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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
162
The
following
is
an
instance
of
a
fraud
upon
well-to-do
persons
in
this
country,
attempted
by
an
American
in
the
year
1869:--
The
Rev.
Mr
Champneys,
of
St
Pancras,
London,
received
a
letter
posted
at
Florence,
Burlington
County,
New
Jersey,
U.S.,
which
upon
being
opened
seemed
to
be
not
intended
for
him,
but
was
a
communication
purporting
to
be
written
from
one
sister
to
another.
The
letter
made
it
appear
that
the
writer
was
highly
connected,
had
fallen
into
the
greatest
distress
owing
to
the
death
of
her
husband,
that
her
feelings
of
self-respect
had
restrained
her
from
telling
her
griefs
till
she
could
no
longer
withhold
them,
and
making
free
use
of
the
deepest
pathos
and
high-sounding
sentiments,
and
finally
appealing
for
an
immediate
remittance.
Mr
Champneys,
not
suspecting
a
fraud,
and
desiring
to
help
forward
the
letter
to
the
person
who,
as
he
supposed,
should
have
received
it,
inserted
the
following
advertisement
in
the
'Times'
newspaper:--
"A
letter,
dated
Florence,
Burlington
County,
New
Jersey,
U.S.,
intended
for
Mrs
Lucy
Campbell,
Scotland,
has
been
misdirected
to
Rev.
W.
Champneys,
31
Gordon
Square.
Will
Mrs
Campbell
kindly
communicate
her
address
immediately?"
In
response
to
this
inquiry,
what
was
Mr
Champney's
surprise
but
to
find
that
a
large
number
of
persons
had
received
letters
in
identical
terms
and
in
precisely
the
same
circumstances!
This
of
course
caused
him
to
reflect,
and
then
the
facts
became
clear
to
him--which
were,
that
under
the
guise
of
a
trifling
mistake,
that
of
placing
a
letter
in
the
wrong
envelope,
a
set
of
dire
circumstances
were
placed
before
persons
who
were
likely
to
be
kind-hearted
and
generous,
in
the
hope
that,
though
the
writer
was
unknown
to
them,
they
might
send
some
money
to
cheer
a
poor
but
respectable
family
steeped
in
calamity!
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