The age-herald., 1900-06-24
GOSSIP IF WOMEN PROMINENT IN
 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
Southern Women Refuse to Dispose of Valuable Hefb0w to
 Northern Dealers,

silver and cut glass on her buffet, and tells that it has come down through many generations. The quantities of old furniture In the way of buffets dressing cases, escri- torres, sofas, chairs and the four poster beds that are found in southern homes make 1t all the more surprising that the south was ever prolific field for the deal CTS in antiques Relic hunters who are going through the south with the hope of buy Ing precious heirloOms for song are com blaming that the southern woman. has reached the point where she refuses to part With her treasurerS, and that although some very beautiful things are still to be found in southern homes, they are so much prized by their owners that they will never come into market. This latter conclusion if based purely upon the present attitude of the women of the south. is as absurd as other points of view expressed by the north regarding the south That southern women have never de- preciated the value of their heir looms, is evidenced by glimpse into their homes of today, and the very suggestion of selling these treasures would be regard ed as impertinent. It is of course the im poVelished families that the dealers ap- preach, but an eastern paper in a recent article on the subect stated that a well known dealer in antiquities had realized the futility of approaching the southern woman on the Subect of disposing of her old furniture cut glass or silver. A woman dealer, who recently came south to buy relics, viewed the situation as follows:
 '"rhe articles of furniture to be bought in the south now are nearly all in the pos session of families," she said, that have become impoverished, and are forced to part with their belongings. Some of the households of these people still contain handsome things, but as a rule there is little in these houses that is valuable. And the owners set the most fabulous prices on these obects not from a conviction that their commercial value is so great, but as representing their attachments for these articles, and the sorrow it causes them to part with them. Of course it is not possible to do business on any such sentimental basis IS this.
 "Once I went at a woman's solicitation to have mentioned took place three years ago in a Georgia town. l was there in search of furniture, and woman asked me to call and see an old sofa she had. It was kept in a drawing room apparently but little used, and was carefully covered with quilt Some of the other articles in the room were old. The sofa was not excep- tonal in any way It needed considerable repairs. I offered the owner $50 for it. and she almost went into tears. Her disap- pointment painful to me to witness She thought that the sofa represented a little fortune. I asked her what she expect cd to get for it. and she said she had heard
 
 other offer, and I know the woman had no idea of accepting the one I made, so 1 went away.
 Twice since that time I have been in that same Georgia town, and the woman has come to see me about the sofa each time. l tell her the price I would pay and she decides to take it. and then changes her mind. She has been led to believe for years that the old piece of furniture was very valuable. It was her costliest possess sion at any rate, and assumed, in her eyes, a fictitious value which it would never have to anybody else in the world. The same feeling is to be met with in the case with many other women owning old ar ticles to which they have become attached. When they make up their minds to part with them, and are reconcied to doing so only by the hope of a large reward, their disappointment is great when they learn how slight the commercial value of their property is.
 "nce l went at womans solicitation to