The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-09-25
Collectors with Queer Tastes.
Knives, Canes, Instruments OF Torture
and Other Hobbies.

sit is commonly supposed" said dealer
in curiosities, ''that people collect things be-
cause they take fancy to them. haven't
found this to be generally the case. Even
where the objects collected are really beau
tiful, the ordinary collector only values
them in proportion to their Importance as
part of his collection.
81 noticed a print collector at sale some
three years ago examining rough-looking
little etching by Berghem.' am going 5000
on that said he. 1 showed him how, for
less than quarter of that sum, he could
ges very beautiful impression of Raphael's
Fornarina, which knew he did not have.
1t was really one of the finest Of the old
plates Yes said the collector but have
other Raphaels. The reason I want the
Berghem is that it fills gap.' When this
man became reduced In circumstances last
winter, and had to sell most of his collec-
tion, he retained hut five prints, not one of
which was beautiful, but all were rare.
''But there are collectors of different
sort-men with fantastic and sometimes
morbid tastes-of whom comparatively little
is known. Their peculiar hobby generally
starts up in some accidental way and grows
into so strong habit as to become a pas
sion, or even mild form of mania. They
are much more interesting people than the
ordinary men with hobbies.
Il have met some very queer collectors.
One old fellow used to call on me regularly
once month to see if had added any fur
Their varieties of knives to my stock. He
was originally attracted to my store by a
curious little Wooden-handled knife in my
window, which purported to have been made
out of tenpenny nail by an African boy
1t seems that a missionary had discovered
the little chap pounding the nail into shape
with stone, and the good man told nice
story about it as being remarkable instance
of the power of civilization. ! was grie, ed
to learn that he had sold several of these ar
ticles to other dealers, and had helped their
sale in one instance by telling how
the boy had half killed an Ethiopian chief
with the article, l fear the estimable mis-
sionary manufactured the things in his back
yard, for the handles looked remarkably like
split clothes pins. This collector did not
generally examine too closely into such little
discrepancies, however, and he certainly had
five or six hundred of the most curious-look-
ing tools ever saw. A most horrible in
strument, for which he had great affection,
consisted of long, thick, finely pointed
blade, followed out SO as to contain two 9th
er blades worked with springs. 1t was so
arranged that when man was stabbed with
the knife the interior blades would fly out
ward, and the assassin, by pulling on the
handles, would thus be able to cut his enc
my terribly.
s'He showed me an innocent-looking um-
brella, from the end of which short barbed
blade would fly out and become inserted in
a mans clothing The object was not to
kill an enemy, but to embarrass his move
ments by opening the umbrella wide after
inserting the barb. This device was. said to
have saved the life of celebrated Quaker
coffee merchant. A long dirk knife of Bel
gian make was arranged with sort of bel
lows in its handle for the purpose of throw
ing pepper into the eyes of the victim before
striking him. He showed me also a curious
Spanish dirk, which had half rounded
blade, and looked like sort of gouge with
very sharp sides and a fine point. The idea
was to turn it in wound and take out, as
the proprietor remarked with grim smile,
pieces as big as a Bologna sausage at every
clip In spite of his fondness for deadly
weapons this collector was very mild man
nered man. He had knives of peace as well
as of war, and said his hobby started with
had been given to him by dying model
maker whom he had assisted.
"By the way, he had weapon which 1
believe to be unique; it dates from the thir-
tenth century. 1t consists of a round
shield of hammered iron about eighteen
inches in diameter, containing a very power
full brass spring, which the owner winds up
before marching out to meet his antagonist.
His aim is to rush to close quarters, and, as
4 t,0o II, IL . ~
let the spring go. Upon doing this four
curved knives, like broad sickles, fly out and
revolve with great force and rapidity. This
is the machine for which the collector had
the greatest affection; he used to keep it BY
his bedside to disembowel burglars with.
But as he used to say, they would never
drop in Did you ever hear of a devils
hat? Well, he had one of them, and yisi-
tor of his nearly lost his ears by putting it
on one night while waiting for him. 1t was
communicating stiff beaver hat external
ly, bat after you had it well settled on your
head, razors and similar implements project
ed inward from the sides, and you couldn't
get it off without enormous sacrifices. This
last blood-curdler was constructed BY a Rus
sian halter for an enemy; but the tradition
goes that the intended victim got wind of it.
and as the halter was about to pat it on him,
the fellow seized it and clapped it on It's
makers head.
"a man used to haunt my shop some
years ago for canes. He must have had
wonderful collection l never saw him twice
with the same stick. One day 1 said to him
in joke. why Major (he was an army off
cer), you seem to have walking stick for
every day in the year. True enough he
said, true enough; and l haven't worn the
same stick twice in three years. He had
fine old Malaccas, Whangees, Penangs,
crabs, blackthorns, hazels, sloes, lignnm
vitae sticks. He had ten-pound ironwood
stick mounted with heavy walrus tooth,
set ia worked bronze. This was one of a
powerful set of canes reserved for use in the
dog days. Some of his Oriental carved ivory
sticks were very valuable. They were Joined
so neatly that never could discover break.
He was great buyer of doctors gold-head-
ed presentation sticks. They were usually
engraved with the gend: From grateful
patient and were OF very thin gold L
think he picked them up in the pawn shops.
His favorte was so-called 'necromancer.'
that is, a straight stick, around which a
spiral one had grown. 1t was like screw,
Of which the threads were TWO inches apart.
He had some very fine cane heads carved in
silver in renaissance style, and some excel
lent portrait heads of court beauties in ONYX.
ebony and ivory. The finest one in ivory
was an exquisitely fooled Venus de Medici.
nearly eight inches long He had laughing
and crying heads, and some which could be
made to move their eyes, mouth, or ears. I
suggested one day that he seemed to choose
his cane according to his mood. Not at ALL
said he, 4 choose my cane for the day, and
it gives me my mood He was an eccen-
trio old fellow. He wanted me once to put
Pinch ferule on Joseph Bonaparte stick
'to prevent its wearing OUT
But perhaps the most deeply absorbed of
The queer collectors are those whose tastes
tend exclusively toward what we call 'mor-
bid curiosties' l used to have a customer
who was always hunting for those rusty
razors which are supposed to be the instru-
ments of murder. l need not remark that
many of these are not entirely authentic:
yet dealer can dispose of them if he has
nerve enough to put on high price, and
refuse absolutely to take less To accept
reduced price fol- curiosity gives your Gus
toner's confidence in its genuineness terri
bic shaking up. This man had several of
the ropes with which criminals had been
hanged His great ambition hos haap 70