Guns Galore In Doctor's Study

Interesting Collection Owned by Dr. Hinsdale

JOHN BROWN'S GUN

Most Highly Prized - Other Ancient Guns and Swords Collected from Various Sources

Guns galore! Great guns, small guns, flint-locks, muskets, rifles, pistols, give a war-like atmosphere to Dr. Hinsdale's study. Historical military pieces are strapped everywhere upon the walls bearing part of their history engraved upon their steel nozzles, and the rest the Doctor knows.

One particularly interesting one is a flint-lock gun made in 1825 and used by John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and a weapon made by John Brown for his men when they made a raid there. A picture of John Brown hangs on the opposite wall, with his autograph beneath and no suggestion of a soul that's marching on. It is a photograph from life and was sent by John Brown to the Doctor's father.

A flint-lock musket made in 1808 hangs beside the gun. It has the arms of the United States, was made in Springfield, Mass., and did service in the war of 1812.

There is a flint-lock Tennessee rifle and powder horn and equipment over 100 years old, used by an old mountaineer in Tennessee, of whom Dr. Hinsdale procured it. Beside it hang, pathetically, a series of canteens, a small angular wooden one, used in the Revolution, and others, canvas covered used by the blue and gray.

Two clumsy, crudely made swords were done by hand in Richmond, Va., and a broad, short, blunt one bears the objectionable name of toothpick.

A gold-plated sword, conspicuous for its massive hilt, was worn by an officer of the scotch Guards at the battle of Balkalava, in the Crimean war, where the officer was killed.

There is an 1812 sword, belonging to Colonel Hardt, of Ohio, two short Mexican swords, a pair of carbines over 50 years old, a knife pounded out and flattened by the Indians of Alaska, and a twelve-shooter revolver of the Civil War period, supposed to have belonged to Gen. George B. McClellan.

A gun marker "Tower," signifies the Tower of London, where it was made and was carried by a Confederate soldier in Tennessee, who had it when it came into the Doctor's possession. Also, a pair of brass-barreled dueling pistols with ebony handles, made in the time of George III, which were the property of an old Georgian family.

An ivory-handled Colts revolver shone bright and romantic looking, for it is said to have killed men in the moonshine region of Kentucky and Tennessee. 

There were 40 or 50 other revolvers and pistols of rare type and a dozen or more other interesting antique flint-locks, "None of which," says Dr. Hinsdale, "are modern or good for anything except as curios."