Tuesday Treasures - October 7, 2025

On a recent St. Vincent de Paul's trip I found these.  

Death of St. Joseph lace holy or prayer card from the late 19th to early 20th century.  The publisher was Benziejer & Co. Ltd. in Switzerland, which imported these cards to the U.S.  St. Joseph was (is?) the patron saint of a "happy death," as tradition says he died in the presence of Mary and Jesus.  I don't know which Mary that would be, there are quite a few in the gospels.  Lace holy cards were popular items to put into scrapbooks, and this one has been glued down.

Similar to a holy card is this Catholic missionary outreach print 
from the Association of the Holy Childhood.  The Association was founded in 1842 by Bishop Charles de Forbin-Janson to support French Catholic missionaries in China.  They were reporting widespread abandonment of newborns and infanticide.  The missionaries wanted help with care and baptism of the infants.  While they cared deeply for saving lives, their primary focus was on saving souls, baptizing these infants before they died.  
One could sign up to make regular donations (1¢ a month).

The setting is China, and to me it looks like a priest is baptizing, and angel is "saving" the abandoned drowning baby. 

A First Day of Issue, FDOI, U.S.A. 1989 of Ernest Hemingway. 

It came in a plastic sleeve with this modern postcard showing Hemingway in 1939 in Sun Valley, Idaho.  There was also an Italian greeting card showing him and his son Gregory.

On to my son's St. Vincent de Paul "treasures."  He finds some odd things! 

Wizard of Oz photograph, poorly framed.  You can tell by the paper it is from the time period of the filming. One of the first things I noticed was "Dorothy" wasn't wearing her ruby slippers!  Did you know that in the book she wears "silver shoes"?   The screenwriter came up with the idea of using red ones to take advantage of the big-budget prestige of of three-strip Technicolor.   This isn't so odd... 

However, this is extremely odd!  

While the Cabbage Patch Kids Trial never actually went to trial as it was settled out of court, this may still be some illustration of evidence presented.  Perhaps the judge (that could be a robe) taking a close look at the differences between Cabbage Patch Kids and Martha Nelson Thomas' Doll Babies.  Was it done by a court sketch artist?  The signature is unclear, and even the judge's name is unknown, so no way to compare her (or him, since there is no public record). 

Martha Thomas considered them "real" babies, crafting an adoption certificate for each doll.  Sound familiar?  Thomas hand-crafted her Doll Babies and sold them at crafts fairs.  Xavier Roberts, who went on to Cabbage Patch fame and fortune, bought some of the dolls to upsell at a craft store where he was manager.  Eventually, Thomas asked him to stop, which he did, started making his own, calling them Little People. Eventually he created Cabbage Patch Dolls, and was sued by Martha Thomas, who unfortunately never applied for a copyright. Roberts, while insisting he was only inspired by her dolls, did settle out of court.  The amount is not known, however Thomas called it "very satisfactory."

 Who Invented the Cabbage Patch Kids

Why did my son buy it?  Something about it possibly being a piece of "American litigation history."  He also has an interest in popular culture things like this.  It was professionally framed, so it must be something!  If not something, at least it's strange. It's not hanging on where I see it!

Tomorrow is Mickey's fifth birthday.  I found this new squeaky toy at a yard sale.