The Portland daily press., 1899-07-22
HIS NOVEL COLLECTION.
A Youths Assortment OF TestimoniaIs
from Statesmen and Others.

(From the Boston Evening Transcript }
Washington, July ga new kind Of
collecting fad" has started In Washing
ton. To collect autographs Of public
men, photographs, samples of their note
paper. monograms, etc., has become COM
monplace, and so IN enterprising youth
has undertaken to collect from the adyer-
Using columns of the newspaper and
magazines the testfomials OF great states-
men and their wives as to patent medi-
cines perfumery. soaps and the like.
These he carefully pastes into a scrap-
book. His collection will be valuable to
the historian of the future who wishes q
detailed account Of tho likes and prefer
encos Of many OF those persons now
prominently on the public stage. For
example, there rs certain kind of soap
now being put on the market, and this
youth has collected the opinions of the
wives of SCORE or more of Senators as to
It's merit. MYs. Frye. Mrs. 6allinger
and Mrs. Arthur p. German recommend
it. The boys great regret Ia that In
making this collection ne Is SO haudi-
capped by the ultra-rssei We, as he regards
it. of Massachusetts, people. II haysn't
found Mrs. Hoar's testimonial or Mrs.
Lodges In connection with anything
he says regretfully.
But next to soaps, patent medicines
add the most to his..coilsctian. He is able
to tell from what infirmities great men
are wont TO suffer and what remedies
have proved most eiiioacious. This Is in
formation Of the utmost Importance fer
the historian of the future. What food
OF light would be thrown upon the ca
reer OF William, the Prince OF Orange,
for example. II we could find In an old
London sorapbook that he had taken six
bottles of somebody's nerve tonic and in
sleep In six yearsl Would not such an
advertisement illuminate the pages of
Macaulay's History OF Englands" The
youth here who iss making the collection
says that all great statesmen. as near "a
he can learn from these advertisements,
are wearing themselves out for their con-
stituenus. aud hardly case OF recovery
Is related which doss not impress this
fact. And the former Populist Congress.
man from Alabama, NJ. w. Howard,
seems TO have suffered the most severely
of all.
Apropos OF this collection, the expert
enoe Of man riding in the cars with q
Vermont Congressman Is worth relating.
| For some reason Vermont statesmen
are wont TO point with pride to q cele-
hrated establishment which manufactures
proprietary medicines In that State. and
they evidently like to encourage local In
dustry by recommending Its wares. o.
perhaps the medicine meets local needs
At oil events, the pictures OF both Repre-.
sentatives In the House were travelling
broadcast over the country, when man
who happened to be riding with one OF
the Representatives picked up news
paper containing the picture of his col
league. 81 cannot for the life of me see
why public men allow their pictures to
| go over the country in this way wers
The words which begar to pour into the
ear Of the Vermont Representa- tative. He
did not respond so enthusiastically as
| might have been desired, and as his com.
panion went further and further In de.
crying such things, he finally stammeret
| out that somebody had told him that thii
same concern had his picture too, but
! just how they got 1t he was little un
certain. He did not think much of szci
| things himself.