How That Chain Letter Originated

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 56, 28 May 1927, Page 1

How That Chain Letter Originated

Why Blame the Soldier.' 1 A SLY SCHEME

Talk of rabbits! There’s something that multiplies about a million times as fast. It is a frantic pest, too, they call it the "lucky chain letter.”

Why they say that "an officer in Flanders” started it is not hard to understand. It is a pretty and romanceful artifice. W e all know that the “chain letter” is the last resource of a postmaster-general in distress over his balance-sheet. When he has tried loans and things unsuccessfully, he calls on the league of stationers. "How’s things?” he asks. “Pretty r6tten,” they reply. “Same here,” says he. "What about starting a chain letter?” They agree with eagerness and the problem arises of who is to start it; the missionary in China, the head hunter in Borneo, or the trapper in Labrador? There must be romance about the place of origin; it would be useless to start the Affair in Wellington for instance. "An American officer in Flanders” might as well be blamed.

The postmaster-general goes away rubbing his hands. "Thank goodness that difficulty’s over,” he says. Don’t you believe this? Well, see here. If everyone follows the instructions contained in the letter to "send it to four persons within 24 hours,” in a fortnight after the posting of the original “link,” 78.555.455 people would he racking their brains for their “four friends!” Now, provided these letters had not left his territory, the total revenue to the postmaster-general would be about £327,000, and the profit to the paper and envelope sellers would be proportionate! If you are a gold medallist in mathematics you might find out how many people would be tangled in the chain in 12 months, or even since 1918, when the fictitious "American officer” forged the first link. Probably the resulting figures will show that every inhabitant of the globe should have received at least two epistles. The “good luck" guaranteed to every follower of the instructions must have become a world-wide influence, and it probably accounts for the present-day peace and happiness. “It is positively remarkable how the predictions have been fulfilled since the chain started,” says the letter. I wonder who foresaw that I would light my pipe with it?