(A look at some of the stories that made the news ‘back-in-the-day’ with CLIFFORD STANLEY)

Kaieteur Discovery Day
TODAY is the 64th Anniversary of  the discovery of Kaieteur, the world’s largest waterfall , universally acclaimed as the most magnificent and imposing Fall on earth.
Today, Kaieteur Discovery Day, presents an appropriate opportunity for focusing the vision of the world on the beauty of Kaieteur, provocatively concealed among the labyrinths of the Guiana hinterland.
Comparatively little has been written by historians of the actual and accidental discovery of Kaieteur, but in his ‘Canoe and camp life in British Guiana’, Mr. Charles Barrington Brown tells how he effected the discovery, and records his initial impressions of the wonder Fall, described as the guiding star in B.G., in highly-coloured and vivid phrases.
In 1870, Mr. Brown was an assistant geological surveyor.
In April of that year, he had been peregrinating up the upper reaches of the Potaro, proceeding from the Burro Burro River by the valley of the Ireng, round the head of the Siparuni.
Primarily, Mr. Brown’s purpose was to descend the Potaro, and establish connection, with his boats, at the base of the Tumatumari cataracts.
Arriving at Chenapow Creek, Mr. Brown encountered a tribe of Indians, and persuaded four of their number to accompany him downriver.
Incessant rains had made the Potaro turbulent and swollen, and the air for miles around was drugged with a deafening noise which, rather than diminishing, increased in intensity with the approach of the adventurers.
On the morning of April 24, while walking across the savannah, Mr. Brown saw heavy masses of vapour floating on the air.
Making a detour, he came to the edge of a yawning cliff, and right before him was a staggeringly large sheet of water, falling perpendicularly , plunging over the verge of a conglomerate and sandstone tableland in a colossal column of golden brown and amber,  which, as it descended, changed to cream, saffron, sky blue and a score of scintillating colours, veiled in a transparent mist of spume, spray and prismatic hues, a kaleidoscopic extravaganza  of such magnificence that before it, many have since stood spellbound by the breathlessly beautiful spectacle.
Mr. Browne wrote: “Not being prepared for anything as grand and startling, I could not at first believe my eyes, but felt it was a dream. There, however, was the dark silent flow of water, down which we had travelled, passing slowly but surely to the brink of a great precipice, and breaking into ripples as it approached its doom, then curving over the edge in a smooth mass of brownish tinge, changing to snow-white, fleecy foam as it was precipitated into a black, seething cauldron, hundreds of feet below.
“I was prepared to meet with great Falls on our way down, knowing from our altitude  by aneroid  that we were some 1200 feet above the sea on the Upper Potaro, and that the mouth of the river was a level of only 65 feet, but nothing of so grand and extraordinary a nature as this had entered my mind for a moment. Feelings of delight for a time overcame me, and I astonished one of my men by grasping his arm and pointing to the glories of the scene. In fact, both myself and my usually stolid men were all in a state of great excitement.
(P.H. Daly – The Daily Chronicle: April 22, 1934)

Who owns the B.G one-cent stamp?
THE B.G. one-cent stamp is ‘Front Page’ news again.
In New York, a frail little woman is fighting a legal battle with lawyers and executors  over this little square-inch of paper, which is worth between £10,000 and £15,000.
It is the rarest stamp in the world, the only known specimen in existence.
Printed in black-on-magenta coloured paper, it was one of a few issued in 1856 by the local authorities of this country.
Not only America is concerned.
In England and elsewhere, philatelic connoisseurs are keeping in touch with New York by cable, each anxious to step in and gain possession of that piece of paper.
The woman concerned, in whose possession the stamp is, claims that it was given to her by her late husband.
She is Mrs. Hind, widower of the millionaire brush manufacturer , whose hobby was collecting rare stamps.
The executors of the estate dispute the widow’s right to the stamp.
The rest of the Hind Collection has just arrived in England with Mr. R.H. Harmer, the stamp dealer.
When it was announced that the collection was to be sold, he rushed to America ahead of hundreds of other dealers, and purchased the lot for £100,000.
When Mr. Harmer reached New York, the dispute over the B.G. stamp was still going on, and the stamp could not be sold.
The question has not been taken to the Court as yet, and all parties concerned are hoping for an amicable settlement.
Mr. Harmer, like many others, had waited many years to buy the rare stamp, which he wants more than any other.
Once more, it has eluded him, but he is in touch with the executors, and as soon as the right of ownership has been established, he will probably have it.
Meanwhile, other wealthy collectors are making every possible effort to ‘beat off’ Mr. Harmer  in the race for possession, and thousands of collectors of all classes are calmly ‘looking on’,  waiting to see into whose hands the square inch of paper will eventually rest.
(The Daily Chronicle: April 26, 1934)

(Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss any of the foregoing articles at cliffantony@gmail.com or by telephone: 657-2043)