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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1981)
THE BATTALION TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1981 Page 3 Metzger gun collection offers million dollar history lesson By TERRY DURAN Battalion Staff There is a million dollars worth of history on the third floor of the Memorial Student Center. A 1978 appraisal of the Metzger Memorial Gun Collection came to $554,000, but Dr. Jim Earle, head of the collection’s caretaking com mittee, estimated the 509 guns in the collection could bring double that on the auction block. The collection, on display in the MSC since the building’s opening in fall 1950, was donated to Texas A&M University by for mer dairy magnate Carl Metzger of Dallas upon his death in 1949. An ardent firearms collector since boyhood, Metzger stepped up his already intense collecting activities after building one of the largest dairy operations in the state. An alcove in the Metzger collec tion room also contains a com memorative gun collection don ated by Sam Houston Sanders, Class of ’22. The 200-piece San ders collection is comprised of re latively modem Colt pistols com memorating such things as battles of World Wars I and II, the com pletion of the transcontinental railroad and famous lawmen. Sanders, aformer Aggie football player and later a coach, is cur rently Professor Emeritus of the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis. Earle is quick to emphasize that the value of the Metzger collec tion lies in the history behind the guns, not just in their age. “You’ll never find a gun at a rummage sale,’’ he said. “People in the early days looked at their weapons as one of their perma nent possessions. “Back then, people only had three or four possessions impor tant to them — a watch, a gun, maybe a family Bible. People knew if they had any trouble, they had to handle it themselves. They had to live by the gun. Jailed C.S. man found hanging from cell bars “To find a gun 120 to 150 years old still in good shape is pretty uncommon because they got used that much.’’ Earle said Samuel Colt, one of the world’s most acclaimed firearms manufacturers, would never have been successful were it not for Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers. Earle said Colt went broke after he made his prototype revolver, the Colt Paterson. The Texas Ran gers used Colt Patersons — six of which are on display in the Metz ger collection — in border warfare with Mexican troops and liked them. Walker later sought out a desti tute Colt in New York City and asked him to make revolvers for the Rangers. A thousand Colt Walkers — heavier and more accurate than the Patersons — were shipped to Texas in 1847 for use by the Rangers. With the invention of the Colt Walker, the Rangers had the rug gedness and firepower needed in their operations. Lawrence Sulli van Ross, later president of the A&M College of Texas, used this type weapon during his time as a Ranger before the Civil War. The Metzger collection of Colt Patersons includes Serial No. 1 — the first one produced. Earle said listings of similar weapons by Christie’s, a prominent New York auction house, run from $22,000 to $25,000. Only 1,100 of the Colt Walkers were made. Earle said some of the guns are genuine art objects, as well as ob jects of historic interest. “Some of these guns are defi nitely not something you would want to kill someone with, but rather (they are) an art form,” he said. “The makers did a very good job with what were essentially very crude materials.” Many of the weapons on display in both the Metzger and Sanders collections show finely crafted pearl or ivory inlaid grips, intri cate engraving on barrels and chamber housings. The Metzger collection also in cludes firearms from around the world that date from the 15th through 18th centuries. The old est piece in the collection is a Chinese “hand cannon” about five inches long, dating fi-om the 14th century. teve Suggs (1), a mechanical engineering lajor, and Matt Grubb, a petroleum engi- iering major look at a case of handguns in Staff photo by Becky Swanson the Metzger Gun collection on the third floor of the Memorial Student Center. Suggs and Grubb are both freshmen from Tyler. A College Station man was found hanging from a cell bar win dow in the College Station jail Sunday evening. Larry Artressia, 38, was arrested Sunday at approximately 7:15 p.m. on a charge for public intoxication, said a spokeswoman from the police station, at 611 Texas Ave. At8:15 p.m. the jailenchecking on Artressia found the man hang ing from the bars by his shirt, the spokeswoman said. College Station firemen were summoned to aid Artressia, but Justice of the Peace Mike Cal laghan already had pronounced him dead on the scene. Artressia was an employee at Texas World Speedway, located on Highway 6. est finds more anxiety n father-reared women ( " Young women brought up by eir fathers may be more anxious id impulsive than those raised by ilfi parents or a single mother, ording to Texas A&M Univer- i psychologists, i pe psychlogists’ study tested )th males and females who had jg'ed with "only their father or Tther and others who had lived |hboth parents, but researchers gy Clark and Dr. William S. holes were most interested in fiat effect, if any, father rearing |d on females. Bark said that the study is only ! second done on the effects of ler rearing. [The results show that in the of anxiety, impulsiveness heterosexual interaction, les raised by their fathers — ifecially those who lived with ir fathers as youngsters — dif id from their counterparts pd in two-parent homes or me-mother homes. —■'’fremales raised by their fathers iwed no difference in the areas sex-role orientation, achieve- ent motivation and self-esteem. [The most obvious difference 'Pp in the area of anxiety. V*! The test was aimed at assessing Iralized anxiety. It contained stions such as, “Does it bother toni’ ftobe in large crowds?” Tlii'|Clark said the research has indi- ig{jilted that single-parent children |R „, Slightly more anxious. er( ,(#"We found that females who 1 ^ with their fathers — particu- ly those who lived with them (in life — were more anxious any other group,” Clark said, data indicated a significant Sstical difference. “We think the reason is that when a female loses her mother she loses her same-sex role model and her primary caretaker. A male living with his father would lose only his primary caretaker. Females who had been raised by their fathers when they were youngsters also showed more im pulsiveness (the inability to delay gratification) than the subjects who at an early age had been raised by a single mother. Female subjects who entered a single father home at a later age did not show increased impulsiveness. The test also shows that those brought up by an opposite-sex pa rent tended to develop more se rious relationships as adults. “We knew there was a lot of research on children who lived in single-mother homes, but there is basically no research on children who live with their father, Clark said. “That is a pretty new phe nomenon.” Although the results of the study must be replicated, Clark said some conclusions can be drawn. She based her master’s thesis on the study. “Living with an opposite-sex parent makes a difference,” Clark said. “We can’t say yet what that difference is when the single pa rent is a father. The research is so new.” Research on single-father homes becomes even more impor tant as the courts award increasing numbers of fathers the custody of their children, she said. “Ten percent of the children who live in single-parent homes live with their father, ” Clark said, “and the percentage is increasing rapidly. ” Houston Chronicle Discount Vs PRICE! MORNING DELIVERY For Texas A&M Students, Faculty & Staff YESTERDAYS Sept. 8-Dec. 18 Sept. 8-Dec. 31 $-| -| 50 $ 12 75 “A fine entertainment establishment” . JL JL MyioJLPISr* Next to l.nby’» ^ HOUSE D! JUST CALL 693-2323 or 846-0763 Houston Chronicle We Put A Little Extra In Your Day oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Ready for the end of Summer? 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