The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-03-18
ANTIQUITIES.
INSTINCT BY WHICH THE COL
LEoToR RECOGNIZES A "FIND.t

LECTOR RECOGNIZES a "FiND'f
one of the Finest Collections of London
Antiquities Said to be Owned by
wh;fecbaneI Costermonger-An Au-
thority ON vineyards in England
Small Value of Amateur Collections
of Minerals and Insects.
A striking example of the collectors
instinct was cited at a meeting
of the London Typographical society
the other day. Mr.. Hilton Price, the
chairman, mentioned that one OF the
finest collections of London Antiquities
is that of Whitechapel costermohser'
=. s'who is a dealer in scrap-iron. ne
looks out for demolitions and excaVa-
tons, and the workmen, accustomed 10
see his donkey-cart arrive early IN the
morning. set aside anything they have
discovered which looks curious. Thus
Mr., Smith has filed his house.
very modest dwelling probably--agaln
and again; when it gets inconVenlent'
" crowded he sells off, and the au-
thorities Of the Guildhall have been
glad to purchase such an accumulation
more than once. His case might be
cited by an enthusiast for the educa-
tion Of the masses. If this poor coster-
monger has done such useful work
while utterly illiterate, what might
have been expected of him had he
started fair in life? 1t is harmless
but futile speculation. We are equal
ly free to suppose that knowledge
might have limited his sphere of
thought and action. The collectors in
stinct would have remained, for that is
an attribute of certain natures; but 1t
might probably have spent itself in
heaping up miscellaneous objects of no
scientific value. We cannot fancy a
respectable clerk going the round of
London, wherever building opera
TONS were in hand, at 6 a. m, to in
terview the laborers; still less can we
fancy him driving a donkey-cart to
bear away his scraps of rusty iron
and shards of antique earthenware.
Antiquaries have good cause to remem-
Der Mr.. Roach Smith, Familiarity known
as Roman Smith," He, a chemist, of
Rochester, practised the methods OF
our costermonger so far as a trades
man with reputation for sanity to
lose could venture Many droll expe-
riences were attributed to him by ar
chaeologists in merry mood, but no one
thought of assigning him a donkey. 1t
may be recalled, by the way, that Mr..
Roach Smith cherished another bobby
the identification of vineyards in
England We forget how many he
added to the list of DANES Darlington,
but contemporaries who paid him a
visit do not forget the practical issue
of his research. For if our ancestors
made wine which they drank, without
comparison, SO late as the reign of Will
same now, And Mr.. Roach Smith set
himself to demonstrate the proposition.
Mo caller escaped without sampling the
produce of his little vineyard; a
learned Frenchman or German pro-
fessor from the Rhine districts had to
go through the series of crus.
The visitor to Bergen op-Zoom sees
one of the most extraordinary results
of the collectors instinct, and if he be
concerned with the history of Holland,
profits by it. Seventy years ago the
municipal authorities engaged a new
porter for their Stadhuis. His simple
duty was to keep the ancient building
in order. But this was very light
work. Soon the good man discovered
that the upper part of the Stadhuis
was full Of old papers and parchments,
books, letters and what motive sim
cerely regret that his name escapes us,
but it is familiar in Berben-op-Zoom
now. He asked permission to arrange
these documents in his leisure time,
and it was granted, of course. First
he lined, the walls with shelves very
neatly, and then began to sort the dus-
ty mass. 1t was necessary to ascer-
tain, if possible, the subject-matter of
the. innumerable sheets; and this re-
markable porter actually learned to
read the various handwriting of states
men and citizens from century to CEN
fury. 1t employed him for years, as
we can readily believe; but in the end
he classified all the documents in order
of date and authorship, and arranged
them on the shelves much as they are
now-that is, all in the Dutch Ian
guage; for those in French, German
and Latin he wisely left upon the floor
for learned persons to decipher. This
example of the instinct can scarcely
be paralleled. Sir Mountstuart Grant
Duff casually mentions another of the
same class, but we have no informa.
tion about it. Cardinal Haynald was a
great botanist. When the keeper of
his herbariurn died, hopeless of finding
capable successor, he trained "two
Hussars of the Bodyguard;" and Grant
Duff learned, in 1886, that they were
''most successful" Would that he had
told us at least where this remarkable
experience can be verified, and what
was the nationality of those very in
telligent hussars! Every one who
takes interest in botany is aware that