Matthew E. Liebson

Meet Me in St. Louis, if You Can Find Me



Now here's a cover that looks like it's been places--only it never left St. Louis! The item was mailed from the American Mercantile Adjustment Co., at the Wainwright Building, and sent to a Henry B. Davis, located in the same city, on January 22, 1900. A 2-cent Bureau issue (probably a #279B)was affixed, and cancelled with a scarce Barry slogan machine marking advertising the upcoming Louisiana Purchase World's Fair in 1903 (which didn't actually occur until 1904). Bomar, in his Postal Markings of United States Expositions, identifies this as ST.LO4-11 and notes that it was used for less than 2 months.

As it turns out, the address for Mr. Davis was not correct. From there on, it's tougher to tell what happened--but it appears that 2909 Lafayette was tried--then corrected to 2911 Lafayette. The Henry Davis there opened it, but it probably wasn't for him. There's a notation at right that he opened it, but the cover was then re-sealed with what seems to be an OX10. At some point, a 252 was written on the face of the cover, but there is a manuscript notation "not for route 252" on the reverse, so I guess that didn't work either. One more address was tried, written in blue pencil, but I can't read it, other than "university club". Perhaps it eventually found its way to the right Henry Davis, because the cover is slit open at top and the contents are gone.

As a final note, the cover bears not one, but two backstamps from St. Louis's group of scarce Hampden machines. The first is 8:30 PM on the 22nd, probably as an initial backstamp or after the first delivery attempt; the second one is January 24, 1PM. What a trip!

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