The most interesting historic papers were letters penned by Napoleon, Alexander of Russia, and other foreign potentates, the Webster-Ashburton treaty signed by Queen Victoria, and a shark's tooth sent as a treaty by the king of Samoa. Precious relics were Washington's commission as commander-in-chief of the colonial forces, his sword, his diary, and his
account books and army reports; the sash with which Lafayette bound up his wound at Brandywine; the calumet pipe which Washington smoked when seventeen years old; Benjamin Franklin's cane; the sword of General Jackson; a waistcoat embroidered by Marie Antoinette; wampum made before the discovery of America; camp service of pewter used by Washington throughout the Revolution; Bible brought over by John Alden in the Mayflower; and a piece of torch carried by "Old Put" (General Israel Putnam) into the den of the wolf which he killed.
A section of one of the big trees of California was 20 feet in diameter at the top and 26 feet at the base.
The dreadful sufferings of persons imprisoned for debt in England, which led to the founding of Georgia, were recalled by a warrant for the arrest and imprisonment of one of the unfortunates, issued in 1721.
There also were to be seen a page from the Plymouth records of 1620 and 1621; a land patent of 1628; the royal commission creating the common pleas court of Massachusetts in 1696; a page from the horrible witchcraft trials in Salem in 1692; a door-knocker brought to this country in the Mayflower; and portraits of many historical persons.
In the War Department were shown a six-pounder bronze gun presented by Lafayette to the colonial forces; the four-pounder gun that fired the first shot in the Civil War; the rifled gun that fired the last shot; cannon used in the Mexican War; cast-iron cannon found in the Hudson River; Chinese cannon captured at Corea; cannon captured at Yorktown; boot-legs from which the starving members of the Greely Arctic expedition made soup; relics of Sir John Franklin; a wagon used by General Sherman throughout all his marches; the sacred shirt worn by Sitting Bull at the time of the massacre of Custer and his command on the Little Big Horn.
EXHIBITS OF THE TREASURY AND POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENTS.
In the Treasury Department was represented the United States Mint in operation, besides historic medals, ancient and modern coins, including those of foreign countries, a ten-thousand gold dollar certificate and a silver certificate of the same denomination.
The eyes of the philatelists sparkled at the treasures in the Postoffice Department, which included all the issues of stamps from 1847 to 1893. Some of the single stamps were worth thousands of dollars, and it would have required a fortune to purchase the whole collection, had it been for sale. The methods of carrying the mail were illustrated by a representation of dogs drawing a sled over the snow and a Rocky Mountain stage-coach. It would require volumes to convey an intelligent idea of the display in the Patent Office, Interior Department, Geological Survey, Agricultural Department, and the United States Commission.