If it is in fact an old chuck of raddium "A"... it may have been there for the reasons above... in the late 1890's folks were just learning about Radium! As radium use in medicine became wide spread through he early 1900s it was more fashionable and used in many goods of the day.
Here is a very interesting article... maybe it was part of a radium perculator?
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 79:1-4 (1998)
© 1998 Oxford University Press
Radium: A Miracle Cure!
M. Genet (INVITED)
In 1896, the general population had little enthusiasm for the recent discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel. There was certainly much less than for X rays which had appeared, 3 months earlier, as a 'magic radiation'. However, polonium and radium, discovered by the Curies in 1898, aroused new interest in 'uranic rays'. The first weighable amounts of radium, prepared at the beginning of this century, were used for medical applications. Immediately, the therapeutic properties of radium rays against cancer were recognised. The use of radium in medicine became so common that every kind of disease was treated by radium therapy: not only breast cancer, but also, diabetes, sciatica, uraemia, rheumatism, and even impotence! As a consequence of this tremendous success, the radium industry grew rapidly during the 1920s and numerous goods, especially cosmetics, doped with radium were on sale. It was even considered that in order to be in good health, one should drink a glass of radioactive water every day, prepared by using a radium percolator. This period lasted for more than 25 years, then, just before World War II radium use was considered dangerous and the number of its applications decreased.
http://rpd.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/79/1-4/1
I would date your radium around 1920 and say it is considered dangerous.
not even for ONE second! 
No sleep equals bad ideas.
