Some Notable Buttons

1895

Button collecting would seem to be a childish taste, but there is one collection of this sort which justifies its existence.

Many years ago a lady in Portland began the collection of buttons on a wager. At the end of the year the bet was won by her attaining a string of 999, no two of which were duplicates. From this beginning she continued the collection of such as had historical value. At the present time her button museum contains no less than 20,000 specimens.

Among them is a large button worn by a soldier in the Revolutionary war and a number that saw service in the war of 1812, in the Crimean war and in various sanguinary engagements not only on this continent but in Europe and Asia. One is notable as having been worn by one of Napoleon's guard on the retreat from Moscow, and several figured among the three branches of the Confederate service. Here are seen bas-reliefs of the palmetto of South Carolina and the motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis" of Virginia. — Lewiston Journal.