The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-15
A PRETTY BUG CATCHER. I"
SHE Is MISS MARY YEOMANS OF
CALIFORNIA.

Owns n Ranch Worth $4O.OOO To-
day. the Result of Her Able Work
in Catching Butterflies and Bee
tIes-She Has sold some of Her
Specimens for as Much as Twenty
Five Dollars Apiece, and Carries
ON Lively Business, Supplying
Big Collectors in This Country and
EurOpe-She Has Learned TO Make
What Is Called a Series, All Stages
of the Insect From the Egg to the
Creature.
San Francisco, Oct. 10.-Nothing sue
ceeds like success. and success has drop
ped her blossoms into the lap of Mary
Yeomans, so that every one calls her
clever woman. When she first began TO
catch butterflies her neighbors, who
CHANGED to know OF it, called her bug
catcher and many a tale they told at
her expense to shorten the long trails
over the mountain.
But when they found there was money
to be had for the butterflies and saw her
increasing her stock and buying more
land, the farmer folk wished they knew
which of the butterflies were the rare
ones.
Mary Yeomans knew, and because she
knew she owns to-day a ranch worth $4O,-
COO. An English girl she had collected
butterflies for pleasure at home, and knew
how rare and how valuable some of the
species were.
She knew that In Europe rich men and
women collected butterflies. and would
journey half around the world to find a
missing species She knew, too, that they
were glad to pay well for what they want
ed. Besides the private people and mu-
seums. the academies of science and col
/ leges all wanting collections.
/ She had visited great establishments in
4 London and Paris, where the so.e stock
| in trade was thousands and thousands OF
! butterflies and beetles and insects.
! With her two brothers she came to live
/ in the wilds of Northern California twenty
years ago, three gentfepeople who must
/ for the first time take thought of ,what
they should eat and wherewithal they
/ should be clothed.
Like most English colonists, they came
! out TO farm, and how well they have sue
! ceeded their wen-fenced miles of sheep
I lands show Their sheep and their wool
u
/ their brains in their farming
They took up a great tract of land, and
| whom they went out to open up woods and
build fences over it, Mary was afraid
10 stay at home alone and went with her
brothers, camping sometimes for days. In
her new home she had forgotten butter
flies till one hot afternoon, as she lay on
the mountain side under a great messy
/ tanbark oak listening to the distant
strokes of an ak, a flock of great yellow
pansy-like wings lowered moment over
| her and then flew up the mountainside to
| a patch of yellow honeysuckle.
All alert in a moment, she followed the
butterflies up the steep mountain side.
She thought she recognized them as a
| species known only in the higher Alps,
/ and very rare and valuable
! when at last l did get one in my
1 hands l was sure it was the very kind. l
was too excited TO wait till morning. which
is the best time to catch butterflies, be-
cause they are sluggish then in the cold
damp foliage.s-I caught six before night
| and the rest of the flock in the morning
4 / pinned one out carefully and sketched il
in water color. had to be saving of my
| postage. so 1 sent the sketch instead OF
| a box of butterflies home to England.
/ such a long wait as 1t was, and fancy
4 my delight when / had word at last ia
send all the butterflies to London. You
would never guess what they offered me
for them, $25 each, and as there were
\ twenty-three of them, l haGsshe tidy little
sum Of 800 an my own, and the first
money ever earned in my life.
THAT was my beginning, and 1 was al
ways on the lookout for butterflies. With
my money I bought ten fancy sheep"
Miss Yeomans' cellar is not for eata-
bles. but is her nursery for beetles.
What appears to be unsplit stove wood
lies in rows on the floor Each piete has
been split but tied together again, and
in each piece are different species of bee.
ties They eat the wood, making their
way out and lay their eggs in the wood
II keep watch, and when a beetle gets
to the surface l put 1t back. The most
valuable one? 1t all depends upon the
demand. A beetle is worth just what
can get for 1t. DIR. lie Fontain. who came
out from France TO study the insects OF
California. came to our house by chance
He did not tell us who he was, merely
that he was a stranger passing through
the country, but when I CHANGED to see
him before dawn creeping with candle
IN his hand under the pine trees knew
he must be after insects. He was in rap.
lures over a beauty he had found, anc
when told him about my butterflies anC
showed him what had, he forgot all his
English and rhapsodized in French. He
taught me a great deal about beetles and
told me of a certain one he was most Gag
er TO find in California. He believed Il
was here, though he could not find it. I
has been found only in Italy, and had al
most disappeared. All! You had better
not look at ID: YOU viii be disappointed
She poked about in box Of twigs and