CHAIN LETTER DANGER

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 20

CHAIN LETTER DANGER

VICTIM WHO BECAME ILL

Mr. Ernest Victor Buckwcll, of De Montiord road, Brighton, had. his mind Upset by .1 chain-letter of tho familiar sort, and bocamo very ill. a ;. His wife, told an "Evening News" correspondent the circumstances of his disappearance from their home. He was found lying exhausted on tho Downs, five miles away, and by his side was a matchbox on which he had written; "I havo broken the Flanders field chain of luck. ' This is my punishment." Mrs. Buckwell said the text of a letter her husband read a-little while ago wa.s, roughly:' " This letter was started by an officer in. the field of Wanders. You must rewrite it and send it to four other people. If you do this great good fortune will come to you. If you "fail to do .this bad luck will follow' you al.ways. : . :.. -- ■• ' ■ ■■■ -•-•■■■ . -"There 'is; no ..doubt that the threat had preyed on ;my husband's mind " said Mrs. Buckwell. .. "He; took no'notice of it ;at -first, 'but after he: had torn it up he;, became frightened.' He thought thai; the-prediction- of bad'liick ,would come true.. ■"■■■•• .-'■■ ■•- << V S°mething,' '' 'she said feelingly, should be done to stop the circulation 01 these absurd letters." : Even before he left home Mr. Buckwoll was ill from brooding .on the ™' He said he was just going for a walk. It was fortunate for him that His daughters discovered where he was lying on the downs, for the exhaustion might avo had even more serious consequences. • . Inquiries made in London show that there is still a large number of chain letters moving throughout the country and round the- world. They seem to be particularly numerous.. among theatre people, who find them amusing. But most of all they are circulated among flappers, girls in factories and schoolemJaren. The original idea was that an officer Z f % ndT- dvin S the ■*« hi* upon I sort of chain of prayer for the Army, S r^\f c first letter, -telling a ■friend that- he must • send a ■ duplicate of v to four friends: they wouldsend ■t t l °., sixt^ n. and the. sixteen would 0^1" J°.«^-*««. "»« so the 'W A theatrical, producer stated that some novices in his and the film business wrote the four'letters as " a p re . ST. °n; °ne *& was deliglfted bhe attributed her engagement to havmfr,T Uo\ heTJ°™ chain-letters that morning. Another, who had been turned down, was in tears. She had recent ly destroyed a chain letter, she said. A school mistress declared that she ..had heard of hundreds of lettera eircu' latmg among the- pupils. ■When. th 3 letters were sent anonymously it sometimes happened that the girl who sont the letter would, in a few days get another letter from a fellow-pupil, and so on.