, 1885-08-14
oLe.srYLg eRIo-A.saAc
rhromos, Machinery. and ~New-FansIed
>otions Have Spoiled tho Market.

NNfM foIt sun
Tho business is about as dead "A |
am. said a White haired dealer in old
style tric-a.brac. The place was q
second DOR front, used rs both store
and living room. Fifty years ago there
was lots of money in il, but there ; none
now. We can't compete with machinery
and new tangled notions. Here a
stmTlar, appropriately framed. The
field is white silk, and on it is worked
in LACK silk floss a tomb. a
willow, and "a hereaved husband
on see the inscription is worked
with It coarser and .looser stitch
than all the rest That enables tho
owner to pick 1t out and have some
other name inserted, IL used to take
three weeks hard work By n iirst-rate
sewing woman to make one, aud it
would fetch from SIS TO so, according
to the hneness. Sometimes "A hus and
would have an elegant mortunry. rs
we cali this sort Of a thing, mlde from
his deceased wife's hair. Tn cardboard
it didn't cost much, but on silk it was
expensive. How did we make tho hairs
lie tlatf We soaked them in hot water,
and ironed the whole thing with a very
hot, heavy ilatirOn. The samplar |
showed you / sold in 1872 for $50. |
bought il back at an. auction last week
for a half dollar, and | was the only
bidder.
South sea and West India shells and
corais used to sell well. They were for
the mantelpiece and for whatnots
Whatnots are gone out OF fashion now,
along with what they used to have on
them. Handsome shells would bring in
the old days from 2 cents TO 81 a piece.
To day you can have that case there,
containing a5l good ones, for $50, case
and all, and the case cost $12.
"Corals were all the go in the old
times. This high-toned folks wanted
skeleton coral, because they thought it
grew that way. But it didn {. We'd
take a branch of cheap coral and put it
in n pan or trough and cover il with
water in which we'd put a little mnriatic
acid. At the en- 1 of a week all the lime
woul be dissolved Il and only the
skeleton was left. 1t looked Just
like n big cobweb. We'd leave
it white or stain IL red with
cochineal, dry it. and mount
ii in a glass case. he wives Of old sea
captains and shipping merchants were
our best customers. Another popular
class Of ornaments were carved ivory
and ebony articles from China and
Japan. These costs then, as now, a
good deal in the east and were very ok
pensiye. one had was a carved ebony
box, which contained another, and so
on TO twenty boxes The last one had
inside four or five little men and women
not m1eh bigger than beans, but bead
tifully carved. The late sam Bradford
Falei ha a number of them in his
collectionsin Philid slphia, and believe
there are samples in tn. Barlow, Gar
rett, acker and Green collections. But
! never see them nowadays
Then there were the relies. Pieces OF
wood from the favoritc wal ships of
America and England, and bullets. la,
oa-is. and pieces OF shot and shell from
famous iattie6elds. These paid we'll,
because we could always make EN- when
we didn't have then On hand The de-
maud for them is not quito dead yet.
Then, in the old days people liked hor-
rors to ornament thfir parlors with
The ropes with which erin mails were
hung, the knives and pisto.s with
which murders We're committed. and
the i um.es and pickloehs Of celebrated
thu Is. Women were ust a era y for
such things as men, and paid very high
prices, for those times, for some part,c-
ularly bal weapon. but there no use
of complaining. Chronos, modern
brio a. brio, and domestic art have killed
my business forever, and theres an end
IN il 80