Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-11

CONVENTIONS anu DdIFlUtIC IMtUtIIIBS- 1Lu-
ward T. Hapgood of Hartford and Dom
Barber of New York. both well-known
architects. have submitted design that
resembles the new union station In WASH
ington. a marble building. 361x164 feet in
size, to cost 81 100000, and are waiting for
the Legislature to appropriate the money to
begin the work of construction.
Curious Collection of Buttons.
Up in one of the corridors of the capitol
are a series of oak cases with glass doors
which attract more attention than Gilbert
Stuart's portraits of Washington, for they
are filled with strings of buttons. Mr..
Charles Robert Green, the assistant IL
brarian, told me an interesting story about
them. He said that they were placed In
the statehouse by Mr. J. II. Tinsue, a
wealthy manufacturer of mohair in one
who introduced Angora goats into this
country. When Mr.. Tingue attended a
state fair in 1888 he saw string of l.432
buttons with shanks, no two alike, ana.
person who collected them. offered his
nephew and nieces who We're with him,
$50 each if they would double the NUMBER
of buttons within the next thirty days.
The young people went to work and on
the very last day brought him string OF
2,764 buttons with these lines:
Twenty hundred buttons in all;
Buttons large and buttons small,
Buttons dark and buttons light,
Buttons black and buttons white
Buttons green and buttons blue
Buttons old and buttons new.
Buttons Of every class and rank
And every button has a shank.
Mr.. Tingue then made general offer to
all the young women of Connecticut to pay
a reward of $50 cash to every one who
would bring him a string Of 200, no
two alike. Thirty-three contestants We're
successful but hundreds failed to obtain
the required number within the time al
lowed. The button trade in Connecticut
was very active during that next month
Mr.. Tingue did not know what to do with
his buttons he, had handsome oak
cases made and presented them to the
state: There are no duplicates on any or
the thirty-four strings. The cases contain
81 800 buttons.
Scene In the Old Statehouse.
The famous old statehouse. designed by
Bullfinch is now used as the city hall of
Hartford and contains the offices of the
mayor and other city officials. The board
Of aldermen meets in the old senate cham
Der and the common council In the old
hall Of representatives, where occurred
that stirring scene described by Whittier
in a poem that Is found in all the books
on elocution and has been detained by
hundreds Of thousands Of boys in little
red schoolhouses throughout the country
on Friday afternoons and other exhibition
d.ys.
one day in the winter of 1880 the young
state of Connecticut was overcast by a
dense cloud. 1t was so dark that candles
We're lit in all the houses and the people
had to take lanterns to find their way
about the streets. The community was so
alarmed that special prayer meetings were
held in all the churches and everybody
concluded that the day o. Judgment was
at hand. The members CT the legislature
were frightened quite as much as ordinary
folks, and one nervous gentleman moved
an adjournment because the end of the
world was at hand and in his opinion
everybody should be his knees ''in his
accustomed place Of worship, confessing
his sins. instead of discussing affairs OF
state" Whereupon Abraham Davenport
arose and said:
THE day Of Judgment is either approach
ing or 1t is not. If 1t is not, there is no
cause for an adjournment; It 1t is wish
to be found here in my place doing my
duty as God would have me do 1t. I
demand, therefore, that candles be brought