of the many groups of stamp-issuing countries periodically revives the
interest of the flagging collector, and binds him afresh to the hobby
of his choice. Old, seasoned collectors, whose interest once set never
flags from youth to age, relegate new issues to a back seat. They find
more than enough to engage their lifelong devotion in the grand old
issues of the early settlements. But the collector of modern issues
who cannot afford to indulge in the great rarities, finds new issues a
source of perpetual enjoyment. They follow one another month after
month, and infuse into the collector's life the irresistible charm of
novelty, and every now and again an emergency issue comes as a
surprise. There is a scramble for possession, and a spice of
speculation in the possibility, never absent from a makeshift and
emergency issue, that the copies may be scarce, and may some day ripen
into rarity.

[Illustration:]




[Illustration:]

III.

Its Permanence.


Ever since the collection of postage stamps was first started it has
been sneered at as a passing craze, and it has been going to die a
natural death for the past forty years. But it is not dead yet.