The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-27
GREAT COLLECTION
 OF WAR RELICS TO INTEREST VETERANS
Much Diplomatic Correspond enee Will Be Shown Wis
 itors to Encampment.

Washington, July 27-To add an- other interesting feature to the events of the forthcoming .forty-ninth an Army of the Republic in Washington, the citizens committee which has the matter in charge is endeavoring to arrange for exhibition lduring the week of September 27-October 3, a. wonderful collection of historic war relics. Washington is filled with re- npinders, of the great. struggle; many of these relics are owned and held by the government but the average visitor sees few of them. It is planned to extend a special courtesy to the old veterans and allow them an opportunity to view some of these highly prized treasures.
 In a. hre-proof vault, opening from a small room on the third floor of the treasury building, are the manr- script archives which set forth the diplomatic efforts of the Confederacy to secure. recognition as a member of the family of nations and to ob- tain the means to establish a, navy and maintain an army.
 When the most imp ortant of the Confederate archives were removed from Richmond, the diplomatic cor respondence, consisting of the State Department, records, except the se- cret service papers, which had been destroyed by MT. Benja1nins were hidden in a barn in Virginia Later. they were packed in -four yellow trunks. and brought from Richmoad to Washington by their custodian, Col. John T. Pickett. After endeav- bring for years to dispose of them,, Colonel Pickett, having indexed them, took them to Canada, where in April, 1872, the trunks and their 1I<zes of the United States On July 3. 1872, the trunks were delivered at the White House. and later were re- moved to the treasury. Colonel Pick cit, invpayment, received the stipulat- ed sum of s75. 900, a large portion of which was distributed to needy wid- ows and orphans of Confederate sol diers.
 The money for the Pickett pa pers" had been appropriated by spe- cia1 act of Congress. Many persons asserted that no good could result from the resurrection of these long buried documents, even if genuine as some feared they were not. and that Secretary Boutwell, had wasted $75,0oO on four trunks filled with worthless paper. However, time has demonstrated the wisdom of this pur- chase. The names in the indices of the Pickett papers, in addition to those of the correspondenc of the Confederate treasury and other de- partments, have been of great con venience and inestimaibIe value in de- feating fraudulent claims to the amount of many millions Of dollars. These diplomatic papers remained in the original recep&ac1es until about g. year ago. when the quaint old trunks were sold at one of the treasury auc- tions. The papers had already been placed in three new chests, of polished pine.
 Colonel Pickett was the latest known custodian of the great seal of the Confederate States: Of this seal. which never was used, many romantic stories are told. That it was de- is untrue. In 1870, after having had it's genuineness attested by it's Eng fish manufacturers, Colonel Pickett ordered from a Washington jeweIer many rep1icasNof it in gold, silver and bronze. which were sold for the bene- fit of destitute southerners. One of these replicas is now in the National Museum, and another in the State Department of the capital of South Carolina The original was made in London, at d cost of f122 10s It was finished July 2, 1864, and did not reach Richmond until the evacu- ation of that city. It is believed CA4elk N|O4SiAS@1 AOfACSN 4AO1AS eSAO IAAS only persons who know it's where abouts.
 In a. small dark room under the caves of the south wing of the Treas ury stand seven large packing boxes with covers nailed down. Sighfseers are never permitted to enter this din gy attic room, and very few persons, even among the oldest employees, could guess the contents of the boxes They are filled with Confederate money. a portion of which was cap tured from southern banks and from dead or living Confederate soldiers and forwarded through the War De- partment to the Treasury. The larger share of this money was col lected by the Treasury agents who conducted the cotton business of the United States in 1854 and succeed ing years.
 These boxes contain not only the bank notes of the Confederate gov ernment, but thousands Of the bills issued by the states in instruction, to take the place of the chips which itradesnlen were compelled to offer as change after the south suspended spe- cie payment in July, 1881 Later the issue Of small bills by the varf- ous states rendered these .'chfps'' un-s necessary
 DATES OF FAIRS. E