The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-04
A B0ST0NIAN GATHERS BONES
ENGLISHMAN'S Production FOR
GREWSOME RELICS OF
MURDERS.
ACTRESS COLLECTS CIGARETTES
And u Negro Has a Fancy for Roh-
bits Feet-Other Peoples
Fads.

becomes a collector. It may be birds
eggs that he collects or beetles or
stamps or coins or wild plants, but in
one line or another the mania for col
lectlng is as inevitable as Whoopine
cough or mumps. This mania some
times develops strange and abnormal
tastes. Such an instance is related by
the Pail Mall Gazette.
The collector is an elderly man with
passion for crime Not that he has
any criminal traits himself. Quite the
contrary, but he takes the most intense
interest in murders and other crimes
OF Importance. AS he is wealthy. he Is
able to make a practical apnIication
OF MS hobby. Every year there takes
place in Paris a sale of articles which
nave belonged to famous criminals
the clothing they wore while commit
tlng their crimes, their weapons. their
masks, the letters or papers found upon
them when arrested. At this sale the
ola man is an energetic bidder In the
course OF a score of years he has col
lecteo the paraphernalia of ninety MUIR
uers, almost complete, not to mention
lnose OF various minor crimes One
or the bitternesses Of his life IS that
German collector succeeded in pur
chasing the boots which a famous
french criminal wore when he beat his
ihlstress 10 death. What renders the
BOOTS particularly valuable in his eyes
IS the fact that the blood MARKS snow
with d1stlnctness. He has the trousers
ana shirt, and he makes repeated offers
TO his German rival for the boots
winch are always answered by that
Worthys bid for the garments.
The old man also keeps detailed
newspaper reports of all the crimes to
which he has fallen heir, and on the
cate when the crime was committed
ne dons the clothes of the perpetrator
and wears them all day Formerly he
was In the habit of repairing to the
scene of the crime, but, after being
recognized as a criminal in a suburb
OF London, and almost killed by a mob
ne gave over that form Of amusement.
ANY OF his visitors is at liberty to try
on the interesting collection of gar
ments
always feel, says he that I am
lmpued with the sentiments of the
CRIMINAL when I put on his clothes.
! gives one strange feeling of life
and vigor''
IL gave him a strange experience.
too, last year, for, while wandering.
about in the character of a rnurdersss'
| he was arrested for masQuerading in
Woman,s clothing. Strange to say. he
is the mildest and most timid of men
in character and possesses none of the
/ characteristics of the criminal whose
emotions he so loves to feel 1T is nm
doubtedly a like abnormal feeling in
less degree which impels persons to
carry away the most senseless me-
hn
A tree under which a woman was
mysteriously killed in a New Jersey
| city last year was hacked half In two
py the knives memento fiends.
Even more greWsome than the col
lection of the foreigner was that Of a
session man who died some years ago
having such a collection of human
bones in his house that the police sup
posed they had discovered a whole
sale murderer too late. That man had
been for years getting human bones
| together where there was. anything pc
cullar ABOUT the human being to whom
the bones had belonged. For skeletons
as such he cared little and his closets
i did not contain half a dozen complete
| skeletons. although the police found
materials for fifty. What he particu-
! larly sought was bony "Reminiscences
or any noted criminal or peculiar acct
1 dent. So far as is known, he did not go
/ about his collecting in an illegitimate
way. Grave robbing was not in his
line. But if he heard of a man who
was to be hanged he would bargain
with that man for a knee bone or a
forearm and pay a decent price for
| the article. Unidentified corpses were
matters of interest to him. and he
would travel several hundred miles to
! get the skull of an unrecognized vic
tim of foul play. Once. while going
to the scene of a murder. he was
hurt internally in a railroad collision.
| On recovering his senses after the
shock he found himself lying near a
man whose right leg was hanging by
few shreds of flesh. The surgeons
were at work on the man, who was
conscious. The collector promptly
proceeded to bargain with him.
You will never walk on that leg
again" he said.
mo" replied the sufferer coolly. 81
guess it's no good to me now"
1T is to me. though" SAIL the col
lector eagerly. 'Fll buy it Of you.
What'll you take for it?'
THE accident insurance company
pays me $500 for it, but don suppose
they'll want it. What1l you give?"
Fifty dollars.
Its your leg"
Then having completed the bargain
they both tainted away.
That leg bone was often pointed out
ing not only an interesting SURGICAL ex-
! hibit, but also as an evidence of his
| business ability under trying circum-
stances. In his collection was also a
right hand which he had often shaken
in life, it having been the property OF
an intimate friend Of his. A buzz saw
was the medium through which it came
| into his possession, the friend having
sent 1T to him after it's removal. The
most priced of his single exhibits was
six-fngered hand belonging to pro
! fessional criminal. None OF his friends
was able to bring this man TO a COM
prehension Of the uncanny nature Of
| his pursuit.
Next to human remains, human ini-
tations are perhaps the most grewsome
| objects Of the collectors art The Pail
! Mall Gazette tells Of man who COL
lects all the automatons he can find,
and when he is unable to FIND any new
ones he designs novel ones for himself
| One of his machine made men is ma
gician who sits facing small frame
in which are number Of query cards.
On card being selected and handed
to the magician he drops 1t into one OF
the Sits, upon which a door in the
frame flies open and another card bear
ing reply to the query appears. Other
exhibits in this old museum are a let
ter writer who writes a two-page letter
| touching upon topics of TIE day, a
| squalling baby and young lady who
plays four tunes upon the piano with
| out waiting for an encore.
A man in this city has a complete
collection of all the automatic Toys,
sidewalk miniature machines and toy
puzzles that have come out since the
| fifteen-block puzzle began populating
the lunatic asylums. In number these
amount to nearly 1000, representing
| however, an expenditure of less than