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

Curious Collection of Buttons.
Up in one of the corridors of the capitol
are 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. Tingue, a
of the Connecticut towns, the same man
who introduced Angora goats into this
country. When Mr.. Tingue attended
state fair in 1888 he saw string of .432
buttons with shanks, no two alike, and.
struck with the energy and patience of the
person who collected them, offered his
nephew and nieces, who We're with him,
500 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
2764 buttons with these lines:
Twenty seven 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 shank
Mr.. Tingue then made a 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 were
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. so he, had handsome oak
cases made and presented them to the
state. There are no duplicates on any Of
the thirty-four strings. The cases contain
81 300 buttons
Scene In the Old Statehouse.
The famous old statehouse, designed by
Bulinch. Ia now used 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 1850 the young
state of Connecticut was overcast py
dense cloud. 1t was SO dark that candies
were 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 of 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 on his knees 'in his
accustomed place of worship. confessing
his sins, instead of discussing affairs Of
state" Whereupon Abraham Davenport
arose and said:
1.-The day of Judgment is either approach
ing it is not. If it il not there Is no
cause for an adjournment; 1t it Is, I wish
duty as God would have me do It.
demand, therefore, that candles be brought