Many people are at a loss to understand the fascination that surrounds
the pursuit of stamp collecting. They are surprised at the
clannishness of stamp collectors, and their lifelong devotion to their
hobby. They are thunderstruck at the enormous prices paid for rare
stamps, and at the fortunes that are spent and made in stamp
collecting.

The following pages will afford a peep behind the scenes, and explain
how it is that, after nearly half a century of existence, stamp
collecting has never been more popular than it is to-day.

And perchance many a tired worker in search of a hobby may be
persuaded that of all the relaxations that are open to him none is
more attractive or more satisfying than stamp collecting.

Its literature is more abundant than that devoted to any other hobby.
Its votaries are to be found in every city and town of the civilised
world. Governments and statesmen recognise, unsolicited, the claims of
stamp collecting--the power, the influence, and the wealth that it
commands. From a mere schoolboy pastime it has steadily developed into
an engrossing hobby for the leisured and the busy of all classes and
all ranks of life, from the monarch on his throne to the errand boy in
the merchant's office.

In the competition of modern life it is recognised that those who
must work must also play. The physician assures us that the man who
allows himself no relaxation, no recreation, loses his energy, and
ages earlier than the man who judiciously alternates work and play.