Evening star., 1902-07-30
"oLD CURIOSITY SHOP
There Are Several of Them in This
City.

When Dickens entitled one Of his most
interesting and famous OF novels The Old
Curiosity Shop he must have had in mind.
in connection with the little shop on the
narrow winding London street near the
new law courts, so intimately connected
with the associations of Little Nell. that
peculiar characteristic of us all that out
crops in our natures in the form of an in
tense loving to linger in front of the win
dows of what are known as curiosity
shops but which are in reality places
where curious mixture and conglomera-
tion of goods are sold at low rates. either
at first or second hand" said an elderly
Washington literary man.
There are several OF these shops in the
capital, and when men will pause before
no other window and idle they will stop at
these places and run over with the eye the
different articles behind the plate glass
mentally noting the prices tagged thereon,
and sizing them up as to whether they are
cheap or dear. As for the small boy, | well
remember that | used to go blocks out of
my way to feast my youthful eyes upon the
treasures thrown promiscuously in the win
dow, and many of my pennies found their
way over the counter of the shop for ar
ticles for which 1 had no earthly use hut
without which the earth seemed a dreary
waste. judging from the way the Wash
1ngton small boy of today hungrily peers
into the windows of our own curiosity
shops there has been but little change
either in the shops or in the boy.
You see, If We pause before the win
dow OF grocery, hardware dry goods
store We know in advance about what sort
or things We are to see, and unless We are
especially interested we pass on. But this
is not true of the window of the curiosity
shop. hence, the facination to that latent
element of the pure savage still in our ma
tures-the attraction of the eye by baubles
and bright things. So We look and look our
curiosity is appeased, and the barbarian in
stinct within is satisfied.
Il am sure that the general public has
little conception of the strange diversity of
articles to be seen in the window of a curl
osity shop, to say nothing OF the interior
of the shop itself. / made a mental note
the other day of only portion of the con-
tents of one window. and il ought to throw
any small boy reader Of The Star into con-
Eulslons OF enVious frenzy to possess them.
Here it is:
Pocket knives of all sorts. from a sin
gle-blader to one with a score of blades
with pearl handle: an old cavalry sahra,
piles of confederate money, an per cent
5000 confederate bond, two men-of-war
boarding cutlasses, probably used in the
war OF 1Sl2; pair of revolutionary flint
lock dueling pistols, old and new shot guns
a pair of solid silver spurs. probably the
property of some Mexican horseman; horse
whips, handouts, roller skates a couple Of
black Jacks, or slung shots: brass knuck-
les, bowie knife. revolvers of all kinds and
ages, from the modern hammerless to the
old ante-bellum percussion-cap variety;
carved idol from the south Pacific seas
rubber house balls, base balls at all prices
bats, stage sword. penny savings banks
bike fixings of all kinds, hardware of ali
sorts from, paper of tacks to a heavy car
penters plane; a watch said to have been
owned by George Washington: fishing
tackle in enticing variety, poker chips, dice
checkers playing cards. back CANNON
raZors and strops, thermometers, banjos
Nlolins, mandolins. carved walrus tusk
from Alaska. watch chains, watches ard
Jewelry in endless variety, white washing
and paint brushes, accordeons and lots of
other things from which small boys and o,d
boys would readily go broke to possess"