THE WEST SHORE.
105
THE TRADE IN MODERN ANTIQUITIES.
ONE of tlie chief delights of Continental travel, as
every person of experience will admit, is the un
limited opportunities it nffords for buying antiquities.
The statuary, the coins and the pictures that may he pur
iino,1 in Ttalv are a source of never-failing intorest to
ti'"A - i t
English travelers and of never-failing profit to Italian
dealers. ' Andalusia, again, is a huge curiosity shop.
Being once upon a time in Seville we came across a ro
uA Rrit.iah trmoer or tailor, or something of that kind.
IHlOVt Ai""" P '
who had just purchased a "Madonna and Child "-unhappily
unsigned which he had picked up for a few
nnnmk in ft dincrv back street He was going to send it
to the Exhibition of Old Masters, and if he ever did so
nrnbablv found that it was worth only a pound or
Uiirl-.v sliillincrs at the outside. It is the same, indeed,
vj -' o
fiirnnfrhmit Snain. The altar cloths, the broken fans, the
inlaid tables and cabinets, as resplendent aB anything in
tliA Annvent of the Cartufle at Granda, the wonderful
chairs and the still more extraordinary scraps of ancient
limn virion which all who have ever traveled in Spain
have spent much money these abound from Malaga to
Trim nml imtnrnllv one is inclined to speculate a little ou
J-v) -
the odd circumstance that the supply is more abundant
fi.n,, vAr. nltliouffh the demand is fairly brisk. Tangiors
hotbed of modern antiquities, and
ID) " V 0"u -J -
even Mr. Chamberlain bought some of them when he was
r.vor tVmrn 11 vear or so aco. He ought to have known
something about this class of goods, being a Birmingham
man, but the child-like faith of the President of the
uni f TVnrlA in nil thinus ancient is notorious.
,llv enough, has taken to tliis business o
manufacturing the antique Dutch cabinots that, with
lrnn'a mmnln. rlinPV and marked with the cracks of ficti
tious centuries, are turned out every day from Chicago
furniture stores, and for some purposes they aie quite as
useful as if they had indeed bolongod to some departed
burgher in the dead cities of the Zuyder-Zoe. New York
0v,.fa in tliia unrt of forfforv make a specialty of Queen
Anne chairs and tables, and the imitation is so perfect as
f,t ,lnnmvA nil llllt. til OHO who have studied such things
minutely in Europe. The explorer of furniture stores
may come upon magnificent specimens ol JMignsn uihuh,
chamber pieces, or ancient looking Chippendale and
Sheraton chairs, which might have belonged to Queen
Elizabeth but for the fact that they did not It must be
t flrat n liocovor in New York shops stamped
leather chairs of the time of Louis Treize, plentifully
ornamented with brass nails, whose heads are fully an
inoh in diameter, nnd the citizens of that enterprising
city are invited to become the happy possessors of as
many of these treasures as they liko on ridiculously low
terms. If. however, the explorer is inquisitive, and the
f.,ru, n,1ora nrA iii ii tolerably candid mood, the
visitor may le conducted into ome back yard where these
geihs of high art are produced A Queen Anne's chair
Im nnnnliod with worm holes
JUHI( llllllin villi, ll'l liin"'"l
by the simple process of tilting it bottom side up and
firing a eharg of pigeon shot into the Utorn and front
of the seat Old armor, too, is a good lino in this busi
ness, the drawings required for the purpose being made
from the collection in the Grand Opera House, in Tnris.
II is said Unit Birmingham knows something about this
brnnch of the trado, and that helmets, shields, casques,
breast plutos and complete suits of mail are reguiany
manufactured for the gratification of crodulons oil spocu-
lators and retired pill manufacturers, it ft man Biuri
lot of ancostors ho likes to have dummies of them in his
linll rigged in their modiieval ironmongery. If lSirmmg
linm did nut lmitifv him Germany would. It is astonish
ing how many tons of antiquities are annually sold along
the Rhine, and it is even asserted that in Castle Colburg,
where Martin Luther threw his inkstand at the devil -
and, unhappily, missed him - the original splash was cut
up and sold ling ago; but that, as tho timber is massive,
the place is carefully remkod every night lor ino pur
poses of salo next day. Wo cannot say how much truth
or falsoluxxl thoro may bo m this particular story, i nero
might havo been somo excitement in seeing the original
transaction if both tho distinguished parties w u woi
present There can bo noiio m gazing on a paten oi uik.
The trade in modern antiquities, howovor, is a minium
reality, as real as the sale of old clothes or lomnsum.m.
AT WASHINGTON.
on A V TTATTl
i T A lMiMl uriumt. IlllxloUS l(Hk UPlMMirB Oil llitlfl Ollt
A of every ten countenances you meet Why it is I
do not know. Terhaps the life hero has something to do
with it Many of the women-the majority of thorn-are
away from home and family. Many of them have no
homes. For living in a Warding house or hotel is not
living at homo, and it may 1m this lm ol homo m u
shows itself in their faces. Teople here get old before
their time, and notably so those people connect wuu
the Government employ. Damocles, although dying with
hunger, lost his appetite when, witn n im ,...,,.
.... i ...r liiu 1 1 nml. hniiirins l)V
table Iietore mm, n " j"" -
a hair, a sharp, two-edged sword, loung won.,, .,
ladi.'s, dependent on their situations for their bread, can
not live peacefully nor sleep soundly when they know
that the next movement of the Government capr.ee may
turn them from its employ. It in thm uncertainty ol
office tenure which makes young lames i vwu.ujr-m
have the wrinkles of forty, which putM tho anxious lot.k
into their eyes and silvers the black hair twenty year
before its time. There nro more young men and women
in Washington with gray hair than in any c, ,.,
ever visited. This is a fact always noted by observant
strangers. Faces Tresli ana moon.... . t '
locks of silver, and the gray-uairwi v
art tho finest looking of itu population.
A bevutifclly execnte.1 picture of Dnrtholdi'a (jront
stduo of "Lilrty Enlightening the W.rl hns Iwrn
presents to us by the Travelers' Insurance U.npany o
Iartfonl Cnm who havo leen among the buih lljeJ
. .. . i.. Vn...l Tl.n ii ctnro. which is 2lxJ0
inches in size, gives an excellent idea ol the Buperb work
of art which is to H.L,rn the Wbor of w YorK.