Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1886-02-10
TRICKS or An AUTOGRAPH HUNTER

TRICKS OF An AUTOGRAPH HUNTER
Hard Work to Get Lcttsrs From Blsanarck.
Tcnnyson, and Other Famous Men.
When in England I served An up.
premiership to the art Of autograph
hunting. which ended in my becoming
Q proficient. Yet / blush ct times to
think Of the ways that r dark and
the tricks that are vain" resorted to
by an otherwise unsophisticated damsel
as . Means to an end. suppose ]
have always been . hero worshippeI,
for when q girl not yet in my teens l
consumed my little allowance OF pin
money in buying portraits OF distin-
guished men and women. with which
to adorn my album. Autograph let
ters Of celebrities are now harder to
obtain than they were a few years ago.
1t has become q mania with SO many
that "men OF light and leading" are
deluged with applications for their au-
tographs, and q hunter must indeed
be ingenious and interchangeable who
can elicit a reply from those whose cal
igraphy is worth having. At first !
hunted exclusively for autographs. but
it occurred to me autographs alone
were Of little interest or value unless
affixed to a letter, and / will tell you
how / enhanced the value Of my col
lection. The two hardest nuts to
crack, or, in other words, the two
celebrities who are iciiy indifferent to
the opportunities OF autograph mon
gers. are Bismarck and Tennyson.
Even scraps Of their handwriting are
valued at $40 apiece by bric-a-brac
dealers in London. innumerahle let
tiers sent direct to the great Chancel-
lor brought never a line in response,
and l grew sad. A bright idea struck
me. Why not write to his wife, WHO is
reputed to be benevolence personified?
l suited the action to the word, and by
return of the mail came an imposing
epistle, with the Berlin postmark upon
it, which set my heart beating ct q FEAR
full rate. and destroying my appetite
for q whole day. 1t contained q cabi-
net photograph OF Bismarck, with his
bold, clear signatue at the foot, and q
kind Of note from the Princess, saying
that she was happy to comply with my
request. Oh! how / gloated over that
portrait. 1t was q speaking likeness OF
the man who rules Europe, and looked
all the more striking from the fact that
it represented him in the full glory
and blaze of his military uniform, with
q helmet shading tine upper part CT his
face, and leaving the lower part, with
lie iron-clad jaws. clearly depicted.
Tennyson's autograph was my next
desideratum. 1t came to me unex-
pectedly, but not till ! wasted much
ink and paper in appealing to the
laureate himself. ! wrote to the Duke
OF Wellington, a little man with a big
heart who wore cotton gloves and in.
variably rode on the top of on omnibus,
asking for o few words or lines IL the
handwriting Of the hero Of Waterloo.
He sent me a check. yellow and musty,
which had been filed in by tho Iron
Duke, and, to my unutterable JOY, he
enclosed q batch of letters, hoping, as
he playfully put it, that they would be
worth o place in my album. The batch
OF letters consisted Of one from Jenny
son, another from Queen Victoria, and
one in the legible, though somewhat
boyish, handwriting of Albert Edward.
Prince of Wales. There were others
from smaller fry, but this trio
did indeed form q place in my album,
and, as / am q conservative, they oc-
cupy a very prominent position.
Lord Beaconsfield was another un.get.
able individual. His secretary would
respond to your first application, say
ing that his Lordship never gave his
autograph to anybody. 1t was useless
to impress upon Beaconstield that his
was the only autograph necessary to
make your collection of modern
celebrities complete. You might wait
long and ~anxiously for o reioinder, but
you wouldn't get it. Then, perhaps,
you would write, expressing regret for
having trespassed SO much on his val
liable time, and. if you were rash, you
would spend % or 80 cents on an ele-
giant photograph. and urge him just to
atfix his signature thereto and return
it. He would do neither, and any
further portraits you might send him
would be gone from your gaze forever.
But l got his autograph neverthe-
less My brother came across an inn
pecunious man, who had i'll his heyday,
spent some months Of his existence in
writing o Mandatory poem on the royal
family, and who has ventured to sub
NIT the proof sheets to Beaconsield.
Il finished the proofs this evening, aud
have read them with t~ranscendent in
terest,"' wrote Beaconsfield in reply.
A small sum purchased this letter for
me. and | was the happy possessor of
Beacopsfield's autograph.
Won Moltke is o dear old man. He
will send his autograph to anybody,
but he has this popularity, that lie al
ways returns your own communication
with his signature cramped into q
corner.
Charles Darwin would rarely re-
spond to an application for his auto
graph, but when / wrote, asking for an
calculation of what to me was o COM
pick portion of his "Origin OF Speeches."
he vas prompt in replying. His cali
graphy was wretcl ed, and ] left like
asking him to explain his explanation.
An initial letter, a dash o. the pen, and
o final letter were made to represent q
word. His reply could only be under
stood by guess work and the aid of .
powerful microsoope.-Ael0 York Sun.
Sage Green.
"When / was q boy" said the Cap
tain to a Detroit Free Press reporter,
as thew Daused in their nsual rnme. "T