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Show 1Tiq Story t ' By ELMO SCOTT WATSON I phlet form by the National Tuberculo- j .mv cUnat nt sic nssnHnfinn. FTis Rforv nf "The 'w,'- ) T By ELMO SCOTT WATSON HEN you buy a big sheet of Christmas seals, does it ever occur to you that there's an interesting story back of the addition of these little "scraps of paper" to the list of symbols sym-bols of Christmas time? And do the names of Einar Hol-boell Hol-boell and Emily P. Bissell come to your mind when you stick one of these- gayly-colored little stamps on a Christmas package and send it away to carry its message of Yuletide cheer as well as the message that you are thus helping in a great humanitarian work? If not, they should, for it Is to a Danish postal clerk and an American Amer-ican Red Cross worker that we owe the idea and development of the Christmas seal. Back in 1003 a man named Einar Holboell, a postal clerk in the post of-. of-. fice at Copenhagen, Denmark, was busy in the division of outgoing mall. It was Christmas week and he was literally buried in cards and letters. The faster he sorted the faster they flowed in. For a moment he paused in serious thought ; then his face brightened. "These Christmas cards and letters should have an additional stamp a benevolent stamp or seal at a small price within the reach of all. Why not call it a Christmas stamp? ' "Even a 'two ore' (about one-fourth of a cent) stamp on all these cards and letters would create a mighty sum if the plan could only be realized. Christmas Christ-mas is a time of generosity and good will, when we send a kindly thought even to those whom we neglect the whole year through. Two ore each on every greeting would mean a sum to be reckoned with well, thcu, to the task 1" He went with his plan to the head of the postal service and others witli influence in-fluence and authority. And so, when the first Christmas seal committee was formed, including, among others, six representatives from t he postal department, de-partment, the interest of the postal employees was insured from the start. In 1004 the committee met to discuss dis-cuss the purpose and use of the possible pos-sible income from the Christmas seal, and It was decided that the first object ob-ject was the erection of a hospital for tubercular children, and, in general, the income from the seal should always al-ways be for the fight against tuberculosis, tuber-culosis, in one form or another. Upon application to the then King 'Christian IX, Holboell secured the permission per-mission to have a likeness of the deceased de-ceased Queen Louise on the first Christmas seal, and the king became so interested that he himself selected the picture which he wished used. Naturally, Mr. Holboell and his committee com-mittee felt some anxiety over the outcome out-come of their first venture an anxiety anx-iety which proved to be without foundation. The success was overwhelming. over-whelming. The first printing of 2,000,-000 2,000,-000 was Immediately increased to G,0O0,000 and over 5,000,000 were sold. . Since that time a capital of 3,000,-000 3,000,-000 kronen has been realized, wtdch has been used for the erection of large numbers of sanitaria and convalescent homes for tubercular patients. Holboell, Hol-boell, the modest postal assistant, became be-came postmaster at Charlotten Zund, near Copenhagen, and a Danish cross of Knighthood was his badge of honor. He died of heart trouble in his sixty-second sixty-second year on February 23, 1027, and. as was fitting, the Danish Christmas seal for 1027 bore the picture of Einar Holboell, whose idea has spread over the entire world. The story of how Miss Emily P. Bis-soll's Bis-soll's name came to be associated with the Christmas seal was told in an article ar-ticle by Leigh Mitchell Hodges which appeared In The Survey last year and which has been reproduced in pam phlet form by the National Tuberculosis Tuberculo-sis association. His story of "The First Christmas Seal" follows: December, 1907 the World war seven years ahead, but a deadlier war at flood tuberculosis taking one-tenth of all who died from diseasefolks dis-easefolks everywhere wondering what could be done to stem the tide. Mid-morning, December 13 a ragged, dirty newsboy walked Into a Philadelphia newspaper office. Reaching up to a marble counter higher than his head, he put down a copper cent. , "Gimme one, me sister's got It." (What he was given is the seal illustrated above directly under the -letters "Ch" In the title of this article). ar-ticle). Noontime, December 9, 1907, In Wilmington, capital of little Delaware, Dela-ware, two pretty girls in Red Cross uniforms taking their place at a table in the post office corridor, asking ask-ing a quarter each for little pay envelopes en-velopes thus labeled: 25 CHRISTMAS STAMPS One Penny Apiece Issued by the Delaware Red Cross, to stamp out the White Plague. Put this stamp with message bright On every Christmas letter, Help the tuberculsois flght, And make the New Tear better. These stamps do not carry any kind of mail, but any kind of mail will carry them. Mid-morning, December 11, 1907, eighteenth floor of the North American Amer-ican building in Philadelphia, a day member of the staff in his cubbyhole. cubby-hole. "A lady to see you," passing a card engraved "Miss Emily P. P.issell." "Is she good looking?" "Sure." "Show her in." Enter the secretary of the Delaware Dela-ware Red Cross on unofficial business.. busi-ness.. She had come to ask a favor of the Sunday editor and thought she'd pay her respects to the columnist, col-umnist, who hoped the Sunday editor edi-tor had granted her wish. He had uoL She had wanted him to run a little story about this, taking tak-ing a sheet of stamps from her handbag. hand-bag. Delaware was worried about "tuberculosis, ueeded a few hundred dollars to start caring for poor patients. pa-tients. She had read Jacob Riis' story about the Danish Christmas Stamp in the Outlook, wondered If Delaware couldn't issue one and sell enough to build a small shelter here it was, but she was afraid . Downstairs went the occupant of the cubby-hole, two steps at a time, to the office of E. A. Van Valken-burg, Valken-burg, president and editor of the pnper that had been first to displease dis-please the doctors by proposing publicity pub-licity as the -weapon to use against the white plague. "Here's the way to wipe out tuberculosis," tuber-culosis," half-shouted the man from upstairs, as he waved the sheet of stamps under the editor's nose! "What the hell do you mean?" A brief explanation. "Tell Miss Bissell the North American is hers from today." "How soon can we have 50,000 of the stamps?" was asked of the lady from Delaware. She gasped and said she'd telephone from Wilmington Wilming-ton that evening. "Fifty thousand," she echoed as she left, "Isn't that too many?" Ten o'clock the morning of December De-cember 13, 1107, a few thousand of the stamps, they were so-called at first, on sale in the publication office and a few more at a booth in Wana-niakcr's. Wana-niakcr's. Also a top-of-column five-bank five-bank head on page one of the North American. Next day the whole editorial edi-torial space devoted to a plea to buy these "bullets in the battle against the worst foe." Next day a seven-column "spread" on page one, and on December 13, with the stamps selling by thousands thou-sands and telegrams from many parts of the country asking about them. The presses In Wilmington couldn't print them fast enough, so a Philadelphia Phila-delphia printer was enlisted. Through its Washington correspondent, the newspaper got the postmaster general's gen-eral's permission to put up a booth In the Philadelphia post office lobby. From Jacob Riis, on December 19 : "Good for you and for Philadelphia and the North American. Keep it up. I am glad the little seed I sowed in the Outlook last summer has borne fruit." Five days before Christmas the governor of Pennsylvania -and the Pennsylvania branch of the National Nation-al Red Cross indorsed the stamp. Four days before Christmas an editorial edi-torial urged that "A Million Mercy Messengers" be bought by the people. peo-ple. Two days before Christmas "Happy New Year" was added to the stamp design, the demand having hav-ing gtown so. The day after Christmas more than half a million mil-lion already distributed to city, state and nation. Then a flight of signed Indorsements Indorse-ments from Washington, President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Root, Secretary of War Taft; from Baltimore, Balti-more, Cardinal Gibbons; from other places leaders in public life, philanthropy phil-anthropy and education all featured on page one. On January 8, a check for $1,013.97 sent to Miss Bissell, the proceeds of the North American's part in this preface to stamping out the plague several times the sum Delawar-eans Delawar-eans had wanted to raise and feared they could not get. And as much more from other sources In Pennsylvania. All told, Delaware and Pennsylvania raised $3,000 from this first sale of stamps. Meantime, the National Red Cross stopped, looked and listened, at an annual meeting, to Miss Bissell Bis-sell and the cubby-hole man, and slowly but surely decided to get behind be-hind the stamp. So the field was widened for the second round of these harmless "bullets," harmless to all save the deadly germs. On November 12, 190S, the first gun in the second campaign was fired by the North American, a page-one, page-one, promise to sell 1,000,000 of the 100S stamps, and one month later to the day it ordered its fourth million. mil-lion. Meantime Every day from November 12 to January 1, the Red Cross Christmas Stamp was a matter of first-page moment, and many a day it was given precedence over all other news In the North American. "It is splendid," said President Taft at the meeting of the Red Cross in Washington, December 8. Two days later the first page of the North American came out with a border of the stamps In red and a three-column facsimile likewise colored. col-ored. Other newspapers In many parts of the land were joining the procession. When the curtain was rung down on this act, in January, the net result of the stamp sale throughout the nation was $135,000. "I never could have believed It," said Miss Bissell. "Gimme one " and how the tinkle of that copper coin has grown 1 Annual sales of Christmas seals amounted to $5.'S,000,0 K to date, from - this source alone. Yet the money Is the least part of it. The message is what has counted mosL I'.etween them, the death rate from tuberculosis has been cut in half. And It Is still going down. Its fate Is sealed. t. 19C0. Western Newspaper Uuloa.) |