Book: Wintersville Citizen

              VOL. 1, NO. 33.                         THURSDAY, JULY      18, 1963- TWELVE PAGES.                         5.00 per year  10
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TRASH


OR


TREASURE?


        By EVE SEITER
  No one knew how long the
box had been laying around in
the old chest of drawers. No
one knew how it came to be
there in the first place. The
Church custodian said it had
been there ever since he had
taken over the care of the
Church; the Minister of Zion
United Church of Christ was
certain that it had no connec-
tion with the Church itself. A
wave of friendly amusement
rippled through the gathering
at the Rummage Sale as Ida
Bowers bought the dirty ol d
box for a quarter!
  The box was coal black and
appeared to be wood. It was an
interesting shape decorated in
bas relief and it was heavy. It
had fascinated Ida Bowers f or
years. This was natural, for Ida
Bowers discerns beauty of form
and material in countless ob-
jects passed by or thrown into
discard by others. Her home is
filled with them.
  A vigorous scrubbing in Spic
  and S p a n brought to light an
  undercoat of gilt! More scrub-
  bing revealed the gleaming
  bronze of the original box!
  Mrs. Bowers loves to polish
brasses and subsequent buffing
represented n o hardship. The
bas relief decoration was elab-
orate, obviously   depicting a
story. The heavy bronze box
now   resembled- a treasure
though members of her family
continued to josh her about
her piece of trash.
   All this took place several
years ago. The charming box
adorned the coffee table of the
Bowers' home in   Glendwell
Rd,, returning pleasure to t h e
owner for her salvage work.
Sometimes she pondered i t s
origin, digging out an encyclo-
pedia, even searching the Bible
for clues to the story.
   A year ago last January Ida
 Bowers had a house guest - a
 treasured friend Mrs. Wayne
 Sinsel, whose lively interest in
 all things lovely matched her
 own. Her friend was convinced
 that the box was a treasure. At
 once she went into action.
 Her infectious enthusiasm en-


veloped the neighborhood and
the gently jeering family! Ida's
husband, Chuck, was persuaded
to photograph the box against
a velvet backdrop. Neighbors
researched, the children even
d u g ,into their World encyclo-
pedias. Letters with attached
photos went out one by one as
the months rolled by to the
Metropolitan Museum   of Art,
the  Smithsonian   I n s t i tute-,


House and    Garden and    the
White House!
  Imagine the excitement as
Mrs. Bowers learned from Olga
Raggio, Ass't. Curator of West-
ern  European   Arts of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
that her "art object appeared
to be in the Italian Renaissance
style, but of XIX      century
workmanship - that the reliefs
used for them   are cast from
XVI century examples." Olga
Raggio went on to say that
though she had checked the
best catalogues of Italian XVI
century  plaquettes s h e had
failed to find the source of
Mrs. Bowers' box; but it did
seem to her to represent myth-
ological subjects-one of which
was quite clear: Orpheus play-
ing on the 1 y r e and charming
the animals.
  Thus a sortie into the realm
of mythology-began. Children,
family and friends discovered
the   fasqinating  myth    of
Orpheus. Brian and Bruce, t h e
Bowers' young sons courteous-
ly produced a book, holding the
pages as this writer took notes
on the story. You may remem-
ber t hat Orpheus was a musi-
cian of Greek mythology. He
played such lovely music on his
lyre that animals, trees and
stones followed him and the
rivers stopped flowing to lis-
ten!
   According  to tradition h e
 was the son of Apollo and
 Muse Calliope. He married
 Eurydice. He Loved her so deep-
 ly that when she died he went
 to the lower world to bring her
 back, Once again he played his
 lyre charming Pluto and Perse-
 phone so much that his request
 was granted with one condi-
 tion -he must not look back at
 Eurydice on his way back up to
 earth. But t Orpheus glanced
 back before he reached the
 light of day and his beloved
 disappeared. Orpheus angered
 the Thracian women by his
 wanting no other woman than
 Eurydice. In a jealous rage. they
 tore h i m to pieces casting his
 head and lyre upon the river
 Hebrus! It's said that his head


and lyre murmured sad music
as they floated down the river.
  The bas relief on the hand-
some box and the unhinged lid
do seem to convey this moving
myth, but, to date, no one has
set the seal of authority upon
this conclusion.
  For a while Ida Bowers was
so frustrated by the mystery
that she put the box away. "It


haunted  me", she   said. The
beauty had crystalized her de-
sire for a change of furnishings
in her homes She discovered her
taste had gradually  changed.
This writer snddenly recalled-
an ant definition of personality


-a person engaged in the per-
petual process of becoming.
  Once again the handsome box
adorns the coffee table. This
writer has revived the atmos-
phere of mystery surrounding
it. Is it trash? Or is it treasure?


per copy