ONLY HUMAN 1972 By SIDNEY FIELDS Once, Jack Gasnick relieved the day's si pressures by creating such original jingles that he was known as the Limerick LaureJUNE cise ate. and Now rare he finds treasures relief, to boot, and as gets a back- exeryard archeologist. AVISENGE/ 60 the 992 ness came flowed Gasnick Jack years shrubs up Second rings, into and with ago. a to the Hardware his Ave., get bits One it tremendous backyard of and day brother, founded cleared a leather and by Plumbing leak Walter, up. horseshoe Jack their bridles, He from had Supply run dug with father to the metal the a shop around, remove cellar cross some busy har- at bar, which he guessed was used on draft horses pulling big beer wagons, and hinged hand tongs, 'SMEN now said "I got Jack, decorating very 54, his gentle, curious own about fireplace. handsome, local with a backyards," store Backyard Archeologist Jack Gasnick-From hinges to sausage stuffers keys, and old coins. In the yard of a 150 year old house on E. 53rd, he harvested enough old bottles to make a rare collection: patent medicines, whiskey, kitchen cordials, and a squarish seltzer bottle. "It was once a rooming house for musicians and singers," Jack said. In what was once a sausage factory between E. 45th and 46th Sts. Jack uncovered 12 agateware mugs marked U.S. Navy and dated 1870. He gave them to a neighbor who runs a seafood restaurant. His biggest find five granite slabs taken from the site of the U.N. by a considerate builder who brought them to Jack's basement. When he found a sack full of Flit cans, Humble Oil added them to their "Americana" collection. When a house is being remodelled or one of Jack's construction firm customers, Fuller, Mitchell, Turner, Tishman, Uris, Kranichfeld, start excavating they tell him when they'll start and the next weekend Jack is off on a foray into history with his nephew Cary Cohn, 20. Cary has worked every summer in the shop since he was 14 and is now an anthropology major in State University at New Paltz. Jack's daughters are too busy to dig. Debbie, 21, is just married. Ellen, 24, is about to get her Master's in art therapy. Jack and Cary make up to eight excursions every summer, from E. 10th St., to the 70s, and as far as Staten Island, where they've unearthed rusty pitchforks, wheels, cogs and World War I medals with rotted ribbons. So much for the paths of glory. Cary, who seems to worship his uncle, whispered, "Jack bought about 28 little lots all around the city, some on Staten Island, so we can dig. "For a better reason," Jack said. "So I can have a tree on them and see leaves and, if I'm lucky, watch a squirrel running around." of nervous energy. "A neighbor, Charles Speiss, Jr., whose family lived around here for over 100 DAILY were where years, old had artisans maps stables, of had old the their area, breweries, shops. showing I sheds, where xeroxed kitchens, there the maps and began digging and learning.' When Jack was jingling he won 250 out of 270 contests. His best known rhymes included: "Cross at the green, not in between Pause at the red, in safety you will tread Careful glances cut accident chances." He created the word "underlie" for flat females and rhymed, "Beautify with underlie. Falsify with underlie," thus adding "falsies" to the language. "The prizes were cash, bonds, candy, TV sets, radios, trips to Nevada and once a big Thanksgiving pudding," said Jack. "But they don't mean as much as digging up history. I've found hand forged tacks, a fine pocket watch, cruets, old tiles, a two cent piece, Indian head pennies, an/ 1886 quarter, jars, Indian arrow heads, fine cut glass, and a sausage stuffer. And just a few doors from the store here I found this.' He held up a brace. "It's 100 years old, used for augers. From our maps I learned that 80 years ago there was a shed there where a man made decorations for churches and chapels. He made hand forged copper and iron nails, rasps and gimlets and gave me my best find. Twelve brass cast cherubs." Right across the street from his shop he dug around a building while it was being remodelled and gathered old knives, a pie cutter and a pitter for pitting cherries, with Oct. 5, 1897 stamped on it. "It was a home for newsboys back in the 1880s," Jack said. "The kitchen was in the backyard." On what was once an old picnic park on Second Ave. between 50th and 51st, he found cuff links,