The Irish standard., 1886-10-02
BEAUTIFUL BUTTONS.
A Harlem woman's Wonderful
and Interesting Collection.
Twenty Years Oh Labor Rewarded by an
Interesting Gathering from All Over
:. the World-National Buttons and
Curious Buttons.
IN. Y. Morning JournaL.l

IN. Y. Morning Jonrnoll
A lady in Harlem has spent twenty
years in s:ringing together eight thousand
beautiful buttons, and no two alike. Some
of them have been brought half around
the earth to her by sea captains. Some
have come from old wars, and famous bat.
tle-fields: some from the Orient and some
from the Occident; some from gold mines
and poor-houses, from snug country
houses and from shipwrecks; some are just
from the button counter, and some are
dignified old buttons, which have survived
from a previous century, and now hold
sinecure positions on Mrs. Harris button
string.
The buttons are almost infinite in kind
The lady who collected the 5000 says that
She never goes out shopping without see
Ing buttons she had never seen before. 4
new button stares at her from every shop
window and meets her in every bazaar
When she began to collect them there were
people who thought that there were not
more than 999 different kinds of buttons in
the world, and it YVES on a wager of this
kind that she began her lnbors.
The mora buttons she obtained the hard
er it was to get {. button unlike any she al
ready possessed. ANY now button she ac
quired had to be unlike any one of the FIVE
thousand buttons she had. She moved to
New York at the snd Of her four years
button hunt in Maize, and in sixteen years
OF residence in the metropolis she added
three thousand new buttons to her collec-
dion.
The marvellous collection of buttons,
which is the largest in the world, was
brought into the parlor of Mrs. 81. c. Har-
ris' residence for reporter to wonder at.
Many OF them were beautiful in design,
and many were brilliant and beautiful IN
color. There we're eight strings, one thou
sand buttons on string. They were eight
garlant.s of buttons.
Mrs. Harris, who knew the most insig-
nificant button in the eight thousand,
picked up one Of the strings and poin ted
out button that had been wo1n by sol
der Of Napoleon's army, perhaps on tho
retreat from Moscow or in the last charge
at Waterloo. There was big, fat, circular
brass button almost as large as a trade
dollar that had been worn by soldier of
Washington's army in che American revo-
luton; another was 81 brass button worn
by q soldier of the war of 1912
Then there were three Confederate
brass buttons that had been worn by three
soldiers in different arms Of the Co,ifed-
crate service. A fourth Confederate mill
tary button had been worn by q soldier of
South Carolina regiment, and had on it
in bas-relief a palmetto tree and the coat
Of arms of South Carolina. A fifth Con-
federate military button had been worn by
soldier of u Virginia regiment, and had
on it the coat Of arms of Virginia, with the
words: ''Sic Semper Tyrannis''
There was brass button Of che Aus
trian army, with the Austrian eagle;
brass button of the English army, with
crown at the top and three cannon, one
above the other, below it, and a military
brass button Of the Republic of Hayti
which, perhaps, some great Haytian Major
General had worn.
Then came great many national b1st-
tons, among which was an Irish button
with the shamrock, and a. Scotch button
with thistle, and an antique Massachu-
setts button with a pine tree and another
antique Massachusetts, button made OF
monwealth and an Indian with long
a button from California, and buttons from
Japan.
There was an Insignificant little button,
with bit of blue glass in it's center, which
had been picked up ON the Maine coast
after q British steamship went down there
some time during our war, carrying sixty
people with her. There was smart little
button with the Prince of Wales triple
white feathers, and big plain wooden
button that had been worn by Massa-
chusetts pauper in Massachusetts, poor
house.
On one button a chicken was floating
down river ON wooden shoe under a
blue sky. On another covy Of partridges
we're feeding. A third represented a
huntsman holding hounds in leash. An
other button represented Japanese house
and native Japanese walking through
the fields under his umbrella. A very in.
teresting button Of bright gold color
showed the obelisk. the sphinx and the
pyramids Of the Nile. There was button
head in bronze, mother-of- pearl button
with perfect bronze serpent, mother-of-
pearl button that reflected all the colors of
6ho RAINBOW ana g. DT3SS DuGGOn bearing
and star.
Besides these, there were buttons bear
ing in bas-relief the heads of horses, foxes.
greyhounds, bears, wolves, wild boars,
stays, deers, butterflies, mosquitoes, flies,
and others that bore leaves and crosses A
big round rubber button bore the simple
and handsome design Of sickle and
sheaf.
Many large round medallion buttons
bore classical heads in helmets. Some
had figures that looked like pieces of
sculpture. One button showed castle
with towers, and draw-bridges, and
mountains and trees, and foliage. An
other large round button was pure white
glass, like the glass in shop-windows, and
it was quite handsome.
Mrs Harris has arranged fifty-hve but
tons of various beautiful and delicate
tints on card, and they are so beautiful
to the eye that they would be valuable
article Of bric-a-brac in any house in the
world.
An Editors Peerless Courage.
IEstelline ID T) Bell