The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1876-12-09
A Collection of Echoes,
Mark Train in the Atlantic far DccemJer.l

me as his own. lie was my only rela-
| tive in the wide world but he was
| good and rich and generous. He rear
| ed me in the lap Of luxury. / knew no
want that money could satisfy. In tie
fulness of time | was graduated, and
went with two of my servants-my
chamberlain and my valet-to travel
| in foreign countries. During four
years fitted upon careless wing amid
the beautious gardens of the distant
strand, if you will permit this form of
| speech in one whose tongue was ever
attuned to pnesy and, indeed, so
speak with confidence as one unto his
kind, for | perceive by your eyes that
| you, too, sir, are gifted with the divine
| initiation. In those far lands ! reveled
| in the ambrosial food that fructifies the
SOUL the heart. But of all things, that
which most appealed to my Unborn
aesthetic taste was the prevailing cos
tune there among the rich of making
collections of elegant and costly rari-
ties, dainty objects de vertu, and in an
evil hour | tried to uplift my Uncle
lthurie to plane of sympathy with
this exquisite employment.
~ wrote and told him of one gentle
mans vast collection of shells anoth-
er's noble collection Of meerschaum
pipes another's elevating and refining
collection of undecpherable autographs; /;
another's priceless collection of china /;
another's enchanting collection OF post
age stamps-and so forth and so on
Soon my letters yielded fruit. My un'
Gle began to look about for something
to make a collection of. You may
know, perhaps, how deeply taste like
this dlates. His soon became a raging
fever, though | knew it not. He be-
gan TO neglect his great pork business !;
presently he wholly retired and turned
an elegant leisure into rapid search
for curious things. His wealth was
vast and he spared it not. First he
tried cow bells. lie made n collection
which filed five large salons, and com
pretended all tho different sorts of cow
bells that had eyer been contrived, save
one. That one-an antique, and the
only specimen extant- was possessed
by another collector. My uncle offered
enormous sums for it, but the gentle
man would not sell. Doubtless you
hhOh VIM ltSuibtus II
true collector attaches no value to col
lection that is not complete. His great
heart breaks, he sells his hoard, ne
turns his mind to some field that seems
unOcGuped.
"Thus did my uncle. He next tried
brickbats. After piling up vast and
intensely interesting collection the for
mer difficulty supervened his great
heart broke again he sold OUt his
souls idol to the retired brewer who
possessed the missing brick. Then he
tiled flint hatchets and other imple-
! ments of primeval man, but by and by
discovered that the factory where they
were made was supplying other cOllec-
tors a well as himself. He tried Aztec
inscriptions and stuffed whales an0th-
er failure after incredible labor and eX-
| pense, When his collection seemed at
| last perfect a stuffed whale arrived from
Greenland and an Aztec inscription
| from the cundurango regions of Central
| America that made all former insignif.
| cant. My uncle hastened to secure
these noble gems. He got the stuffed
whale but anothet collector got the in
scriptjOn. A real cundurangO, as pos
sibly you know, is possession of such
supreme value that, when once a collec-
tor gets it, he will rather part with his
| family than with it. So my uncle sold
out and saw his darlings go forth never
more to return, and his coal-black hair
| turned white as snow in a single night.
'NOw he waited and thought. He
knew another disappointment might
kill him. He was resolved that he
would choose things next time that
no other man was collecting. He care
fully made up his mind, AMI once more
entered the field-this time to make
collection of echoes"
"Of what ?" said /.
Echoes, sir. His first purchase was
an echo in Georgia that repeated four
times his next was six repeater in
Maryland his next was a thirteen.
repeater in Maine his next was nine
repeater in Kansas his next was
| twelVe-repeater in Tennessee, which
| he got cheap, so to speak, because it
was out of repair, a portion of the crag
which reflected it having tumbled
| down. He believed he could repair it
at the cost OF a few thousand dollars,
and by increasing the elevation with
masonry trh6le the repeating capacity /;
| but the architect who undertook the
| job had never built an echo before. and
80 he utterly spoiled this one. Before
he meddled with it it used to talk back
like a motheG-in-law, but now it is only
fit for the deaf and dumb asylum.
Well, next he bought lot of cheap
little doubls-barrelled echoes, scattered
! around over various States and Terri
tories he got them at twenty per cent.
of by taking the lot. Next, he bought
a perfect Calling gun of an echo in
| Oregon, and /. cost fortune, can tell
you. You may know, sir, that in the
echo market the scale Of prices is cum
ulative, Like the caret scale in diamonds;
in fact, the same phTaseology is used.
| A single-carat echo is worth but SO
over and above the value of the land it
is on u two carat or double baTreled
echo is worth $50 a five carat is worth
| $3.50 ten-eaTat Is worth $4,000.
My uncls's Oregon echo, which he call
ed the Great Pitt echo, was twenty
two carat gem, and cost s2l6, ,000-they