THE CHRISTMAS STAMP
Reading edition
Late as the January Bulletin is in going to press, it is not possible to tell of the result of the Christmas Stamp sale. This must wait for the April issue, but that the result promises to be remarkable is shown by the fact that the wholesale orders received up to December 15th at Red Cross Headquarters from the State Branches and Anti-Tuberculosis Associations authorized by the Red Cross to sell these stamps aggregated twenty-five millions and it has proved most difficult to have the stamps printed rapidly enough to fill these orders. It was not possible when the orders were pouring in at over a million a day to reply as rapidly as was desired. Neither Red Cross Headquarters nor State Branches anticipated any such remarkable demand. For the season of 1909 a new stamp will be issued, for the design of which a prize will be offered. Regulations governing the competition for this prize will be formulated and issued later.
The Red Cross has received through the courtesy of Mr. Einar Holboll, Postmaster of Centofte, Denmark, a copy of this year’s Danish Christmas stamp. The coloring is dark blue with a yellow light shining through the corridors of the Sanitarium for Tuberculosis Children, built by means of the Danish Christmas stamps.
Danish Christmas Stamp for 1908
What Agnes Repplier Has to Say of the Red Cross Christmas Stamps
What does the Red Cross Christmas Stamp mean?
It means that you are asked to spend one cent more on every Christmas present that you send.
It means that this tiny fraction of money, multiplied by thousands, will yield a noble sum for the maintenance of a great work—open-air Day Camps for the cure of Tuberculosis.
It means that by using the stamp, you express confidence in the work of the Red Cross.
It means that you extend the circle of your friendship until it embraces the friendless, and that your good-will reaches beyond the few whom you love to the many whom you are bidden to love.
It means that the spirit of Christmas stirs in the heart of Christendom, and that you respond to this spirit by linking your Christmas gifts with the cause of the poor and the ill, with the work of wisdom and of mercy.
THE RED CROSS CHRISTMAS STAMP
BY E. S. MARTIN.
Buy me every chance you get! Do you good? Just try me! Lick me light and stick me tight! Buy me! Buy me! Buy me! All good luck and Christmas cheer, All good will I carry, I’m your friend and—never fear— Truly sanitary. I’m the Red Cross Christmas Stamp, This that I propose is To summon wealth to fight for health And beat tuberculosis. Beat the greatest plague of all, Oust a pall of sadness, Treat despair with food and air, And lift it into gladness. Buy me! Buy me! I’m your friend. Help me win my battle! Help me bring a scourge to end, Men are more than cattle! Help me help the suffering! I’m their supplication Skill that’s brotherly shall bring Healing to the nation.
THE RED CROSS STAMP
BY IRVING SAYFORD.
Who’ll pay a cent with a square intent? Red for their blood—and life is sweet; White for the gleam of their winding sheet; Green for their graves—and death, be fleet! Who’ll pay a cent for a chance to cheat The great white plague of its winding sheet? One stamp for a penny—you’ll take how many? Red’s for the glow of the Christmas cheer; White’s for the peace of the brand-new year; Green’s for the brow, not for the bier; Who’ll drop a penny instead of a tear To lessen the list in the brand-new year?
THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS STAMP
BY ARTHUR G. BURGOYNE.
(Air: “Wearing of the Green.”)
Nowadays for letter-writing Here’s the popular receipt: First with chit-chat that’s inviting Coyer deftly ev’ry sheet. Seal it neatly and address it; Blot the superscription damp. Then don’t mail the note unless it Has a little Christmas Stamp. Refrain: Oh, the little Christmas Stamp! Oh, the cheery Christmas Stamp, With its message to the fireside and the workshop and the camp! Trav’ling over vale and mountain, over lake and plain and swamp, As a messenger of mercy goes the little Christmas Stamp. Postal bureaus are not able In their wisdom to invent Any brighter, fairer label On our letters to be sent. They may try a new creation, Or the old designs revamp, But the meanwhile the population Craves the little Christmas Stamp. Stamps of England show the florid Bearded visage of King Ed. Stamps from Egypt’s deserts torrid, Show the Sphynx’s grinning head. Other stamps show deer and fishes, Or a pictured urn or lamp, But the one that bears good wishes Is the little Christmas Stamp. Russia sports her eagles mighty On her postal guarantees; Spain depicts her monarch flighty, Germany her own main squeeze. Other pow’rs use landscapes charming, Which in narrow space they cramp, But the one design heart-warming Marks the little Christmas Stamp. Now this stamp won’t pay for transit On our own or other soil, But ’tis plain to him that scans it That it pays for Red Cross toil. And to keep the white plague under And upon that pest to tramp, Buy the latest postal wonder, Buy the little Christmas Stamp.