The Penn's Grove record., 1886-09-25
BEAUTIFUL
n Harlem Woman's Wonderful and
Interesting Collection.

n Harlem Woman's Wonderful and
Interesting Collection.
A lady in Harlem mas spent twenty
years in stringing together eight thou
sand beautiful buttons, and no two
alike. Some of them have been brought
half around the earth by sea captains.
Some have come from old wars, and
famous battle-felds; some from the
Orient, and some from the Occident;
some from gold mines and poor-houses,
from snug country houses and from ship
wrecks; some are just from h button
counter, and some are dignified old but
tons, which have survived from a pre-
vious century, and now hold sinecure
positions on Mrs. Harris button-strlng.
The buttons are almost infinite In
kind. The lady who collected the 5000
says that she never goes out shopping
without seeing buttons she had never
seen before. A 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
500 different kinds of buttons in the
world, and it was on a wager OF this
kind that she began her labors.
The more buttons she obtained the
harder it was % get a button unlike any
she already possessed. Any new button
she acquired had to be unlike any of the
five thousand buttons she had. She
moved to New York at the end of her
four years. button hunt in Maine, and
-, osxEoo,, ~ ,f raci1anpO in tho mo-
tropolis she added three thousand new
buttons to her collection.
The marvellous collection of buttons,
which is the largest in the world, was
brought into the parlor of Mrs. H.. Z.
Harris residence for a reporter to won-
der at. Many of them were beautiful
in design, and many were brilliant i'll
color. There were eight strings, n
thousand buttons on a string. They
were eight garlandS of buttons.
Mrs. Harris, who knew the most in
significant button in the eight thousand,
picked up one of the strings and pointed
out a button that had been worn by a
soldier of Napoleon's army, perhaps on
the retreat from Moscow OF in the last
charge at Waterloo. There vas a big,
fiat, circular brass button almost as
large as a trade dollar that had been
worn by a soldier of W~ashington's
army in the American Revolution;
another was a brass button worn by a
soldier of the War of 1872.
Then there were three Confederate
brass buttons that had been worn by
three soldiers in different arms of the
Confederate service, A fourth Confed-
crate military button had been worn by
a soldier of a South Carolina regiment,
and had on it in bas-relief a palmetto
tree and the coat of arms of South Caro-
lima. A fifth Confederate military but
ton had been worn by a soldier of a V1r-
ginia regiment, and had on it the coat of
arms of Virginia, with the words: "Sic
Semper Tyrannis."
There was a brass button of the Aus
trian army, with the Austrian eagle; a
brass button of the English army, with
a crown at the top and three cannons,
one above the other, below 1t, and a
military brass button of the Republic of
IIayti, which, perhaps, some great Hay
tian Maior-G General had worn.
Then camea great many national but
tons, among which was an Irish button
with the Shamrock, and a Scotch but
ton with a Thistle, and an antique Mas
sachusetts button with a pine tree, and
another antique Massachusetts button
made of copper, silver coated, with the
word Commonwealth andan Indian with
a long bow, and a brass button from
Spain, and a button from California,
and buttons from Japan.
TNbnra yrtoG on inSinn1fpant Httla hnf-
ton, with a bit of blue glass in its CEN
ter. which had been picked up on the
Maine coast after a British steamship
went down there some time during our
war, carrying sixty people with her.
There was a smart little button with the
Prince of Wales triple white feathers,
and a big plain wooden button that had
been worn by a Massachusetts, pauper in
a Massachusetts poor-house.
On one button a chicken was floating
down a river ON a wooden shoe under a
blue sky. On another a covy of par
tridges were feeding. A third repre-
scented a huntSman holding hounds in
leash. Another button represented a
Japanese house and a native japanese
walking through the fields under his
umbrella. A very interesting button of
a bright gold color showed the obelisk,
the sphynx and the pyramids of the Nile:
There was a button of mOther-of-pearf
bearing a fine eagles head in
bronze, a mother-of-pearl button with a
perfect bronze serpent, amother-of-pearl
button that reflected all the colors of the
rainbow and a brass button bearing a
crescent and a star.
Besides these there were buttons bear
ing in bas-relief the heads of horses,
foxes, greyhounds, bears, wolves, wild
bears, stays, deers, butterflies, mosqul-
toes, flies, and others that bore leaves
and crosses. A big round rubber but
ton bore the simple and handsome de-
sign of a sickle and a sheaf.
Many large round medallion buttons
bore classical heads in helmets. Some
had figures that looked like pieces of
sculpture. One button showed a castle
with towers, and draw-brldges, and
mountains, and trees, and foliage. An
other large round button was pure white
glass, like the glassin shop-windows, and
it was qnite handsome.
Mrs. Harris has arranged hfty-fiye
buttons of various beautiful and delicate
tints on a card, and they are so beautl-
full to the eye that they would be a val
liable article of bric-a-brac in any house
In tha world