Evening star., 1930-12-12

"Dear Sir: I was interested in read
ing the account in your column in
Mondays Star of the attempted
wanderings of the 25-year-old collar
button belonging to your friend.
However, I strongly suspect it was
your own button you were talking
about. If 1t was your button and you
were ashamed to admit it because you
thought you were the only man in the
United States who possessed a collar
button he has been wearing 25 years
and was obSessed with a horror of
losing it, just you rest easy.
There is one other and it Is your
humble servant. Just after my mar
riage, little over "a years ago, my
wife, in going through some of her
effects, resurrected this old friend of
mine, and it has tried to give me the
slip in all the ways you describe, and
then some.
"At times 1t has seemed to display a
positively malevolent cunning in gain
ing its freedom and at other times its
attempts at escape have been tinged
with a sort of sly jocularity However.
have, up to the present, been able to
outwit 1t and 1t is still my captive.
my button has a history, even
though it be only poor thing of bone.
as you characterize your second but
ton.' Pardon me, your friends button.
MY wife had five uncles who were
officers in the Union Army during the
Civil War. One of them while re-
cuperating in hospital from a severe
wound found time hanging rather
heavily on his hands and, being an
adept in the use of a pocketknife.
carved this old friend of mine out of a
bone in order to while away the time.
Nothing particularly original about
that, you say? But this old fire-eater,
in telling the story of the button to his
little nieces and nephews, always in
sisted that he had carved it from the
shin bone of leg amputated from a
Confederate soldier.
Nov, sir, I had an uncle in the
Confederate Army who lost a leg in
battle, and am wondering If l am
indulging in the quaint practice of
wearing part of my uncle'S shin bone
at the back of my neck.
"At any. rate, the button Is bone and
1t Is hand carved, but further than
that, sir, I absolutely refuse to make
afndavit. Yours very truly, S. H. M"
\ \
Many man has shaving brush which
he has used 20 or 25 years, or watch
WAlICH lG LldS Carried dll MS lie. Or a
charm" as they used to be called.
We recall seeing an advertisement of
a certain make of shaving brush sew
eral years ago which carried a photo
graph of one of these old veterans.
At the time we thought with salts
faction that our own brush was then
older than the one in the ad, and today
1t Is several years more so.
We looked at it the other morning,
and thought that it looked as If it
needed retirement. The bristles are
worn down, but mostly there. 1t still
does a good job of lathering.
Yet there is a certain sentimental
attachment to such old things which
keeps many a man from discarding
them long after he should purchase
new ones
Such old implements, no matter what
their usage, show good care and proper
treatment. Articles so handled will far
outlive the expectations of their pur-
chasers, and especially of those persons
who are careless with their personal
belongings
We have seen razors, for instance.
which have done duty for more years
than even the manufacturers would give
them credit, but this was not the re-
markable part of it.