The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-18
HOW FORTUNES OFTENTIMES ARE
 SPENT TO GRATIFY A MERE WHIM

drew $2.500. though 1t should, In fair ness, be added that the man who bought 1t came from Hoboken. An auk's skin was able to separate anoth- CT collector from s2,00O. and does 1t not seem but yesterday that F. R. Pierson, the Tarrytown millionaire, paid s20.00o for a certain prize-win- ming caEnaticn pink?
 In flowerland, indeed. such big prices are becoming the rule rather than the exception. Orchids are becoming more profitable than coal mines. April saw three of the gorgeous but bizarre blooms sell at $l,s50. $1.200 and $1,100 respectively. In June the Roger San der" set the record with $4,592--its real name having something to do with it. maybe. for 1t was catalogued as the "ogdontoglossum CriSpum." After which the $1.3S0 received for one of T. M Crooks raising (Preston, Eng land. Augus) seems a bit tame.
 Enthusiastic philateiists will not care to see stamps included under freaks" but the fact remains that the average man in the streets gasps little when he reads of a penny 'Iet- ter license" going for $2o0. That 1t was the Transvaal stamp issued in 1877 had little to do with it's price; it en- bodied an error ((aIl such are doubiy dear to the heart that harbors the coll lecting bacillus), reading 'Transvral." And $200 was called a bargain figure for it.
 Postage stamps are goodish invest ments--sometimes. In March two coi- lections were slo.d eninaoinananaunn lections were sold. one in London and the other in New York, their totals be- ing $7,0o0 and $S.e00.
 In the great field of portraiture even the highest priced pacer and the rar- est of rock crystals must yield place. Stock Exchange seats may hold their own, but not Agra" diamonds. Nine teen-fiye saw no more art sales than the average. but 1t has chronicled some decidedly above-thS-average figures. To instance, only eight canvasses from the multitude that changed hands. one finds his total figuring up to $650,o25. The sales referred to were: November--Rubens's "St. Roch," purchased by Andrew Carnegie, $s00,- 900.
 July--van wyck's portrait of Charles and his Queen. $s5.0Oo.
 october--Rembrandt Betrayal of Samson" SS2.500
 February-Miilets The Laborer's Return" s70.60e
 June--aogarth's eAssembly at wan stead House." $13.750.
 June--Raeburn's portrait of a wo- man, bought by J. P. Morgan, s45,675. es~5uly- Botticelli's Virgin and Child, With Angels" s30.000.
 May-Romney's portrait of the Hor- slev children. s22.500.
 Tho feature of ticture sales, per- haps, of grea test interest to rank out siders" fs the phenomenal advance of- ten to be in the winning bids. In in- sanees of this single case will point the lesson. In 1860 a drawing by La- vereince, the eighteenth century French artist changed hands for SEQ. Tn 1895 it was resold for s4,0O0, but, as If this of itself were not more than enough, 1t brought ss,6oo last March.
 Nor Is such climbing the ladder of dollars and cents peculiar to paintings. There was sold an auls's egg in April, which the then owner had purchased for $25 in 1869. He surrendered it for $1,050, A Nanking vase, brought twenty years ago for $125, realized S29,50o in May, while in this present month a comfortable Plymouth Rock hen, after winning a pleasing little bunch of poultry shcw prizes, was sold for s750-and the point of the last item lies in the fact that the seller had bought the bird not half day earlier for S10.