The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-28
HER FORTUNE IN HORNS.

Ten Thousand Pairs From the Heads
| Of Buffalo, She Thinks, Should Make
Het Rich.
The business enterprise many years
ago of an eastern man now resident
of Minnesota, and his Kindness and at
lection for his sister in this city, have
resulted in placing her in position Of
probable future affluence. She has be-
come the proprietor of probably the
most singular collection Of wealth in the
United States, nearly ten thousand
pairs Of buffalo horns, which once
adorned the heads Of herds Of bison
which occupied the plains Of the west.
not combination Of capitalists, but a
complete trust In herself without fear
of any competition, for she has a monO-
poly of the product and there is no fear
of competition from any source.
Nearly twenty years ago, when the
plains of the west were covered with
the remaining herds Of buffalo, the wo-
mans brother was engaged in purchas-
ing the rights of way for the Great
Northern railroad, and during his trav-
els saw immense quantities Of bones,
skulls and horns Of buffalo being col
lected for shipment east to be ground
into fertilizers for New England farms.
Two hundred carloads had been collect
ed and were being packed, when this
bsagacious man reflected that the
slaughter of buffalo would extinguisf
the species and, buffalo gone, there
would be no more buffalo horns which
he had seen converted into various arti-
Giles of usefulness and decoration. With
him. to reflect was to act, and he soon
decided to purchase all he could buy.
Setting Indians at work he soon made
arrangements for them to separate the
horns from the skulls, which had lain
bleaching on the plains of Montana for
many years, Horns were drug on the
market then and were worth obout
cent a pound off the hoof. When he
had got his horny collection together
there were about ten thousand pairs of
buffalo horns stored way up in a corner
of the state and he had oornered the
market
Other enterprises commanded his at
tention, one little diversion being the
purchase of town sites along the line of
the road which alone was sufficient to
make him Immensely rich, and in
course of time he almost forgot his col
lection of horns. Meantime, his sister
in this city, woman who has displayed
considerable inventive genius In small
way had heard of her brothers collec-
ton and wondered if she could make
market for the horns. Samples of horns
We're sent OH to her and she has now
found that there Is a demand for the
goods. Her brother has made her gift
of the entire bunch, nearly ten thousand
pairs, and she has made an arrange
ment to place them on the market in
several forms.
The buffalo horn Is susceptible of the
highest polish. After an outside cover
ing has been removed, the horn in the
rough is as black as ebony all through.
This takes brilliant polish, the meth
cd of obtaining which was at one time
a secret possessed by the Indians The
Hartford woman, in arranging to mar
ket her strange collection, spent some
time in Leominster, Mass, where there
are twenty three bone factories, and
studied the subject of bones and bone
and soon learned the way
to polish buffalo horns to her complete
and qualification. A pro-
position has been made to her to design
many effects in which the horns may
be used, and she has now under con-
an offer to sell the entire lot |
Of horns, which on storage occupies one
thousand cubic feet of space, but she |
will probably make other arrangements. |
Courant. |