Evening star., 1886-11-13

VIM AsVONS
The Curious Old Man and the Strange
Contents OF His store.
now THE COLLECTION HAS GRowN-cHEAP
PRINTS AND VALUABLE OLD PAINTINGS
BOOKS DATING BACK To THE BIRTH OF THE
PRINTING fREss-A TALKwIT THE DEALER
"Thats Belle Boyd You know Belle Boydr'
said the old man, taking an old painting In a
gilt frame out OF dirty corner and carefully
wiping the dust of, as he held IL up before THE
STAR reporter. "Shc wasn't a bad looking
girl. rs far rs looks goes" He examined IL criti-
cally at arms length. "BuI" he added.
''she was terror. This was taken by
famous artist while she was I'm the Old
Capitol lou know they never put her
there until the war was nearly over, and ex-
pect 1t was more for revenge than anything.
Some OF the officers think we're In love with
her, and they had falling out You know
they said she was a rebel spy. She was clever
woman, guess, and mighty reckless They
say sne was at service to the contederacy. ThIs
Is a good picture of her. How'd get IL. don't
know. II came with the rest OF the things.
Look shout you. L don't know how they got
here. They have just accumulated"
The old man is IA dealer in, or n ther collector
oi, all sorts OF old traps" The "store" looks
like an attic that has outliyed many genera
People waose daily walks take them that way
often see the old man sitting i'm front OF has
door, with hls back TO the pavement and his
lace turned In respectful attention To the col
lection OF curious Old pictures aud books which
are piled on each side Of the door nearly up To
tae second story. Every day the pile has grpwn
bigger. the books budding together as ii irving
10 look over each others shoulders at the odd
things In the windows. The old man Is nearly
always alone aud silent But he ; not always
sitting with his back To the street. Sometimes
he is dusting the old books or rubbing creased
rag over the face OF some oil painting tIal has
almost passed out OF siAhL Occasionally some
lady stops To look at the books or peep into tine
dark store. Sometimes they venture inside.
but he
NEVER SAYS A WORD,
and after looking around they go away wonder.
Ing at what they have seen.
1T spoke TO them they'd 60 away" he said
In explanation OF his silence, rs ne SET aside the
picture Oh The famous female spy, $50 just let
them alone and they 20 i'm aud look around. The
ciianccs are that tucy may See something they
want. Ii they don't. then theres nothing they
want, tor everything is in here somewhere. 1
wouidnt nave said any thing TO you ID you
hadn't asked me. can talk, though, when
want to. Now, just look around. dun'l know
what's here. We call ourselves books and pic
lures, but we are most anything. Ali tnat's no
account" he added, dismissing, with a sweep of
his hand, an extensive collection OF woodcuts,
common engrAvings and ahromos, s.rhey ju,t
come ia ana l buy them. There that's odd
Ha, ha, 1 nearly wiped the face OF him. was
trying To clean 1t up little, and he called the
on top OF pile OF dusty books in u very dark
corner. II cont know the artist, but it's Odd
Don Joan and Haidee. II Is the face OF Ryron,
you see. IL isn't mine. The man wants 81 ZOO
inr it. Idon't think nell get IL. There's "a good
portrait OF Pierce, and there's another vi De-
catur.
'Old books" he said, as he saw the reporters
eyes resting on u case that ran half way up TO
tue ceiling. "ihe oldest have Is early In the
Il, teentn century, about l4O6. It's Latin. But
here's something l value. Boydell's Milton,
three volumes. And here's Boy deli's Snakes
peare. That's what broke the Boydells. They
employed the finest artists and enxravers OF
England in that day, and IL took all their
money. But the cuts are here. They are superb.
Most Of these you see are English books"
RARE OLD BOOKS.
Then he knocked the dust of a pile OF old calf
bound books that were wrinkied and black with
age. Big, heavily-bound books in old type and
marvellous Irontispieces. They were comnen-
tarIes Oh the books Of the Bible, probably q
dozen Or more immense volumes printed early
La the seventeenth. century. Many other oid
and curious books were called 10 the attention
oi the reporter, and AS he did SO pile umbled
down gov ] ana .ne books si.d away INTO dark cor.
nave been expecting IL, and It's So seldom We
get what we expect. guess they did not break
anything" aud ne proceeded TO pull out an Odd
volume from the bottom OF the pile. So ON he
went over some Of his stock In u familiar way,
chatting about II all with something oil The
cynic in his tone.
Back Iurther in the store was bust OF Shakes
peare, and piled up the floor, on tables
and on the counter were all SORTS OF books,
pamphlets aud cheap novels, with volumes
of venerable age and worm-eaten tiud-
lngS, oil paintings and cheap cuts, AL thrown
careiessly together and ali covered with
the same black dust: Besides these there
were old decanters, clocks and all sorts OF
traps" that no one could account Ior the Use
OF. Some treasures rare aud some worthless
accumuiatiOns OF time.
"where do you get IL al." asked the re-
porter.
II don't know. moved here only five years
ago. and these hings have gathered up around
me since then. 1 buy and sell. Mostly buy;
but sell some, or could not 1--we. 1 came here
because Was broke. What's my stock worth:
] can't guess, aud don't want to. But IL has ali
grown up out of nothing, as il were. sometimes
buy things that can sell. sometimes get
have 10 buy them. There have some copies OF
Dickens that must sell Tor IS cents or lose. I'll
never do it, No, III never do it, They'll be
here when die. Well, let them stay. couldn't
help II. She was a poor woman. know sne
told the TRUTH SO there IL goes. Her husband
had consumption, and she had to get him some
cod liver oil. II cost u dollar, and sne had out
twenty cents, so had 10 give her eighty cents
won't. Now. don't You know il is just that way
with luck. You sLrikc 10 bad and il comes all
down on you in u heap. This woman's nus
band was sick and her luck was down. What
did she do but stick u pin in her hand. That
would never have done any harm in the world,
but it was just LaaL blamed luck, il sweled up
and she had an awful uand. Ia her husband
had not been Sick and she mad not been i'm bad
sue brought the other books, and had to buy
tuem tor 15 cents apiece. Oh course they aiu't
worth II. They never were. That's the way
get stuff don't want Sometimes people get
hard up and sell a lot of tine Old Things we do
want They don't like to part with tuem, but
they have To. Sometimes a fellow brings ia
something TO sell TO get a drink. IL it's any
thing want get IT cheap. Ii 1t ain't, have
so that's the Way il goes and the things pile
up"