Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-13
WHERE THEY GET THEN.
Some Secrets -of the Curio Businesa
Revealed.


Some Secrets >of the Curio Business
Revealed.
From the New York Post.
For long time when first went into
the curio business did nothing. I nearly
failed, and would have but that had an
other business which was doing well /
thought 1t out that the reason people did
not buy my shells was because knew moth
ing about them myself. 1 went to pro-
fessor and studied up the subject always
had natural turn for it. and after two
years 1 opened this shop and succeeded
from the beginning. 1t was because 1 was
interested myself. and SO could make my
customers feel an interest. I have been in
the curio business for twenty years.
Where do get my goods? pick them
up here and there. There Is a lady in
South Dakota who trades with the Indians
and Procures me every little odd Out-of-
the-way thing that she thinks other deal
ers might not have. There is a New Mexi-
can who also gets me antique things My
best shells mostly come from Singapore,
Madagascar and the islands in the Indian
get hold of something very rare. that was
flung in hastily with the rest by some
shell gatherer, ignorant of the value of the
specimen. And the same way with beetles
and butterflies There is one specimen in
Brazil that sells In London for e.. 1t is
only once In a thousand chances that you
come across one. The other day found
one in what l. at first glance, had decided
was very ordinary collection.
Il sometimes think" he went on, that
the love of this kind of thing makes a
bend between people that are otherwise
strangers. Men come in toward dark. look
ing around at the things. and the first
thing l know they are telling me their
private business. or their history, or their
troubles A Lumber who frequent the shop
always speak to me as though I was a
friend. One evening after the lights were
lit, when such customer was here, a
young woman, rather shabbily dressed,
came in and began sorting over the shells.
She made some remarks about a speci-
men that struck her fancy, and gentle
man began to talk to her. She talked to
her. She talked SO well about natural his
tory and seemed so thoroughly acquainted
with 1t that the old gentleman was very
much pleased. He said when she went out
that he judged she was an English woman
Once or twice she came, after that when
he happened to be in, and then 1 did not
see her for some time, Until one day she
came and asked me to let her have some
shells to paint for sale, saying that she
was in need, but would pay for them as
soon as she could. OF course, I let her
have them, and told her to come to me If
she ever needed help. Afterward she
brought me the shells. saying that she
could not sell them and was very sorry
Ihey were pretty well done. The next time
the old gentleman came in / showed them
to him.
Why, 1 will buy them,' he said They
are not bad. She seems nice young lady,
and you send her the money
Il told him that l did not know her adj
dress, and he fumed about it, and said that
l should have asked her, for may be she
was in real need. 1 kept look out for her
On the street after that, and one Sunday,
nearly five weeks later, saw her coming
out OF a cheap restaurant. She had on a
thick veil and tried to avoid me. 1 felt a
delicacy about forcing myself upon her
but she looked so sad and careworn that I
followed her and made excuse that I want
ed to tell her about the shells. oh, Are
they sold? she exclaimed, how kind you
are and tears came to her eyes.
The upshot of it was that the gentleman
got her good position to teach botany and
conchoiogy in private school. She had
no friends in New York, was a southern
woman, whose relatives were not such that
she could appeal to them. She told me-
later that the meal she had that Sunday 1
met her coming out of the restaurant was
the hrst hot food she had tasted for four
days. She was well-nigh penniless."
There are idols, scepters quaint pipes
and curious musical instruments from the
cast in the little shop. There is the weird
crooked horn of an African beast used by
savage tribes as a clarion call in time Of
war, there are feeding troughs from Alas
ka, made of wood and tattooed with red
and blue hieroglyphics. and there is a sin
guiar-iooklng Indian trunk, made Of buck
skin and stitched and dyed curiously.