The suburban citizen., 1901-03-30
HATCHING BUTTERFLIES
THE WONDERFULLY CONCEIVED OUT.
FIT OF A NEW JERSEY MAN.

AAohboh Auu 10 Trying 70 AHhuEWEatS
a Social Fad-secrets of His Unique
Butterfly Hatchery.
E. Billy Markalon of the Lawrence
road, Trenton, N. j., has gone into the
business of artifclally Matching but
terflies. His butterfly hatchery is a
wonderfully conceived outfit, yet sim
pie enough in it's arrangement, while
visit to his Caterpillar palace" is cal
culated to give any everyday citizen
the "creeps."
Mr., Markalon is peculiar both in
mind and body and possessed Of weird
ideas of life beyond the grave. He is.
nevertheless, progressive naturalist,
an entomOlogist with notions and a
mechanical genius. He has money to
spare. is of good family, has social rec
ognition and original ideas of beauty,
duty and pleasure. His only love, he
says, is the butterhy-insect and hui
man. Its brief life, transformation, its
beauty, its habits and CONSTITUTIONAL
delicacy are to Mr.. Markalon of great
er interest than ancient or modern his
tory or athletics. In fact, the insect
butterfly is Markalon's religion. The
mans past and present mode of life
would fill a volume, but his strange
passion for and interesting method of
artifcially Matching butterflies in all
seasons of the year. and his endeavor
to inaugurate a new social fad, is the
feature of his present doings.
Mr.. MarkalOn was christened Ellery
Billy Markalon, but he liking plain
''Billy" the better, he has long been
known by that name, and at his pretty
bachelors residence on the hillside on
the Lawrence road, just a few miles
from the city line even his servants
address him thus famliarly
While deriving much pleasure out of
his butterfly hatchery, Mr. Markalon
has determined to utilize his social po-
sltion to turn his pleasure into profit
If his scheme becomes a fad with his
social set. his profits promise to be
enormous, and the hair, breast, neck
and arms Of the future debutante Of
New Jerseys aristOcracy, beside gilt
terlng with the bloom of rosy youth
and bubbling with natural enthusiasm
and mirth, will glisten with the fiut-
tering, beautiful irldescence of the
wings Of that species Of the butterfly
whose ancestors lowered about the
banks Of the Great Runjeet in the Six
kin Himalaya. In fact, e. Billy Marka
lon, owner and manager of the Marka-
Ion Butterfly Hatchery, social leader
and faddist, has decreed that a mere
inanimate jeweled necklace and pure
white lily shall never more be regard
ed as the correct decoration for the de-
butante, but, he says, decorations shall
be of life. And so, commingled with
the jet of golden tresses of the be-
wltching, blushing, blossoming maiden
of the future, Mr.. Markalon says, will
instead be seen the many hued wings
of the Topping, fitting, fretting, fet-
tered butterfly, with its twltching,
twisting, wrlggling, elongated body
imprisoned midst the hair where for
ages the lily has had sway on such oc-
casions.
Having decreed what fashion re-
quires Mr.. Markalon proceeded to pre-
pare to supply fashions demands, and
he has succeeded in overcoming ma
ture, as the naturalist and entOmolo-
glst knew it, and he stands ready to
supply on an instant's notice lively,
full grown butterflies artihcially
Matched and capable of capering about
in the midst OF the frostiest reception
room or cOldest winters
Two rooms of Mr.. Markalon's house
are assigned to butterflies in various
stages of life. Another room, having
a glass roof, is set aside wholly for
caterpillars, and a small glass.roOfed
room, probably ten by ten feet and ad-
joining the caterpillar's palace, as Mr..
Markalon calls it, is the butterfly
hatchery proper, And in this room a
curious sight is presented. This room
is on the north side OF the cottage, and
is so situated that the interior has the
benefit Of the sunshine for at least five
hours daily. The floor Of the hatchery !
is covered with a growing stubble of
thistle and grass. At least two feet of |
soil has been dumped upon the cement |
floor Of the room in order that the this |
tie and grass might grow. Around the |
base of the room on the three sides are |
tiny auger holes covered with swing |
ing trap or drop doors, such as are
frequently seen before a furnace. |
From these tiny holes the air supply |
for the hatchery is obtained.
The south side OF the room Is COW
cred by a growth of sassafras vines,
while from the ceiling swing many
wooden and wire hanging baskets con
tanning various vines, whose long
branches make d maze through which
1t is necessary to dodge If the visitor
desires to reach any part Of the hatch
cry.
Following the sashes of the many
windows and coiled snakellke through
out the room is a One-half inch lead
pipe There is probably 400 feet Of
this pipe coiled in and about the small
room or hatchery. This pipe also cir
ces about the ceiling and across the
thistle vines on the earthen floor Of
this second-story room. The steam
heater in the callar of MarkalOns cot