The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-11
OF AUTOGRAPH HUNTERS.
How Their Victims Eiude Thenl-One Re
ply OF Horace Greeley.

How Their Victims Eiude Them-One Re-
ply OF Horace Greeley.
Speaking of autographs" said one
of group Of lubmen the other night,
Il consider that the mania for collect
ing them is a kind of disease, lurking
always in some spots. like cholera in
Asia, and now and again sweeping
over the world like an epidemic, and
the victims who catch it badly are
hardly responsible for their actions
afterward Some great men whose
autographs are much desired by these
collectors are bored beyond belief by
innumerable requests for their sigma
lures attached to note, or a poem, or
to nothing at all. These men get
dozen or so letters of this kind in every
mail. and to comply with them all
would be a severe task. Some famous
people ignore these letters altegethec
when they ask plainly for autograph
and So the indefatiCable collectors re-
sort TO subterfugc to obtain what they
want.
''Ore wev to whee6le an author is TO
say in your note that the writer is com
pleting his library and IS DESTROYS Of
getting an accurate list Of all the
works, great and small, of his favorite
author, the victim. If this fails, and Il
seldom does, the collector assumes an
other name aud asks for an explana-
tien of some ambiguous passage in ore
cf the authors works, asserting thai
the SqueIunk Literary society. or some
other debating club. is ell torn Up by n
hot dispute over the Question. Another
way is TO ask the author how Cd he
was when he wrote that charming
poem 'Evangaline' The victim feels
co,nplimented by she mistake of think
ing that he wrote 'Evangelins' and
generally instructs his supposedly igno-
rant admirer in the desired autograph
letter
''0h, they're full Of tricks, these col
lectors, and though ir other respects
they may be honest psople, they Will
stoop to almost any deceit to carry out
their purpose. That's why say the
mania is disease and its victims are
hardly responsible for what they do"
That's so" said another member Of
the group 81 have friend who is the
private secretary of a social lion and he
tells me that people will write Eost
pitiful letters asking for advice; saying
that they are ON the verge Of bank
ruptcy, or lunacy, or suicide, for want
of knowing just what to do in the
emergency; widows with large fami-
lies, Young men about to start life,
maids hating between love for R scape-
nd Oh - fGs VIII Ia
all the time what they really want is the
signature under the reply. Many an
honest appeal for help is cast into the
waste basket under this suspicion
which might otherwise get an answer.
Another widely known man, much
pestered by these people, composed a
neat reply, telling in polite but firm
language how this sort of thing, if ac-
ceded to, would consume an unreasona-
BILE amount Of his time; and then he
had several hundred copies OF it printed,
signature and all, and whenever wri-
ter is thoughtful enough to send stamp
for reply he gets one of these: II no
stamp is sent he gets nothing at all
One can hardly help replying, however,
to a cordial invitation to come and
spend Christmas at the home of some
unknown admirer, even though you
suspect the trap"
81 saw in the newspapers" added q
third man, "at the time when the duke
of Clarence, son OF the prince of Wales,
died, story, don't know how true 1t
was, that once when the young fellow
was at school and had got into some
boyish scrape which exhausted all the
allowance his father made him, he
wrote to his grandmother, the queen,
for the loan of few pounds. The
thrifty Victerfa wrote him letter of
good advice instead, which the thought
less young prince immediately sold for
q few shillIngs to an autograph collec-
tor. When the facts all came out, the
collector sold it again for as many
pounds as he gave shillngs for it.
Some people have written number
of their signatures and given them to
charities for sale, and to those charities
they refer thee collector who wants
something for nothing. The profess
sicnal collector, however, rather scorns
the signatures Of living celebrities
which may be had for the asking and
considers only those in the market fer
cash worth his while. The inexorabl
law Of supply and demand comes in
here, as it does in the collection Of
coins, and the scarcess are the
dearest George Washington's sig
nature, for instance, is not held at
nearly SO high a figure as those
OF some of the more obscure signers of
the Declaration of Independence, sim
ply because there are more of them;
just as you can buy forty Roman coins
centuries old for the price Of one Amer
lean coin Of certain year, of which
the issue was very small.
Your remark about centuries said
the first speaker, reminds me that
this idea of collecting autographs is of
q respectable antiquity itself. Cicero
had before the Cloths and Vandals
scattered their collections as well as
their cities 20 the winds. Then Is was
revived again in the sixteenth century
and travellers used to carry albums
wits them 10 secure the signatures Of
great men with whom they came in
contact, IN orGcr 10 show their friends
on Their return what good company
they had kept"
In Horace Greeley's ReoollecS;ous
Of 3 Busy Life" said another, nc tells
OF s youth who wrote hiEa a. follows:
Dear Sir: Among your literary
treasures YOU have dou btleSs preserved
several autographs OF our couatry's late
l4mented poet. Edgar 4. Poe. If 50,
and you can spare ore, please inclose it
10 TIA sua receive the thanks of vaure