St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-26
ANCIENT FADS.
No Period in the Past Has Been
WithOut Its Craze.

No Period in the Past Has Been
Without Its Craze.
That the collection of books was a
greati fad, says the Chicago Herald,
even in Pope's day, is indicated by
that authors lines;
His study with what authors is it storedl
| In books not authors. curious is my lord;
TO all their dated backs he turns you round
IheSe Aldus printed those Du Suen has
bound.
Lo! some are veIum, and the rest as good;
| For all his lordship knows, but they are
wood.
Ever since man was created his &C
! quiSitiveneSS has caused him to be filled
| with an ambition to possess more than
! his share of some classes of the worlds
| goods. The average man enjoys the
| thought that he possesses something
| that cannot be duplicated; it may be in
! trinsicallY worthless, but if no one else
| has anything just like it he attaches
| great value to it. Heber, the famous
| BibliOmaniac, was one of the sort of col
| lectorS who gathered up things merely
/ for the sake of collecting. He spent his
| fortune and life in collecting books
I which, when he had secured them, lay
untouched and uncared for in the houses
he rented in his owncOuntry and abroad
| to store them in. He had over
117.OOO books In London alone, while
/ no one knew how many houses
full he had abroad. He used to defend
his extravaganza in buying up duplicate
| copies of the same work upon the
| ground that no man could do comfort
| ably without three copies of the same
work-0ne to be kept at his country
house as show copy, one for the serv-
ice of borrowing friends, and one for
his own especial use. And yet, with all
his protested love for his library, the
| great bibliOmaniac quite forgot to say
| word about it in his will.
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 pict-
! ures, and other people are
| collecting spoons, knives and
| forks, postage stamps, stones, shells,
| pipes, coins, autographs and buttons.
The car of all the RuSsias divides his
time between hanging DihilistS and col
lecting postage stamps and eggs of birds
i OF prey. William of Germay, 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 fine
! collection of pipes. and to smoke them
somewhat. The queen of Italy is gath
ering in all the shoes and gloves she
can that have covered the feet and
! present. She is literally waiting for
dead mems shoes. She has in her col
lection of superannuated footgear
! 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. Peters
i burg. Her collection will not be COM
| plete without pair Of shoes that have
been worn by Chicago girl, just to
show by their diminutive proportions to
what an extent the young ladies of the
worlds fair city have been Slandered.
A New England spinster has made
! collection of thimbleS used by ia
nous women. She has inherited,
purchased, begged or received as
| gifts over thirty gold, silver, brass or
/ steel thimbles worn by actresses, ar
! lists, philanthrOpists. abOlitionistS, poets.
! etc. Another Eastern woman has made
| a vast collection of teapOts, having made
a journey to Japan and China tor the
| Pun pOoC VI SOCuIlllS I1IO SpCClllICnS VI
| that article. Some men are making col
! lections of more pretentious nature.
| Robert Bonner is collecting eQuineS that
/ can trOt mile in less than 2:10, while
! Jay Gould'S acQuisitiveneSs is turned
| toward securing all the trunk lines of
| railroad, and the Standard Oil company
is gratifying its passion for possessing
| all of the petroleum springs in America.
Lovers and sweethearts are collecting
locks of hair, photographs, neckties,
! gloves and other bric-a-brac that
! redOlent with romance. Girls are col
! Letting dolls and boys are collecting
marbles, while misers are adding to
| their. just as useless to them, collections
! of shiny gold pieces. Women are col
| lecting pearls, diamonds and other
l precious stones. All the world is max
| ing collections that death or the auc-
| tiOneer'S hammer VIII scatter to the four
| winds. When the craze for making a
collection of any particular kind strikes
, a person that person at 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
| a popularity of human nature, but it is
not new one. The craze for making
collections is as old as the history of
men. A Leicestershire clergyman,
when ne died in ITO. left behind him
thirty gowns and cassocks, 100 pair of
breeches, 100 pair of boots, 400 pair
of shoes, eighty wigs although
he never hid his own hair with
One), eighty wagons and carts,
fifty saddles, thirty wheelbarrows,
| fifty dogs, 240 raZOrS and so MANY
walking sticks that toy man paid his
executors eS for the lot. An old man
died in an attic in Paris who left little
| behind him save heap of corks, souve-
Mrs of happy times he had spent in
more prosperous days. 1t had been
! lifelong custom with him 20 preserve
every cork drawn for the dedication of
! himself and friends, and inscribe upon
it the date of drawing and the particu-
lar occasion upon which the bottle was
| opened. so that the cupboard Of corkS
was actually a record of his life. The
fad of making collections will go oil as
| long as there is life among men. Even