The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1906-09-28

Poor, sad-eyed stranger! There
was that about his mien, his tired
look, his decayed- gentility clothes
that almost reached the mustard
seed Of charity that still remained.
remote and lonely, in the empty vast
ness of my heart, Notwithstanding |
observed a portfolio under his arm,
and said TO myself, behold, Provi-
dence hath delivered His servant into
the hands of another canvasser.
Well, these people always get one
Interested. Before | well knew how
II came about this one was telling me
his history, and | was all attention
and sympathy. He told it something
like this:
MY parents died, alas, when l was
little, sinless child. My uncle Thu
riel took me to his heart and reared
me as his own. He was my only rela-
tive in the wide world; but he was
good and rich and generous. He
reared me in the lap of luxury.
knew no want that money could sat
isfy.
In the fullness of time I was grad
uated, and went with two of my SER
vants-my chamberlain and my valet
to travel in foreign countries. Dur
Ing four years / fitted upon careless
wing amid the beauteous gardens of
the distant strand, if you will permit
this form of speech in one whose
tongue was ever attuned TO poesy;
and indeed | so speak with confidence,
as one unto his kind, for | perceive
by your eyes that you too, sir, are
gifted with the divine imitation. In
those far lands | reveled in the am
orosial food that fructifies the soul.
the mind, the heart. But Of all
things that which most appealed to
my inborn aesthetic taste was the
prevailing custom there, among the
Itch, of making collections of elegant
md costly rarities, dainty objets de
vertu, and ir an evil hour l tried to
lplift my uncle Ithuriel to plane OF
,ympath.- with this exquisite employ
ment.
II wrote and told him OF one gen.
Ieman's vast collection Of shells; an
others noble collection of meer-
,chaum pipes; another's elevating
md refining collection of undecipher-
able autographs; another's priceless
collection of old China; another's en-
chanting collection Of postage-stamps
and so forth and so on. Soon my
letters yielded fruit Ny uncle began
20 look about for something to make
collection Of. You may know, per-
haps, how fleetly taste like this di-
Lates. His soon became a raging
fever, though | knew it not. lie
began to neglect his great pork bus-
ness; presently he wholly retired and
turned an elegant leisure into a rabid
search for curious things. His
wealth was vast, and he spared IL not.
First he tried cow-bells. He made a
collection which filled five large
salons, and comprehended all the diff
terent sorts of cow-bells that ever had
been contrived, save one. That one
An antique and the only specimen
extant-was possessed by another
collector. My uncle offered enormous
sums for it, but the gentleman would
not sell. Doubtless you know what
necessarily resulted. A true colec-
tor attaches no value to a collection
that is not complete. His great heart
breaks, he sells his hoard, he turns
his mind to some field that seems un-
occupied
Thus did my uncle. He next tried
brickbats. After piling up a vast and
intensely interesting collection, the
former difficulty supervened. his
great heart broke again; he sold out
his souls idol to the retired brewer
who possessed the missing brick.
Then he tried flint hatchets and other
implements of Primeval Man, but by
and by discovered that the factory
where they were made was supplying
other collectors as we'll as himself.
He tried Aztec inscriptions and
stuffed whales-another failure, after
incredible labor and expense. When
his collection seemed at last perfect,
stuffed whale arrived from Greenland
and an Aztec inscription from the
Cundurango regions OF Central Amer
lea that made all former specimens
insignificant. Ny uncle fastened to
secure these noble gems. He got the
stuffed whale, but another collector
got the inscription. A real Cundur-
ango, as possibly you know, is a pos
session of such supreme value that.
when once a collector gets Il. he will
rath : part with his family than with
Il. So my uncle sold out and saw his