Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-05-23
butterflies.
A Wonderful Collection ofthe Winged
Insects.

There are butterflies that sail grace
fully through. space within the bounda.
ries of New York State that are worth
$40 piece. Think of that, ye home
less tramps. Go catch a dozen, ano
then take them to Berthold Neumoe-
gen, and he will give shekels for them,
for he is desperately enamored OF but
terfly creation, and has given as much
as Sl60 for a single specimen of the
gauZy creatures. Mr.. Neumoegen is
of the New York Stock Ex.
change. In the top story of his house
Is room which contains 100000 but
terflies and 100, 900 pins, for every but
terfly in Mr.. Neumoegen's collection Is
defunct, and is impaled upon pin.
None but those who have seen a
hundred thousand butterflies, each of
them differing from the other in some
particular considered important by
science, can have the faintest concep-
ton of the wonderful beauty of many
of these most delicate creations or ma
ture. Nothing in art can approach
them In delicacy of texture, or Is to be
compared to them in coloring. Some
of the rarer specimens exhibit mar
velous combinations of color and are so
surprisingly beautiful that no descrip-
tion could do them justice. There are
just two collections in the world that
can compare with that owned by MI.
Neumoegen. One is possessed by the
British Museum in London, and the
other is found In a public institution IN
Paris. Mr.. Neumoegen has been col
lecting butterflies for twenty years, and
his hobby has cost him S35, 900 IN
Of
the time he has devoted to the pursuit
or without calculating the daily ex-
pense entailed by the collection and the
reputation it has gained for its posses
sor. Two men are almost constantly
employed in receiving and shipping
specimens, for butterfly collectors are
continually exchanging specimens. Re-
Gently Mr.. Neumoegen shipped to
single collector in Europe, by the
steamship Saale. 10000 butterflies. He
generally keeps in stock about 1OO,OOO
specimens for purposes OF exchange,
and these are exclusive OF his collec.
tion, not one OF which he would dis
pose of unless he felt certain of being
able to replace 1t.
When the King of Belgium sends an
expedition into Africa Broker Neu-
moegeu takes share in the enterprise.
His correspondent in Belgium gives
him an idea of the character of each
member of the expeditIonary force.
This enables him to select the best man
for his purpose, and the selection hav-
ing been made and terms agreed upon,
the butterfly collector patiently awaits
results. His emissary will devote all
his spare time to securing specimens OF
all the butterflies in the country
visited, and will ship them at his con-
venience. Generally the captives are
hacked in triangular bit of paper and
then put into a cigar box or something
like it and sent by mail. Specimens
have been seven months on the road.
and upon their receipt are not always
| in the freshest condition. Now every
butterfly IN Mr.. Neumoegen's collec-
ton is perfect. How is this result at
tanned? In what are mistakenly termed
the good old days the specimens were
placed on wet sand until they were in
a ssrelaxed'' condition. Mr.. Neumoe
gen has invented process which he
| believes to be a vast improvement
over the old style, and the condition OF
his collection proves that his belief /:
well founded. He places newly-re'
| ceiyed specimens in small tin box.
| The latter is provided with cork bot
tom. The cork is dampened and the
temperature and moisture is controlled
| by a pipe that connects the interior oi
| the box with the outside air. In foHI
| weeks the most hardened specimen has
| never failed to respond favorably tC
| this mode of treatment. When the
| specimens have become sufficiently re
| laxed they are placed upon spreading
| boards. These boards are from three
| inches to three feet in width and all OF
| them have a groove in the centre In thls
| groove the bodies fit. The wings and
| feelers are spread upon nat surface
| and five pins are inserted into different
| portions of the insect. Then glass ol
| tin weights are placed upon the specl-
mems, and when these are removed the
| butterflies, with few exceptions, ex'
| hiblt all the beauties of their natura
| state.
The great African explorer, Living
| stone, has furnished Mr. NeumoegeI
| with some of his Tarest butternles
| Others have been furnished by Stanley,
others again by Lieutenant Schwatks
and members of the Greely relief ex
| pedition; in fact, his collection has
| been enriched through the efforts OF
some member of every exploring ex
pedition that has been organized within
the past fifteen years. In his collection
| are butterflies that refused to freeze or
the shores of Lady Franklin's Bay
| within 500 miles of the north pole; thai
| have disported themselves on Green
| lands icy mountains and IndIa's cora
strand. Others lazily flew from flower
| to flower on the banks of Lakes Tan
1
| geous-hued victims were captured neal
| the headwaters of the Amazon. Bor
neo and Labrador, Thibet and Alaska
| China and Siberia, Turkestan and KAN
schatka have furnished their contin'
gent; so have the Himalayas, the
| Rocky Mountains and the Alps.
Some of the butterflies in this army
| of 100, 600 are so small that several OF
| them wouldn't incommode an ordi'
narily sensible optic, while other:
| measure seventeen inches from tip tC
| tip of their wings, and these look big
| enough to waste small shot upon. But
every butterfly, small or big, is labeled,
| and upon each label is marked the
name of the specimen, the family tC
| which it belongs, its sex and the name
| of Its dlscoverer. There are several
| butterflies named In honor of Berthold
Neumoegen, and one of these, the
| Neumoegenia poetica, a night-moth,
which is found in Arizona, he ha:
| fallen in love with. 1t is small, and
its wings are snow-white on the outer
| edge and golden-hued next the body.
| Curiously enough the male butterfly Is
much handsomer, generally, than the
| female. The latter is usually the more
| strongly built. To the uninitiated
some of the female butterflies do not
look as if they belonged to the same
| family as the males of the same family,
| they are so much less attractive in col
| oring. and, in some respects, in form.
| But this difference never leads astray
/ ~. onItaatnr