The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-12-19
FADs OF THE PRESENT.
All Glasses and Ages Busy over
Their Collections.
From the King His Throne to tn.
Urchtn on tho Street All Arc Eagerly
Intent Upon Some Particu-
lar Crazo

Intent Upon Some Partlcu-
lar Crazo.
There probably never was time
when the mania for collecting useless
things afflicted more persons than It
does to-day. All classes and ages are
making collections of some sort. News
boys are collecting cigarette pictures.
ana other people are collecting spoons,
knives and forks. postage stamps,
stones, shells, pipes, coins, autographs
and buttons. The car of all the Rus.
sias. says tho Chicago Herald, divides
his time between hanging nihilists
and collecting postage stamps and the
eggs OF birds Of prey. William of Ger
many, like the kings of Roumania and
Sweden, has passion for collecting
autographs. The remarkable VITALITY
OF Queen Victoria has given her son,
the prince of Wales, ample leisure in
which to make Il fine collection of pipes
! and to smoke them somewhat. The
queen of Italy is gathering in all the
shoes and gloves she can that have Gov.
cred the feet and hands of royal person
ages past and present She is literally
waiting for dead mems shoes She has
in her collection Of superannuated foot
gear the shoes of Marie Antoinette, of
Mary Stuart, the Empress Josephine,
Queen Anne and the Empress Catherine
of Russia. The latter were the present
of her son, the prince of Naples, who
brought them last year from St.
Petersburg. Her collection will not
be complete without pair of shoes
that have been worn by n Chicago girl.
just to show by their dilninutivc pro-
portions to what an extent the young
ladies of the worlds fair city have been
slandered. a New England spinstcr
has made collection of thimblcs used
by famous women. She has Inherit
cd, purchased, begged or received as
gifts over thirty gold. silver, brass or
steel thimbles worn by actresses
artists, phlanthropists, abolitionists,
poets, etc. Another eastern woman
has made n vast collection of teapots
having made journey to Japan and
| China for the purpose of securing rare
| specimens of that article. Some men
are making collections of n more pre-
tcntious nature. Robert Bonner is COL
lccting equincs that can trot mile in
less than 2:1O. while Jay Gould's &C
| quisitivcncss is turned toward securing
all the trunk lines of railroad, and the
Standard Oil Company is gratifying it's
passion for possessing all of the pctro-
leum springs in America.
| Lovers and swccthearts are collect
ing locks of hair. photographs. neck
ties, gloves and other bric-a- brac that
breathe of love and moonlight and is
redolcnt with romance. Girls are col
lccting dolls and boys are collecting
marbles, while misers arc adding to
their just as useless, to them, collec-
tions of shiny gold pieces. Women are
collecting pearls, diamonds and other
precious stones. All the world is maxi
ing collections that death or the
auctioncer's hammer will scatter to the
four winds. When the craze for maxi
ing n collection of any particular kind
strikes person that person 1T once be-
comes slave to its influence. Nothing
but the article sought to be collected
possesses any charm. The rest of the
earth becomes dull and commonplace
and the thoughts by day and dreams by
night all run in one direction This is
n popularity OF human nature, but it is
not new one. The craze for making
collections is as old as the history of
men. Leicestershire clergyman.
when he died in l77G, left behind him
thirty gowns and cassoclSs, One hun
drcd pair of brooches, one hundred
pair of boots, four hundred pair of
shoes, eighty wigs (although he never
hid his own hair with one): eighty
wagons and carts, fifty saddles. thirty
wheelbarrows, fifty dogs, two hundred
and forty razors, and SO many walking
sticks that a toy man paid his ex.
ecutors eight pounds sterling for the
lot. An old man died in an attic in
Paris who left little behind him save "a
heap of corlSs, souvenirs of happy times
he had spent in more prosperous days
1t had been lifelong custom with him
to preserve every cork drawn for the
dclcctation of himself and friends and
inscribc upon it the date of drawing
and the particular occasion upon which
the bottle was opened, so that the cup
board of corls was actually n record
Of his life. The fad OF making collec-
tior,s will go Oh rs long as there is life
4 among men. Even death is busy col.
Letting men into the gravcyards of the
land.
Lord SackyilIe and the Barber.
HlxA