The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-01
OLD BRASsEs AND CRYSTALS

In the prevailing craze for the ANTIQUE it
matters not whether the treasure be q
drinking horn carried through the revolu-
ton or the staring silhouette of a great
grandfather, or mirror framed in dingy
gilt with bright-to toned Vatican picture
above the glass, 1t becomes monarch of a
wonan's affections. 1t is pretty to see the
pride with which these things are exhibited
at spring luncheons and flower parties in
fine old country houses within easy reach
OF town | think there were people who
went to church last winter to see a slender
girl following the service in a tiny
prayer-book that was an inherit
ance from an aunt five generations re-
moved who received it as a birthday gift in
the middle of the seventeenth century. The
young woman who possessed such an heir
loom was daughter of Admiral Foxhill
Parker and namesake of the courtly Gen.
Elisha Lawrence Parker-her name was
Eliza Lawrence Parker-who was said to be
the oravest and politest member of the staff
of Gen. Washington. This young Virginian,
when friend took tea with her, would
spread the little table with china and crystal
and silver brought from England in colonial
days, aud when the fragrant cup had begun
to cheer but not inebriate she would, per-
haps, bring out tiny, brass bound chest
holding a poem written in honor OF Miss
Reoecca Redman, one of her ancestors, BY
MAJ. Andre, the spy; or she would lead you
in front of the old carved mirror that hung
in the ballroom when the British Guards
danced with the stately Philadelphia bellies.
In Waverly place there is an old-fashioned
house, built alter Peter Stuyvesant's ideal
An atmosphere Of colonial roominess and
substantially pervades it, and all the fur
niture IS antique, or wherever a piece has
had to replaced the substitute has been
designed. from some model of the last CEN
fury. The house belongs to a woman,
an heiress in her own name. a
woman who wears black always, but
not mourning "a rich black that
rustles like bamboo. SIC is slender and
fragile, and you might fancy her supported
by rather than supporting the stately gown,
which is always fastened by some ancient
brooch, as she permits you to inspect some
OF the finest old brasses in America, and
old Venetian glasses flashing with Jewels
and old Dutcn drinking glasses crowned
with notices and old prints and quaint old
books until you are transported mentally
quite into the atmosphere of other times
and another civilization.
After an hour with her perhaps you call
at the Enos stablishment-Mr. w. K.
Enos used to transact good deal of W. H.
Vanderbilt's busineSs-and when YOU have
sat on old chairs and gazed at old carvings
from which depend old hangings, then it is
quite within the bounds of possibility that
your steps may carry you to Mrs NJ Louise
Thomas. where you will be confronted by
old mahogany and old silver, and will end
by going home and dreaming that the
world has rolled back ward and made YOU
contemporary of some sweet dame of New
Amsterdam, her face and figure smothered
in fluffy marabout and her hair quantity
pulled about her high-bred face as she
walks between the box borders and gathers
pinks, and myrtle, and bluebells in a shady
garden that slopes down to the East river.