Poughkeepsie Journal from Poughkeepsie, New York • Page 1C

Campaign Buttons Were Livelier Once, As Proved by City Resident's Collections y7777tywwy By HELEN MYERS Very toon we'll begin to tee campaign buttons worn on the streets. Whatever those who dream up uch things have designed for this year, the new buttons shan't be more' amazing than some of the insignia used during other presidential election years. Mils Berths A. Green of 152 College avenue has more than 400 campaign butto'ns and other campaign insignia. Some are handsome and: some are fantastic.

The earlier ones are especially fascinating because they reflect mechanical ingenuity as well as political issues and wise cracks. As fir at sheer variety Is concerned, the 1888 campaign wins hinds down. It had everything. No campaign since has approached 1U CAMPAIGN insignia are only part of a much larger collection which the has been gathering (or the last 13 years and has broken down Into smaller collections for various local, itate and National button exhibits. She has collections of paperweight buttons, tiny glass ones with even tinier glass flowers Inside; crackled glass buttons; "Victorian )ewel," buttons with Jeweled centers set In bran, musical buttons, with a muilcal scene on each button; calico button, first made in 1848.

with typical calico patterns on white china, enameled buttons, Chinese enameled buttons, uniform buttom, wooden carved Ivory, carved pcail and tole onet, a mong others. There are two stories sbout the origin of campaign buttons. Miss Green said. According to ene, John Qulncy Adam, admirers used the first, a button three ind one half inches lu di ameter. If they did laSSTWsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ssjag.

mMMttmr jlllia VBI 'BsssMSSsssssHJsPsssssssfeg I ssWWsssl wntittM a. i iBKSsiEiB' siiT sifl tV LsMl f'li BBBBBBBBBBBsBmlsalSBBvPVV llJjJlSJWilTB jPPPPP ffiQfll BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBVwfBBBBBBBfBKaVjHBMMkSsBBI flBBsBBSVHvBBBllf I 'jFHr BBBBlf SSS 1 tUF JSSSSSSSSSSSBSSBSSs1 LLLLlllllllV LLflHsiBiiEd'rBilH i'a' IlJaasaaaaaaaaaaaaaWyaaaMSysl 'r ssssm sssssm iti sm r'yf'jlfffffffffmi JUST A FEW of Mhi BERTHA A. GnEEN'S large collection of campaign badges, She owns about 400 campaign buttons and badges, part of a much larger button collection. A few of honor of the cenTennTaT ofWish Ington'i first Inauguration. The first campaign button, the "true Whig" button of 1834, was also a garment button, a bran one five eighths of an Inch in diameter, with a raised design.

There's some variation In the design of the 1834 buttons, but they always show a Liberty cap on a pole. In the center, and a rim of stars at the edge This Is a button with a shank: back, a garment button Ardent Whigs probably used a line of them on their waistcoats. Miss Green said. The Liberty cap symbolized 4he Whigs' concern about the possible loss of personal liberties, and" their dislike of Andrew Jackson, whom they called "King Andrew CAMPAIGN BL'TTONS were an accepted part of the political picture by the time William Hen rv Harrison ran for the presidency in 1840. Those who opposed no one has him said sneerllngly that he had been able to produce clean cut proof of It It li usually accepted that the "true Whig'' button of 1834 was the first used to help elect a candidate BEFORE MISS GREEN showed her campaign buttons she showed earlier ones on which they are based.

One brass shank button of the 18th century is one and three eighth inches in diameter, trimmed at the e.d,ge..with metal facets Those faceti are I actually the heads of rivets The button was made by cutting a buttons. All are brass, and the disc of mrlal. driving riVets into largest is about three quarters the nvtal, then smoothing the of an Inch in diameter These ends down on the under side I are alvo garment buttons, for use This is a "King George III" as well as campaign purposes, button. Miss Green said. If you.

By the time another presi rrmember your American his drntlal campaign rolled around, torv. )T)u knon that tins was the in 1844. members of at least one king who was on the British party had ribbon badges This throne during the American was the period of the Native been brought up in a log cabin and that he drank hard elder. Instead of contradicting or ignoring those statements. Harrison's admlren immediately accepted the log cabin and the elder barrel as their symbols.

At least 20 campaign buttons were made up with a log cabin, and many of them included the elder barrel. Incidentally, the location of the cider barrel can make several dollars' difference in the value of a single button Miss Green owns four such Sunday New Yorktr Photo the some 100 ribbons she has won it various National and state button shows are at the right and left. The silver cup Is the grand prize of the 1930 New Jersey button show who didn't do very weli in the Civil war" MISS GREEN'S HOBBY certainly leads her Into some fascinating and now forgotten byways of history. During Lincoln's second campaign for the presidency, hli sup porters wore snother little pic ture of him which Is reminiscent of the 611 portraits of the period, trr wlde'and rrrnster gilt frames: This picture Is an early photograph, an oval one, pasted In the center of a fancy brass frame. The top of the frame is attached 7 eatut ct cttei SUNDAY.

OCTOBER 14. 1956 PAGE ONE He's on His Way Poughkeepsie Mission Worker Will Be a Mechanic and Farmer In the, Land of the Mau Mau Bruce V. Kimball of Underhill road. Town of Poughkeepsie, is now on a freighter. bound for Kenya in East Africa.

A few days before he sailed on Oct. 5, he thought he would be at sea five or six weeks, so he should land in Mombasa in mid NoVember. Friends will meet him in Mombasa. He and they will then drive in a jeep and a truck aeross Kenya's famous big game country to Kaimosi across the area which was terrorized by the Mau Mau a couple of years ago. That's near the west border of Kenya, 30 miles from Lake, Victoria, and right smack on the equator, but since it a 5,000 feet up the climate is delightful, fie will remain in Kaimosi two years.

It sounds exciting, but Bruce Kimball Isn't going for the exr cltement. He's going to try to help the natives. During his two years in Kaimosi he will work ox. 4he JlriendsAf ricamJsslon. ties going officially as a mechanic and maintenance man, but he will also work on the' mission's farm when he has time from his other duties.

BRUCE WAS GRADUATED from the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell uni versity last June. He did a great deal of work at Cornell In agricultural engineering and agricul tural economics: so he certainly should be helpful. The mission, which Is 50 years old, has 1.100 acres and a staff of 36 Americans. Germans and to a 11 tie American Bag, with ha8. rufe 8ald pin at the top.

I Then there's the ribbon badge of the "Lincoln League of Poughkeepsie This Is a wide blue ribbon, with a narrow red and white band on either side. The wide gold edged white pin at the top has the word "Member" In big letters There's a gold fringe at the bottom, and a picture of Lincoln on celluloid in the center of the ribbon. Miss Green has been unable to find any information about the Lincoln league, but she does know that this badge was not used during one of Lincoln's campaigns That's because of what the researchers call "Internal evidence Celluloid wasn't Invented until 1869 SHE THINKS THAT the badges was probably used during a later Republican campaign, to emphasize the party's adherence to a 108 bed hospital which serves 3.200 In patients each year, and 10,000 out patients. The mission also has an extensive school system. Rome 30.000 children attend its grade schools, which are scattered from 200 to 250 lies north This "school district" Is at least 60 miles wide A far smaller number of natives attend the mission's high schools "They prefer to he called Afri cans instead of natives." he laid.

"Before World War II the people considered themselves part of a tribe. Since then they have acquired a feeling of national I'm" olutinn Hire's something you probably nerr knew about him He was called "Farmer George" and "the royal button maker" because he farmed for profit and made Just such buttons ss that one of Miss Green's. King George Ill's wife was Queen Charlotte. Mlsi Green owns another button of the same period, a large one, which has a lithograph picture of the blond Queen with a rose colored ribbon In her hair. The picture Is rimmed with a band of white metal facets, then a band of rhinestones on the outside.

I'fe revolutlonary buttons in this country were more crude. Miss Green showed four ranging from three quarters of an Inch to an Inch and one half In diameter. The largest It copper, the others brass. All are simply metal discs vlth a shank on back. Three have edges decorated with a tool, and the third has engraving in the center.

Such buttons were commonly worn In this country by men In the pre revolutionary she said, and a man often bequeathed his buttons to Ms son or grandson. ALTHOUGH MANY OLD buttons have likenesses of Washington, they were not used to help him become president, Miss Green said. They were used In much later campaigns by a party which wanted to emphasize its real or fancied fidelity to Washington's principles. Or they Were v.orn by his admirers. Just be cause they admire him, not for political reasons.

She showed one such button, a black woolen one about three quarters of an Inch diameter The head of appears In white, woven right Into the cloth. That button was made at the Centennial exposition of 1876, held In Philadelphia In American party, wnicn was rs pecially antagonistic to immigrants and Catholics. Miss Green has one of this party's badges, a pale blue ribbon three Inches wide and seven long, with a long pin under the top. Such badges weren't worn on the street. Miss Green said.

They were for use at political meetings. "AMERICAN REPUBLICAN" Is printed near the top of this badge, and under It the date, November, 1844. A black and white printed picture of Washington Is In the center, framed In an elaborate band similar to the printing on a dollar bill. Under the picture are these words from Washington's Farewell Address: "History and experience prove that foreign Influence Ij one of the most baneful foes of a republican government." It's Just possible that Miss Green's Washington pin dates from the same campaign, but there's no printing on it to prove that guess. Or It niay have been worn by an admirer at any time In that period, not just during a political campaign.

This pin is a large one of white metal with a Currier and Ives copy of Stuart's familiar portrait of Washington In the center. It clearly shows the Influence of such byttons as the one with Queen Charlotte's litho. Incidentally, although the Washington Item Is definitely a pin. It Is a "button" to a button collector, Miss Green said. JUST HOW DID SHE get Into button collecting? Miss Green was born In Amenta and taught for many years, first In.Attlebury.

between Stlssing and Pine Plains, then in Amagansett, and finally. SOME OF THE campalKn pins and buttons which enlivened the IBH8 presidential campaign The purple and gold pansles. carrying the candidates' pictures, and the "presidential are especially remarkable. Sunday sw Yorker pimho lor many years, in two Ilrooklyn 'society in 1943. and the Mid junior high schools.

After she Hudson llutlon club a few weeks retired in 1041. she moved to later. The local club started with Poughkeepsie to be near Mends' 32 chatter members who prompt and relatives. ly elected her vice president. A short time later, when Miss Her buttons have won a size Green was driving through Ver mont.

she saw a man selling old buttons from a truck, buttons by the handful, by the cupful, by the button. That was it She promptly became a button col lectoo "I decided that I would buy a few here and there, but that I'd never buy more than $10's worth," Miss Green remembers with a grin. The next question was inevitable: where does she find such fascinating buttons as she now owns? 'She buys them wherever she can find them. Green said, often in antique shops, from friends, from dealers. About 1880 "friendship" and "memory" chains were a fad.

People swapped buttons Just as they wrote irt one another's autograph albums. A button which you received from a friend was to be a reminder of her. After you had made several swaps, you threaded your buttons together. Then you had a friendship chain. A collector who find a friendship chain with, say, 400 buttons, is In luck, for the buttons on such a chain arc usually good.

BUTTON PRICES CAN be steep, $12, $15, $25 for a single button. If It's especially Interesting and rare. In general, the price of a good, old button" is much the sanie as that of any antique. It depends on quality, workmanship, rarity, and how much you want It. Miss Green began collecting only a few years after the National Hutton society was organ lied, In 1937.

She helped organ Ite the New York State Hutton BSH tKr yjfir DsV I vIAIaJ SJSr SSII Vf BShJI UB I a ff Hfl Lryjffl IssssmD 'SB9 sSJW'smlBMBi ATL, IWlTiiffffla 1 'ssssssssssssssswAk" yl: fW'j 't yBh1B A AoVRt waWawJHKiW Wm I ssssswJ. sssBssWMr 'W, I EARLY CENTURY campaign rUerUU fclcture, harTglnf from, the rtbbon ibadgeon the ofy the largest ever made to wear In, a campalrth, "ALTON PARKER; hOostcdiln Hhe rihtjoit pri.Uus rlghtswas an Esppus resident. iX ty able boxful cf ribbons, most of them blue, for her at various National and state buttons shows. Just how many ribbons are in that box she doesn't she said. She never counted them, but her guess would be about 100.

She won 17 ribbons this year at the New Jersey state show. The ribbons entitled her to the grand prise, a silver cup. Miss Green has done a great deal of research, as anyone must who wants to collect buttons which will win such ribbons. She has done more research for the monthly articles she writes for the magarinc "Just Buttons. She was quite amused recently when she read an article on campaign, buttons which told of the "two" campaign medals which were an innovation In 1860, the year Lincoln was nrsi elected president.

Actually, there were four parties that year, and each had a medal. Miss Green owns one of each. This was four years after the Republican party was organized, and the feeling which led to the Civil war was coming to a boll, so there was a northern Republican party and a southern Hepubllcan party. There was also a northern Democratic party and a southern Democratic party. That's what we would call them now, but they used different names at the 'time.

THE MEDALS of the four parties are so alike that it must have been impossible to identify them across a room, even from opposite sides of the same dinner. table. Each is brass, about one inch In diameter, with a ferrotype or tintype picture of the presidential candidate on one side and a similar picture of the vice presidential candidate on the other. Each medal was hung op a cord through a hole in the top. The four sets of candidates were Lincoln and Hamlin; Douglas and II.

V. Johnson; Breckinridge and Lane; and Bell and Everett. Four years later, Lincoln's supporters a campaign button which looked, at first glance, to be identical to the 1860 medal. Actually It was a pin with Lincoln's picture tin the front, and the pin, but no picture, on the back. Another branch of the Republican party had presidential and vice presidential candidates, too, Fremont and Cochrane.

This branch had medals made up with Fremont's picture on one side and Cocbrane's on the other. Hlowevefi these were never used, for 'Fremont ana Cochrane. were, persuaded to withdraw; "Cochrane; wrote at eowteoyu lettrtr to, Lincoln, savin's! that' he iVo'ufd support Miss rBlP "liVmnnAtolthf ritual WI id gracious; ife was a general1 THERE IS ALSO a teacher training center at lmost, a f.irm which supplies the food for the hospital, and demonstration farm, to demonstrate sound agrl t.lnrnln' illst thelCUltliral practices to the AfN picture of Washington mav have cans. That is run In cooperation her used hv the Native ArhcH with the teacher training school cans In 1B44 The mission also has an experi She has four other ferrotype mental farm, buttons, all genuine tmttows, "The experimental farm Is try made to be sewed on a garment Ini to find ways. In which the! These carry pictures of a man Africans can support thcmetvev named llosencranr, Horatio Sey jou their limited acreage." who, incidentally is not a nuiur.

Democratic candidate fnrtald. "The standard farm for a relative of HlUCe's. heads the 'PVavaPHsH WI STStP fBSswTv' 'SSSSBSSBBBBBBBsl 'jjrflA jiH aSaStSjflBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBs A JiifiBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBBSa HsfHH JsssbbbsbsHH SBSV aBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSBBBsi Sunday Ntw Yorktr Pilot RRUCE KIMBALL checks some facts and figures about the Friends' Africa mission In The American Friend." He will spend the next two years working for the mission, which Is near the western border ol Kenya. East Mrlca. the presidency who was defeated fjmily has seven to nine acres tf fc bv Grant; Schuyler Colfax, vice president during Grant's first term, and Henjamln Harrison, who was elected president in 1888.

"Rosencranz was a Swedish officer during the Civil war." Miss Green said. "He was aide decampdecamp to General McClellan. I don't know that he ever ran for office. There was a fad at that time to wear buttons with ferrotype pictures of people you admired. There were Jenny Llnd buttons.

"Schuyler Colfax was called 'Smiley' Colfax by those who didn't like him. Apparently Grant didn't. Colfax wasn't asked to run a second time with Grant." Campaign insignia seems to have hit an all time high during the 1888 battle between Benja min Harrison and Grover Cleveland. Each party had a stud with a small picture of its candidate on the celluloid front. Other studs carried larger pictures, photographs In this case.

THEN THERE WERE the glass studs and the woven ones, also used by each party. The glass studs were similar to cameos, with the candidate's head used instead of that of a mythical god or goddess. The woven studs in red. white and blue, had the presidential and vice presidential candidates' Initials entwined, such and for Cleveland and Thurman. That year there were also small metal shields, painted with the national colors, and topped with the candidates' pictures, Both parties used these shields.

Each party also used purple 'and gilt metal flowers, with a picture of Its two major candidates on the two lower petals. Both Democrats and Republicans! Wore' two inch "presidential chairs" that year, too. These were metal pins, with the question: "Who Shall Occupy it?" on the chair backs. When you pressed lever you had the answer. The scat flew and there was your Chosen candidate, seated in the The badges that campaign are Just as remarkable.

They varied in length from fWe to nine Inches, and gold iringe made one nine Inch badge even' longer. Several of the badges were provided by clubs, such, as the "Iron Workers Democratic Association of Poughkeepsie" arid the "New York Cotton Exchange Harrison and Morton club." That last one had a miniature bale of cotton at the top, held In position by a small American flag. Desecration of the flag Is a modern concept. Thei candidates' pictures were often printed on these badges. For example, pictures of Cleve land and rThurman In silver rcJ on one ned satin one.

Crossed brooms at the back refer to the Democrats' for "a clean sweep. REPUBLICAN BADGES of ten carries the 'ippecahoej to oi itnineciux, me xirwjldate. The reminder Uuttfltpi and Vl 'tVOTOOO I ulc nrlHpnt liloganywaVa a' least, its supposed to have One area near Kaimosi has 1.400 people per acre, and that not a city. The African have to set as much of a living from the land as possible." The general farm grown cof fee, corn or maize, vegetables ar.d some fruits, he said. This year dairy attle is being Introduced, a cross between Holstelns and African grade cattle, nruce continued: I'm going principally, to re pair autos, trucks, tractors and electrical machinery connecieo with the school and hospital.

The mission generates Its own electricity. It has a water power gen erator. If I have any time left over, III assist on tne larm. "I'm not going for the excite ment, but because or my mission interest. I've been Interested In helping backward countries ever since grade school.

Recently I became Interested In missions. That doesn't necessarily mean that I will spend my life In that work. I thought I'd try it for a While and see If I still feel the same." THERE'S ONE THING which will make his adjustment In Kai mosi easier. He wont be entirely among strangers. Rodney Morris, who Is now In charge of the mission farm.roomed with nruce two years at Cornell.

Rodney Morris was graduated In January of 1955, married the next month, and went out witn nis bride hat 'une. Bruce also Knows Air. ann Mrs Herbert Kimball, has known the for several years. Mr. Klm jamin Harrison w'as a grandson or President William Henry Harrison, he of the log cabin and cider barrel.

"Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too," had been the slogan of that earlier campaign. One of the "Viost Interesting badges has a black and white lithophanc of Harrison we would call it a transparency framed in gold and hung on a chain from an eagle over white satin ribbon. If the Democrats had anything as handsome as that. Miss Green hasn't uncovered It. There were plenty, of badges and buttons after that campaign, an'd Miss Green has dozens of them.

They aren't as Interesting because they use the same materials, the same basic Ideas. Mass production enters the picture, too. In 1892 Mark Hanna ordered McKlnley buttons, Miss Green said. Buttons and badges turned but by the million simply haven't the appeal of the rarer log cabin buttons" which may have a elder barrel, here or there, or 'a pin with an early photograph, or a badge with a rare llthophane. 'The baSdgei.

Incidentally, sium Ded bit sharnly 'aften lff92. Vcrv rw wera made irfter that. eepf Inaugural badge. Mlsi Creeh 4 collection iinctudsj most redent. those madeior tne kiniuguraupns ojex rresuicui TTimart arid president' i Bible Institute which is part of the teachers' training school i There have been missionaries in Bruce's family In the.

l30s the Hev and Mrs Ralph Cole of New IlampsrVe were Baptist missionaries in the Belgian Con go. Mrs. Cole Is a tirst cousin or Bruce's father, Bernard A. Kim ball. And about a century ago, Mr.

and Mrs. Eli Jones of Maine worked as friends missionaries In Palestine They were nruce's great, great great uncle and aunt i his mothers side. THE POUGHKEEPSIE FRIENDS meeting is paying Bruce's expenses and the stand Dorothy Dix Letter Box In most happy marriages, the relationship between wives and their husbands' mothers Is a warm, close and friendly one. It's always the odd or unusual that attracts attention, hence the publicity that attends the occasional unpleasant relationship. The domineering mother in law, the unco operative daughter in law are the exceptions to the Every bride knows that In order to haw a happy husband, a peaceful home, she must estab ard Mission board salary.

$1,100 "sn a good reiatlonsnip wan ner a year for (he two years that he I mother in law. Occasionally a wiil be at Kaimosi. He will havcj.voung, inexperienced wife is unto pay for his own food, but not 'aware of this. She may evvn take for a room the attitude, "I'll put her In her "I was going to work for Vie place; after all. Bill is mine To Board of Missions." he said 'I her sorrow, she learns that high thought it was all set In March, handed tactics boomerang.

In April the board wrote that it didn't have the funds to hire me LIKEWISE, EVERY MOTHER The board also wrote to the meet knoWs that, to maintain harmony. ing, although I didn know It atlsnC' must' be prepared to accept the time, and said that if the her dauKhter in law. In the meeting would send mc. the majority of cases she wants to. board would be glad to have me i accept the girl as much as the Tknn a msallnn frtsLr AViir It will take him quite a while to learn the language after lie" arrives In Kaimosi, Bruce said.

Ills two years there will be a trial period for him and for the board After the first two years, the board likes to have a worker come bsck to the United States and study, then go out for four more years "I'M NOT SURE that I will spend my life in mission work." Bruce, said. "My lire is quite Indefinite beyond these next two years. The mission likes to have you stay eight or 10 years, but it does 'like some turnover "If the first two years work out satisfactorily for both tne forcet that. In their bliss, they mission and me, I'll go bark for niav neglect parents. Parents another four, not as a mechanic, should bo understanding enough as a missionary.

worker to remember their own not certain what I want moon days and smile, I Instead of to do eventually," he concluded, frowning, oh the young pair, "except that It will be In agri 1 Above all. the in law ac culture. Just what kind of)Cepts her son'sbride as a daugh younger woman wants to be ac cepted. What, then; must each woman do to further an amicable alliance? The mother ln Iaw must never, but never, show' jealous or possessive feelings. She must remember she Is a poised, matujyj, wmnanand not exhibit pettiness.

She doesn't expect her daughter in law to be a finished housekeeper though here, she may be surprised. Today's young 'women may be invxperlenced bUt they are remarkably quick to catch on. She withholds criticism and advice uhless asked for it. She doesn't get hurt feelings ove.r every imagined slight. Newly wvds are self' sufllcient and' agriculture I'm not sure' Adding Machines, Old and New, Help Retarded Children LAPEER, MICH Numberi are helping retarded children 'find their, place In society.

done with the help of the abacus, ancient Oriental counting device, and the modern day adding machine. Some 278 children at the Lapeer State Home and Training school use the aba cur Tind adding machine 4b prlrhkry arithmetic classes. 'Omelali say the' program teaches "retarded yourjgsters bow to'UaVe of themselves th'fclt ftnanc sp that they can step 'Into so ter. THE DAUGHTER IN LAW who is anxious to make success of the new relationship should accept one fact In time, the son she hopes to have win marry, leave her. and give another worn an first place In his life.

'As pur young, bride hopes to be treated then by her daughter in law, so she must act now. It's difficult, of course, to think so far ahead, but time has a habltr of flying, and the day will come. The wise wife doesnl a mother soDttle of ever 20 years to an abrupt end. She. band Is a fine, man because mother rearedhlfh, to be' '0nejtv grie ai.oreauzes inai a gooa son rnakes a iood husband.

Id Wtnttroblemst VnoiWSt eard inen 'V i A.