he caviare or roe was really in those days "caviare to the
general" multitude, the _nose_ of the fish was not, it being greatly
coveted by us small boys wherewith to make a ball for "shinny," which for
some occult reason was preferred to any other. Old people of my
acquaintance could remember when seals had been killed at Cape May below
the city, and how on one or two occasions a bewildered whale of no small
dimensions had found its way to Burlington, some miles above.

Now and then there would be found in the bay below the city a tremendous,
square-shaped, hideous, unnatural piscatorial monster, known as a devil-
fish, or briefly devil. It was a legend of my youth that two preachers
or ministers of the Presbyterian faith once went fishing in those waters,
and having cast out a stout line, fastened to the mast, for shark, were
amazed at finding themselves all at once careering through the waves at
terrible speed, being dragged by one of the diabolical "monsters of the
roaring deep" above mentioned. Whereupon a friend, who was in the boat,
burst out laughing. And being asked, "Wherefore this unrestrained
hilarity?" replied, "Is it not enough to make a man laugh to see the
Devil running away with two clergymen?"

There was a very excellent and extensive museum of Matters and Things in
General, founded by an ancient artist named Peale, who was the
head-central charm and delight of all young Philadelphia in those days,
and where, when we had been good all the week, we were allowed to repair
on Saturday afternoons. And here I may say by the way, that
miscellaneous collections of "curiosities," oddities, and relics are far
more attractive to children, and stimulate in them far more interest and
inquisitiveness and desire for general information, than do the best
scientific collections, where everything is ranked and numbered, and
wherein even an Etruscan tiara or a Viking's sword loses much of its
charm when placed simply as a "specimen" in a row of others of the kind.
I am not arguing here in the least against scientific or properly
arranged archaeologic collections, but to declare the truth that for
_children_ museums of the despised curiosities are far more attractive
and infinitely more useful.

I owe so very much myself to the old Peale's Museum; it served to
stimulate to such a remarkable degree my interest in antiquities and my
singular passion for miscellaneous information, and it aided me so much
in my reading