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

1--WE Idnu, winch cOllecleu SO muCH
ancient and unclean clothing and fur
niture that it became jokingly known
as the paris Flea Market" She was
forced to change the spelling to Flee"
because so many window-shoppers
came in and wanted to see the trained
fleaS.
Vastly more interesting to the casual
observer were the exhibits by anna
tours, for here was visual evidence of
many happy hours spent in patient,
painStaking work to satisfy whims
that had evolved into precious ambi-
tons, whether they be for saving
stamps, prints, vases or string.
One dear, little white-haired lady
saved buttons. She is Mrs. X.
L. Browne, of Kansas City, Kan, and
her collection of buttons was such
hit at church gatherings and other
social affairs in Kansas City, she was
prevailed upon to bring it to the Chi
cagO show.
In only three years she has saved
more than 10000 buttons and she had
carefully arranged them in the or
derby neatness you can't help feeling
is characteristic of her. Probably no
two of them are alike, although she re-
fuses to admit this is absolutely true;
at any rate there are no Implications
to the best of her knowledge.
Pitchers Are Her Pride.
More dear to her heart, though, is
Mrs. Brownies collection of pitchers.
She has more than 1000 of them, and
they are a dominating influence in the
Browne home. The house is large
and 'hOmey" one, friendly landmark
atop a green hill. Its suffered win
dows have stills about IS inches deep;
it is on these, and hanging from the
sides of the window inches, that her
pitchers rest, rs to a window. They
are grouped according to colors; one
window will have all amber pitchers,
another all blue and so on. The left
overs find their places on an Empire"
sideboard that is dated 1907.
when the sun shines through our
windows, the whole house is softly
bathed in a myriad of bright and
happy colOrs," Mrs. Browne says.
Can't you just imagine the charm of
this fine old home with its quaint rock
gardens outside and its pitchers full
of happy hours and sentiment in the
windows?
S. Ettinger of Chicago. He has thou
sands, but the Quaintest of all are
those in his "charm string" The
charm string was a necklace of but
tons worn by bellies of the eos, '7O's
and SOS. Its charm was touch
button" The sweet young thing of
that period would invite friends to
handle her necklace. If their fingers
fell on a certain predetermined button
she would giggle prettily and say,
"You have touched my touch-buttOn.
Now you must give me one to replace
It'll" pretty custom no doubt, but
tough on us bachelors who have to
sew on our own.
Mr. Ettinger's pride and Joy Is his
collection of book-ribbons. He is a
book dealer, and in search of these
quaint book-marks of the latter half
of the Nineteenth century. he has ex-
amined 100000 books. ITO tell you
the truth the figure is nearer 5,00O.-
O00," he says, but / would hardly
expect you to believe that"
Fun in the ParIor.
He exhibited about 800 ribbons al
though his collection includes thou
sands. 1t seems that every member
of the family had his own book-ribbon
in the old days. Each was inscribed
with some motto, usually expressing
devotion for the person to whom it
was given. BoOkribbOns were much
in favor as gifts, and usually were of
petit point, needlepoint, cross-stitch or
crochet work of the giver. 1t was pos
Sible to convey all kinds of messages
in the most sly and subtle fashion
with the aid of a book-ribbon. For
instance, there was. the one consisting
of an embroidered card with a string
attached to each end. Mr.. Ettinger
explained that SWANS of the eighties