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Show BROKEN CHINA mm U White rtoae Auetloae4 t( Carlo Collectors. I Broken china from the white hons. ! commands a very high price. Unless it is broken it is not supposed to b. I outside of the executive mansion, and ! possession of a perfect piece is prima ! facie evidence of theft by the pos-j pos-j sessor; But when nicked or broken i the china is disposed of by the steward at public auction, in oiuuui, professional and otherwise, buy It up and mend it, and add it to their 'collections 'col-lections or dispose of it again at a profit. There is a white house set for nearly every administration. Whenever When-ever it seems to be necessary congress appropriates $3,000 for a new state dinner din-ner service. The master and mistress of the white housa have designs made I and then the service is made by some such maker as Havelin. When a new . ( service is brought in the one which l has been in use is put in a cabinet and I is kept for show purposes alone. The Lincoln, Grant, Hayes and Cleveland - .'. sets are now thus preserved. Harrt-. son, when president, did not have a set made. The Hayes set Is the handsomest hand-somest and most costly. Mrs. Senator Sena-tor Fairbanks recently bought at an old curio shop a Lincoln, a Grant, and : ; a Hayes plate, and considered herself fortunate to get them at a price which would have bought a small house. Th. last auction held by the Bteward of th. white house was the 20th of last December.' De-cember.' Mrs. Dawes secured a fine Grant plate. There Is never any question ques-tion about the genuineness of thest specimens, as they all bear the special white house mark, which is copyright- ed. There is other' china used at -the executive mansion on ordinary occa-sions occa-sions which has no marks, but it is not ., particularly choice and is not sought after. A Rochester, N. Y., lady re- " cently secured a Lincoln pl'te, and communicated the fact to a local paper pa-per which wrote it up and published a picture of it But their enterprise did not stop here, for they prowled to accuse Mr. McKinley of gross vandalism van-dalism In smashing up the histori crockery of the white house and then peddling it out to second-hand dealers deal-ers As a matter of fact the president had nothing to do with-it It is all .., In the hands of the steward, and he has to account for every plate, saucer or butter dish. If he has not the original orig-inal he must have the pieees or the pilce brought at public sale.-Cincin-n&U Enquirer. |