History can be maddeningly unspecific about certain things , specially chronology . But when it get along to the history of the chain missive , it’svery possiblethat Jesus was the first to author one .
hundred of year ago , a story made the rounds that seemed incredible . Fifty - five year after Jesus had been rise and uprise into heaven , he decided to author a letter offering wisdom to his human charge . The note was taken to earth and hidden under a rock , which a youthful and sincere male child was capable to lift . From there , the note was replicate and circulated , each facsimile bearing a unknown warning :
As hoax go , it was n’t a bad way to get someone ’s attention . copy of the letter exist from as ahead of time as the mid-1700s , proof that multitude have always had an innate oddment — and superstition — about chemical chain letter . In the decennium that watch over , 100 of thousands of masses have received and forwarded letter that promise charity , successfulness , or religious nirvana .
The price for not being on display board ? Usually awful luck . Or death .
In 1888 , a Methodist charwoman ’s missionary groupwas havingseriouscash flow problem . plus to their facilities had added up to an staggering $ 16,000 . While the mathematical group leaders pray for help , they alsoacknowledgedthey might need to take the enterprisingness .
Just when all hope seemed lost , a cleaning lady who had get a line of their troubles say that she had a potential solution : Someone had told her that coif for a chain letter of the alphabet could be a possible boulevard to financial payoff . Around the same time , the Christian church received a chain letter bespeak funds for another now forgotten object , transport to them by someone who thought it would act upon for this radical as well . The straits of the faithful , Lucy Rider Meyer , take the suggestions badly and enlist a alphabetic character that contained both a appeal to post her one dime bag and to get off a copy of the letter to three friends , who would ( hopefully ) retell the outgrowth .
Meyer dashed off 1500 copy and look . The reply number pouring in . The missionaries eventually raised $ 6000 , with many people beam more than a dime bag and others even using the varsity letter as the inspiration to conjoin their mickle . In spirit and cold hard currency , the mountain range missive had been a success . Mostly .
While most recipients were happy to either bring or disregard the letter , a few take the meter to write back and complain about being targeted multiple times . One nettled addressee wrote :
Others took a more lineal way of holding on to their cash :
The missionaries knight the chain varsity letter a “ Aristotelean contribution box , ” a kind of postal hat - passing that immediately start growing in popularity . Newspapers like theNew York Worldprinted contour to recruit money for a memorial for Spanish - American state of war soldiers ; in 1898 , a 17 - year - quondam volunteer for the Red Cross devised a range of mountains that hook money for glass to send to flock station in Cuba . So many yard of letters poured in that they choked her Babylon , New York , situation office , prompt her mother to issue an open supplication to stop people from sending any more .
While potentially vexatious to some , many of these letters were selfless in nature — an attempt to drum up financial support for what was considered to be a desirable cause . But it did n’t take long for the template to be adjust to a less noble chase : conning people out of money .
At the height ( or crushed tip ) of the Great Depression in 1935 , the urban center of Denver became the epicentre of a massive chain letter movement have it away as the Send - a - dime bag effort . In a time of stern fiscal strife , recipients were urge to send out along money to a list of gens , with their own circumstances coming when their act arrived in the waiting line .
People in do-or-die need of promise began to trust on a promise of successfulness , inhabit chain letter securities firm firms that sell shares in figure due to strike it grown . The broker made thousands ; the letter writers made nothing . Western Union was sued for over $ 27 million for helping perpetuate the fraud , and the postal service threatened prosecution under anti - lottery and anti - solicitation statutes .
Although dime letters have since fallen by the wayside , chain letters were never entirely stifled . In 1978 , students at Harvard becamefascinatedby the “ Circle of Gold ” stratagem broom the nation , where a letter could be purchased for $ 100 from some well - meaning seller . Fifty of those dollar would go to the soul selling the varsity letter , and the stay $ 50 would be mailed to an savoir-faire at the top of a list of names and addresses . The top name would be sweep out , the second place name moved up , and the purchaser would attempt to sell two more varsity letter . These were interesting marriage of chain alphabetic character as pyramid schemes , a composition that has often repeated itself .
Often , chain letters took delight in provoking a someone ’s superstitious nature , warning of severe consequences for not follow the instructions . In some event , there was a caution that not advancing the message would result in no change to the status quo . In others , it would be anoutright warningof misfortune . These often contained testimonials that tried to individualize fate by detailing the name of a past recipient who either follow the instructions and prospered or did n’t follow the instructions and was immediately struck by a charabanc . For people who might otherwise be prone to tossing the missive , it helped ensure that the deliverer ’s message ( or scam ) would be lean to decently .
In the 1990s , just before electronic mail replacedphysical letters as the speech method acting of choice for these pyramid scams and spiritual tracts , an unknown sourceperpetuatedwhat became be intimate as the “ underpants telephone exchange . ” The letter learn :
Despite whatever curious itch was grip the conceiver , the pretty panties circulation thrived : TheBaltimore Sunreported several quenched enrollee who got mail several distich of underclothes every week .
range letters still exist , primarily as societal media thread thatsolicitmoney or gifts for inclination of masses in the hopes a person ’s “ turning ” will eventually descend . away from the periodic deluge of unmentionable , it ’s always a losing proposal . When Denver ’s Send - a - Dime Depression cozenage come to an final stage , more than 100,000 “ dead ” letters wereforwardedto the real winner : the U.S. Treasury , which shoot possession of $ 3000 in dimes .
