Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-12
QUAINT TREASURES IN PAWNSHOT

Sunday New York Herald: Quaint
relics of old New York were brought d
light yesterday in the opening of Ahe bE
wooden boNes in Reeber's second hand
lumber yard, at the foot of EaH One
Hundred and seventh street. THY told
many a story of days gone byss when
Henry Hart, the father Of the Third
Avenue railroad. was a pawnbrokeT
! down in Chatham street. :
When he gave up money loaning to be-
come the president of the horse railway
that in later years developed into a great
electric system, Mr.. Hart packed UP all
the unredeemed pledges in his shop,
some 6 5000 in number, and in time they
We're stored in the car house at Sixty
sixth street, up in the cock loft back
of the old clock There they lay for
| years while Henry Hart ran his rail-
way from an office in the same building.
| When the road was wrested from the old
mans grasp in Wall street this spring
he took away his safe and his desk, but
left the 70 boxes full of pawnbroker's
pledges in the loft.
The new owner of the road the other
| day sent word to Mr.. Hart that they
wanted the things cleared GU. The old
mai was greatly roubled as to what to
do with his treasures, but his relatives
p~ursuaded him to give them to some OF
his old employees. AS he had loaned $12,
600 on these pledges, MI. Hart thought
that he ought to get at least half for
| them, but the best bargain they could
make was to sell the whole lot for 5000
to the secondhand house. Mr.. Hart,
one of his family told me, did not re-
ceive a cent from the sale.
One by one the boxes are opened uI
n odd discoveries are made-old fowl
ing pieces, tlintlock and muzzle-loading
percussion guns by the score, some sc
rusty that they fell apart like Rip Van
| Wlnkle'S lannon's nipca. mon and yun-
mems wearing apparel of %antiquated
fashion, camel's hair shawls, masked
ball costumes, Wellington boots, tight
fitting doeskin trousers, English cloth
coats, c~arpet-bags. brass wind instru-
ments, children's dresses, pistols, dag
gers, swords, furs, clocks. tools, looking
glasses, paintings, and thousands OF
other articles. a veritable picture of life
before the war" ..s
Much of the property from the pawn
shop has disappeared. In 1886, the yea,
or the Third avenue strike when guards
slept in the car house, many of the, ole
mans treasures We're taken away. Oil
paintings were cut from their frames
among them a valuable picture of St
cecilia, and from time to time vandals
VINO nave known of the treasures of the
Tort have rummaged about in the place
and taken away a great many valuable
articles. When the things We're first
'loieu III lLie pdWnSnOp, after the buSi-
ness was closed, there were about 15f
boxes. One by one they have disap-
peared.
Each article las pinned to it the pawn
ticket, and the dates of these tickets
run from 1S41 to 1851. One box con-
tanned some so theatrical costumes and a
complete outfit for the performance Of
Richard Ill" The tickets bore the date
of ls47. In one of the boxes was a col.
lection of fancy silk w~aistcoats, one bear
ing the inscription in the lining, Pre-.
sented to Mr.. Des Rockers, August 3
l841, by the Hanover V~erein."
A crowd of curious ones hung about
the lumber yard all day watching the
unpacklng OF boxes. In their minds
eye they were carried back to the de.
lightful old stage coach days of New
York.