A QUEER COLLECTOR.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 44, 16 August 1888, Page 2

A QUEER COLLECTOR.

: He is a conoisseur. and collector of curios, and owns what is perhaps the largest and most interesting private collection of relics in the United. States. He is not a mere accumulator of worthless bric-a-brac, nor is his collection one of curiosities only.' Every, article in his large collction has a history, and the strangest /thing about them is that they aredaily (and many of them hourly) brought into requisition and made practical use of by their raatter-of-fact owner. JThe dishes used on his dinner-table, besides being varied and curious, nave the added interest of having at some period of their history graced 'ther board of some famous personage. His. table linen, candelabra,' clocks,.ruga, . and chairs, his very, knives arid forks, once belonged to some, rioted person^. ! He declares his umbrella, however, to be his greatest treasure. It is his inseparable companion, and accompanies him wherever ne goes The handle of this umbrella is madefrom a piece of the Charter Oak, in which is set a small triangular piece of stone, chipped from Plymouth Rock : the stick is made from i branch of tne old elm tree at Cambridge, under which . Washington assumed tne command of colonial armies ; the brass cap on the lower end of the stick is made from, the trimmings of a sword scabbard used by General Grant ; the. green' covering originally served as the lining of a coat, worn on State occasions by,, the suave and. courtly Aaron Burr i the ribs, springs, and other metal trappings were manufactured from, a small steel cannon captured by the Americans from the Hessians at the "' battle of Brandy wine. Eight oblong pieces of brass have been inserted m i as many sides of the octagonal handle. These were made from buttons cut from the military coats of eight Generals famous in the Revolutionary war.