Evening star., 1901-05-04
FRANCES MANIA FOR COLLECTING
Funeral Invitations. Birds Eyes and
Suspenders Among Their Fads.

From the New York SUM-
1t is said there are 100000 collectors
in France. That seems like a pretty big
proportion when one remembers that the
population is about half that of the United
States where collectors don't grow on
every bush or even in every neck of the
woods.
But they have mania for collecting In
France. The only line in which the fad isn't
popular is the collecting of families. They
offer prizes to mothers and fathers with
large collections OF children, but even then
tLey can't make them fashionable.
When il comes to buttons or corkS or
some other thing of that sort the French
men are ready to collect till the cows come
home. so to speak. one man has col
lection of corks labeled and classified.
souvenirs of hundreds of dinners. lunch
cons and tatc-a-teteS with his friends.
Here are two other collections worth
mentioning, though they're worth little
else. one is a collection OF 23GU news
paper wrappers which somehow seems
about the most useless thing one could
find TO collect, even If one sat up nights
to think of useless things. The other is a
collection of birds eyes, which might be
useful to a nigSardIy host as an appetizer
for guests to dinner.
4 more interesting and less Qualmsh
collection is one of suspenders of all Pc
riodS and countries. one Partisan has a
lar actresses of the gay city. There are
button collections To burn.
One man has made collection of the
funeral invitations which are always sent
out after a death. These invitations always
mention a long list OF relatives Of the de-
ceased. The ironical collector has written
marginal notes on those of his collection
specifying the relatives who were wilfully
omit ted from the list.
The French poster collectors are innu-
merable. There Is a man who collects old
bills and posters and has q habit of pur-
suing his fad among the shops, especially
at the grocers'. In thrifty France paper
bags are almost unknown. The grocer, the
fruiterer, the huckster use old newspapers
or leaves from old ledgers-anything they
can get hold of. NJ. Dablain, the collector
in question, goes about fussing over these
old papers and occasionally finds real
treasure, in which he promptly puts cents
worth Of something in order to carry it
off without exciting the cupidity of the
shopkecpcr.
There was a DIR. Piogey. who collected
visiting cards, and there are collectors OF
hats, pipes. helmets, military uniforms,
everything.
Apropos of collections, Princess Maud of
England has rather queer one Of tuskS
of elephants and walruses, teeth of alli-
gators. seals. whales and SO on. Bismarck
used to collect thermometers, harmless
sort of fad, but not exactly what one
would expect of the man of blood and
iron. Carmen sylvia has mania for per-
fumery bottles.
The modern teapot collectors, and their
name is legion. were fathered in their fad
by George ". Louis of Bavaria had a
penchant for old flags. Louis XIV multi
piled locks and clocks until even his big
palaces were orerstocked. Meyerbecr's s
brother collected programs and theatcr
bills, and when he died out and out crazy
as many collectors are thought to be by
the outside world, he was wrapped in the Sc
yellow papers as If he were a mummy, and
in death. IS he had been in life, was buried
in his collections.
The records of the transactions at Fer
ney. the country house near Geneva where
Noltaire died, throw some light on the
worth of SOME collections An eDterpris-
ing calculator has figured that since the
early years of the nineteenth century the