The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-11-28

gave this gem to their lady loves. In
its immobile state it was merely a
thought gift, but when the lady spun
it by means of the strings, while her
sutton looked over her shoulder, it
spelled out the invitation: kiss Me-"
Then he would brush her cheek rev.
erently with his lips" Mr.. Ettinger
FASTENED to add.
Equally facetious were gentlemen's
calling cards Of those days, the Ettin-
ger collection reveals. They were sissy
stuff, kind of, and had gorgeously hued
illustrations of flOwer-baskets; the
baskets could be opened, and inside
were heart-beats like "You are the
flower Of my heart" or Twill you be
my pretty violet?" and such silly talk.
One brazen scamp had card with
the message: May 1. c. q. Home? If
Not, May 1 Set on the Fence, and G.
U. Go By?" Tsk, tsk!
Pat Salmon, a tramp printer (better
say ''itinerant," says he), has collec-
ton of 1000 pipes which is possibly
the most complete of its kind. One
pipe, a German porcelain, is three
feet long, weighs % pounds, holds five
pounds of tobacco "and takes draft
horse to pull it," as Pat says. 1t
sports an ambitious painting of the
kaiser reviewing his cavalry on the
bowl. There are tiny pipes used by
Chinese women, great Turkish water
pipes which are as big as old-time
parlor lamps and not unlike them, and
a comfortable curved briar that once
belonged to Mark Twain. l pointed
to a common corn-cob that seemed a
little forlorn in this august assembly.
whats that doing here?" | asked.
THAT, SIR" replied Pat Salmon, sis
a fine specimen of Missouri Nicer
schaum!"
The father of Charles Bragin of
Brooklyn used to have a hobby of
thrashing the daylights out of Charley
for reading dime novels, and now
Charley's hobby is collecting all those
literary delights once forbidden him.
He has more than 10000 different
copies, valued at $4,000.
VCStSih SthSH stcS fiSobys
1t was something of a jar to dis
cover that the Western Union tele-
graph people are lobbyists; you would
imagine them too busy dashing around
with breathless messages to have time
to collect anything. Except fees, of
course. They exhibited collection of
early kilograms, dating from 1S4S. One
interesting revelation of the exhibit is
that the tape-printing teletype was in
use no less than So years ago. That
was in the days when kilograms were
often sent by wire as far as possible
Western Union displayed envelopes
with Cancelled stamps to prove it.
In the years before the tape printer,
operators prided themselves on their
fiowery handwriting, embellished with
artistic curly-cues. The most glorious
pen masterpiece of the display was one
which read: George: Get her and
keep her until / come" You knew at
a glance that the operators skilled
hand had risen nobly to the effort to
equal with Spencerian eXquiSiteness the
stark, human drama of the message.
l sought out the man who started
these hobby shows, and found him to
be a Mr.. o. c. Lightner, editor of
Hobbies Magazine, the monthly bible
of these collecting folk, and a born
organizer. You might have taken him
for Y. NJ. c. A. secretary, but for his
necktie, which was itself collection
of all the colors of the rainbow, except
the, less brilliant ones. A stick-pin
topped by gold race horse kept it
from getting entirely out of control |
thought it might be fun to find out
what this master-hobbyist collected
himself. / asked him if he had an
exhibit in his show.
Eyes, indeed" he said, turning his
beaming smile upon me. Right there
on the wall is a collection that both
afforded me great deal of pleasure
and required no end of stole perse-
verance."
l looked. 1t was a collection of
speakeasy pasS-cards.
e Western Newspaper Union.