Paper Chase - The Amenities of Stamp Collecting
Alvin F. Harlow, 1940
"An informal open-air postage stamp exchange had begun
in London about 1860 in Change Alley, 'leading out of
Birchin Lane.' There in those long English twilights from
spring to autumn, one saw every evening 'at least fifty boys
and some men, too,' as a shocked reporter chronicled, buying,
selling, but mostly swapping stamps, even as you may
see curbstone traders dealing in diamonds today on the
sidewalk in Maiden Lane and a certain spot on the Bowery
in New York. Rapidly the situation grew even worse; young
ladies, 'album in hand,' were seen there, and whisper it
actually 'one of Her Majesty's Ministers'."
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Another excerpt.
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