripped almost naked by some robbers, for the sake of his regal robes; was hospitably received by a tradesman of the place; entered into his service; eventually married his daughter; on the decease of the old man, succeeded to the business; but, misfortune still pursuing him, lost his wife and children by the plague; became bankrupt; was driven from the town in a state of destitution; and, exactly fourteen years after he had quitted it, reached the same sea shore; recognised it; in a transport of despair threw himself into the sea, to end at once his sorrows and his life,' and instantaneously found himself in the midst of the dervish and his courtiers, who, one and all, solemnly asseverated that he had not remained under water but one single instant! In such wise, each hasty snatch of sleep epitomised the events of months, aye, years; and the memories of the past, the facts and fancies of the present, occurrences actual, but long forgotten, and things that had, or might, could, would, or should have been, in heterogeneous jumble offered themselves before my busy imagination, till ever and anon 'Night's leaden courser pressed on my chest with such redoubl'd force,' that I started, woke, and turned; again to dose,-sleep it might not be called. How I anathematised posts and postages, from Cyrus, the inventor, to Palmer, the improver, and Rowland Hill, the perfecter and generaliser. The only post I could have welcomed with any complacency would have been a pillar one, to dash my head against; my pillow, although a lodging-house article, not being quite hard enough for the purpose. 'It is a long lane that has no turning,' and at length, like the previous evening, the night came to an end; and, following my accustomed doctrine of making the best of everything, I tried to eliminate from the nocturnal recollections, matter as groundwork for the promised tale, which lay nearly as dead a weight upon my mind as the nightmare itself had upon my body. From such a hash of remembrance, vision, and imagination as could only have been induced by the combined influences of agents so potent as postage stamps, indigestion, incubus, and toasted cheese, 'Forth springs, like Pallas from the cloven head Of father Jove, omnipotent and dread,' THE TALE OF A POSTAGE STAMP. IN honest truth, I am indebted to my friend for the narrative of some of the events attempted to be pourtrayed, who can talk sense at intervals, albeit, as some cooks flavour everything (you may see I am a bit of a gourmand) with garlic,-I fancy they do violence to their feelings by withholding 'just a soupçon' from fish, tart, pudding, and jelly, all his talk, at present, is interlarded with the ever-recurring- -you must supply the gap; I am weary of the words. When the tiresome imps were dancing round my distracted head, and with voices like the tinkling of little bells dinning in my ears, some of them (I suppose they were of the adorable sex) seemed to out-talk the rest, and make themselves heard by dint of sheer pertinacity. A very beautiful female head-goodness knows the owner of itchattered away, as 'who should say, stop!' but the one whose prattle chiefly attracted, and whose experiences most deeply rivetted my attention, I found, on referring to the label thoughtfully affixed by my friend, mistrusting my apprehension of his pets' names, bore the proud designation of the CROSS OF SAVOY. (To be continued.) ADDENDA TO MOUNT BROWN'S CATALOGUE OF POSTAGE STAMPS, COMPRISING NOTES, ADDITIONS, AND EMENDATIONS, BY C. W. VINER, A.M., Ph.D. France. REPUBLIC. THERE are three distinct colours of the 1-f. Republic lake, or rather brownish red; carmine; and dark vermillion. The latter is exceedingly rare, and we imagine it must have been the earliest issue, as the cancelling mark is the gridiron, not the dots which later stamps have. The 20 c., black, has two varieties,-one printed on white, the other on tinted paper; and the 25 c. is both dark and light blue,the former bearing the earlier, and the latter the later cancel. PRESIDENCY. The two stamps under this head both show below the neck a very minute B, the initial of Barre, the engraver's name. EMPIRE. The 25 c., blue, which is also both light and dark in shade, was in use seven months only, and the 1 f. little more than a year, being superseded by the 20 c. and 80 c. respectively. The 2 c., cafè au lait, described in our first number, is to be added, but we understand the expected 4 c. will not be issued. Envelopes have been made, but are not yet circulated. They are very like those of Canada, which, we are informed, were taken as models. The French stamps are now perforated by government. A private firm used to adopt this useful practice for the benefit of customers. They may be easily distinguished from those now in use, by the comparatively large size of the punctures. ESSAYS. One f, green (Empire Franc.), head of Emperor. The essays of 1858 must have been ordered before the Empire was declared. They are most exquisite specimens of engraving, and were exhibited in the French department of the International Exhibition. By a peculiar process, patented, we believe, by the engraver, they are slightly indented at the back, which gives a fulness to the portrait. Besides these essays, there is another issue in carmine, blue, and other colours, with no name, date, or value, but merely the head of Liberty. The curious essay of 1862 was pronounced too troublesome for adoption. The 15 c. à percevoir, noticed in the first number, must be added to the list of French stamps. FRENCH COLONIES. Our letters from the French West Indies to the present date, say that the 20 c., blue, and 80 c., rose, are not yet issued. The 10 o., orange, and 20 c., indigo, of many catalogues, were fictitious stamps, made by immersing the stamps of the empire of those values in some liquid. There is an essay for Cayenne, but it is exceedingly rare. Germany. NORTHERN STATES. The 1 s. gr. of the earliest issue is printed on three differently coloured papers,-grey, light blue, and deep blue. Thes. gr., orange; the s. gr., green; and the 1 s. gr., rose, have appeared of the anticipated series of 1862. SOUTHERN STATES. For the 3 kr., pale lavender, read light blue. The 1 kr., yellow, of the 1862 series, is not out. Granada Confederation. We regret the meagreness of our collection in these rare stamps, fourteen only, prevents our annotating on what is so well explained in Mr. Brown's book. Great Britain. A knowing young member of the stampexchange sold us very cleverly, by offering to dispose of a government stamp, not noticed in Brown's book, which had been in circulation many years, but would soon be out of use, for the moderate sum of twopence. Thinking to get something choice, we made the required investment, and received the common English penny Queen's head. On reference to the catalogue, we found, to our great surprise, no indication of what may be called the present representative of the progenitor of postage stamps. Most collectors and all catalogues ignore the existence of a twopenny black English stamp. Such a stamp lies before us in our own album, and we have seen several others. It has lines above and below the head, but may be merely an essay. We have seen the sixpenny octagon stamp, green, like the shilling, in some collections. The one penny, with letters in each angle, is not yet out. ESSAYS. There appear to exist many not hitherto described in any catalogue. We possess one we cannot identify as noticed elsewhere. Large oval device, in white relief on blue ground. Engine-turned border, enclosing smaller oval, containing, Post office, in curved line, rather above the centre. This is headed by a crown, between V. R. Underneath stands, one penny, half oz. There is a series, of which one is described in Dr. Gray's hand-book,-queen's head to left in very high relief, on variously coloured grounds; oval-shaped, with engine-turned oval frame; no value specified, but simply paid on the upper rim of the border. Also, an embossed stamp for envelope. Profile of queen, in embossed, white-lined oval frame, with flower below, in a second frame, inscribed, Postage, One Penny, half oz., rose; Postage, Twopence, one oz., blue. 1838. We hope to give an engraving of one of the English essays in our next; a detailed description of a very rare green envelope; and specify some varieties of those already described. The stamps of private firms are recognised by many of the continental collectors, and therefore ought not to be totally ignored in catalogues; and although, of course, not admissible in an album for postage stamps solely, the Custom House impressions may be adduced as models of beauty, both in variety of design, and artistic execution. NOTE.-By an error in our last, the 1-real M. C. Corrientes was appended to the notice of the Buenos Ayres stamps. It should have either remained, as in Brown's manual, under the heading of the Argentine Confederation, or obtained the dignity of a sepa rate paragraph-Corrientes and Buenos Ayres being both provinces of that anomalous region. (To be continued.) POSTAL CHIT-CHAT.-III. BY H. M. EISENBERG, OF PARIS. Ir may possibly give amusement to many readers of the Stamp Collector's Magazine to learn a little of the buying, selling, and exchanging postal traffic in the French metropolis; to which end I beg to contribute a slight sketch. It is generally known that this collecting mania had a much earlier existence in France than in England, though for some time confined to a few rich amateurs, till its ranks have been successively filled by juveniles of both sexes en pension, whose attention to their collection-books during the vacations, attracted first the notice and afterwards the emulation of the elder branches of the family. I may observe that the prices now given for specimens are very far below what were bestowed two or three years ago; almost fabulous sums of money having been paid for stamps which can now be obtained for twentyfive or fifty centimes; and, strange to say, most of the English colonial stamps actually sell now for less in Paris than in England. There was formerly a place of meeting for exchanging stamps in a room in the Boulevart Sebastopol, which has, I believe, been given up, since amateurs have taken to assemble in the Jardins des Tuilleries for that purpose. There was a moderate traffic. carried on on Thursday evenings, especially in the gardens of the Luxembourg, but it is nearly extinct. In the former place of meeting, Sundays and Thursdays attract the largest crowd, although a sprinkling of collectors may be seen most fine days. Chance passers are often drawn to the groups of exchangers, who had, perhaps, never given postage stamps a thought before, but who were soon inoculated with the fancy, and became zealous collectors. I am myself acquainted with a gentleman, who, walking near the crowd of people one Sunday afternoon, with his wife and child, stopped a few moments to gaze at the (to him) incomprehensible échanges, exclaiming, at the same time, Quelle bétise!' Being a collector myself, I felt rather annoyed, and took the liberty of addressing him some remarks, to the effect that, perhaps, if he were a little more enlightened as to the matter, he might not think it so stupid a pastime, and might allow others to enjoy what he himself stigmatised as an absurdity. All this he took very good-naturedly, and left me with the promise of looking over his old letters, to see if he could find any republics, &c. This took place six months ago, and at this present moment the same individual not only collects for himself, but actually deals in stamps, and enjoys much patronage, as being more polite and reasonable than most of the Parisian stamp merchants. At the present time, new-I mean unobliterated-stamps are all the rage with amateurs; specimens which are almost valueless if defaced, fetching very good prices if clean and unused. Selling is strictly-and, I must confess, justly prohibited in the gardens of the Tuilleries; there are still, however, many respectable people who manage to gain a few occasional francs on the quiet. Last summer, while busied in exchanging specimens, I was very much annoyed by an insolent gendarme, who suddenly rushed upon me and an English friend, and ordered us to leave the gardens. As he was at the same time dispersing the rest of the assemblage, we were naturally inclined to follow them in the direction of the Champs Elysées, but he would not allow us, and on our asking him why, having no reason to give, he contented himself with saying he did not want us there. This we thought rather a stretch of authority, and laughed at him, which infuriated the poor fellow to such a degree, that he obliged us to retire the way he wished, and ordered the guard at the gate not to admit us again. My friend made a formal complaint to the general, who signified in reply, that the man had exceeded his duty, and that nothing but selling was prohibited in the Tuilleries. Since that circumstance, I have never been interrupted, and remain a constant frequenter of the 'change. Many are the petty annoyances attendant on the stamp trafficker's steps. In the first place, you are very much tormented by ladies, old and young, entreating you for un petit,' and if you yield to one you are safe to get a dozen more applicants. Again, nothing but the choicest stamps will be accepted in exchange for anything really worth having; but what worries me worse than all, is the interference of a certain class of people, who seem always determined to meddle with other peoples' exchanges, and just as one is on the point of obtaining some long-desired example for one's book, an individual of this class is sure to be at hand, and tip the wink to the other not to give the exchange. I can say for myself that many a good change have I lost through one of these meddlers, although he professes great friendship for me. I used to be struck by the appearance of three men in blue blouses, who were regular attendants, and though from their dress evidently of the lower orders, would never condescend to sell, but confined themselves exclusively to exchanging desiderata. The stamp dealers of Paris would form a curious study of character, so various are their tempers and manners as well as their charges. What one will sell for half-a-franc, another will charge you four times the sum for; and the same dealer, perhaps, takes a few centimes for a stamp valued by the other at a franc. There is one who is ready to show you the door unless you expend at least thirty or forty francs with him; another, who abuses his wife for the same reason; and a third, who calls his wife to abuse you. One is sure to be at breakfast or dinner whenever you go to his rooms; another has to be fetched from a neighbouring cabaret or café. The dealers on the Quais are the cheapest to deal with, and those in the Rue |