Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-01-27
DR.. sTREckER's BUTTERFLIES.
Finest Collection in the Country, Some
Specimens Worth 81, 900 Each.

is said to be the finest in the United
States and one of the finest In the
world. 1t represented the work of SO
correspondence with entomologists in
every cline, and he received packages
from every postal route on the globe.
Central Africa, Greenland, Iceland,
Labrador, Samoa, New Zealand, North
Cape, the mouths of the Lena, Alaska,
the Philippines, Guam, Australia, the
holy land, the Nile country, 1hibet,
India, New Guinea, the Amazon
country. Patagonia, sent DR.. Strecker
butterflies. 1t was a common thing
to see him go home on street car
with a box on his lap. Asked where
it was from he would answer "Zanzi-
bar" Straits of Magellan, "The Heb
rides" Or some other shore.
On week days he always appeared
in the dusty work suit Of his marble
yard He was busy upon statues or
headstones from morning until eve
ming. His breakfast was light; noon
luncheon fairly bountiful, his
o'clock meal frugal, but after toiling
among his butterflies from 7 p. M,
until IL o'clock or perhaps midnight,
he invariably partook of hearty
meal. Then he would retire for the
night.
His butterfly collection is in the top
story of his residence on Mineral
Spring road and the cabinets cover
all the walls from floor to ceiling
There are 225,000 specimens, all
mounted on cards and labelled in
glass-covered drawers. The labor
needed to take care of them and keep
out vermin and other enemies was
great, yet to DR.. Strecker it was a
labor of love. Some time ago ne
wanted the city authorities to change
the castle-like county prison in City
park to museum. Had they done so
he would have presented his butter
fly collection to the city. The project
was never adopted Levi Mengel,
who has collection of $4,000 speci-
mems Of bugs, etc., will take care Of
DR.. Strecker's collection until other
arrangements are made. DR.. Strecker
was well-built, white-whiskered man
of IS and had many strange ways.
He attended the Episcopal services on
Sunday in the forenoon and devoted
part of the afternoon and night to his
flies.
One of the most difficult jobs of
printing ever submitted to an Office
here was an index of the technical
names of every butterfly and moth In
the world, which DR.. Strecker pre-
pared. Some of the printers got head
aches doing the work of spelling out
the almost unpronounceable vocabu-
larry.
Years ago he determined to print
an illustrated book of butterflies. He
engraved the flies ON stone, for he
was quite an artist, sent the plate TO
New York, had 800 copies printed, and
then had the stone returned, when he
engraved a new series of illustrations
on the same stone. Then he returned
it to the printer. In this way the
plate made many trips before the
work was ready to be bound. The
edition consisted of 100 copies and
all were sold.
DR.. Strecker's collection was begun
here shortly after he left Philadelphia,
where he was born He published
several books on the study of his life
He would frequently say: Eyes, it
seems to be folly but I'm in it now
and can't well get out of it. When a
collection is the delight of mans
life his whole heart is in it, and there
you are While l have spent great
deal Of money in collecting my moths
and flies, I am glad to know that I
have neglected nothing.
eve are all comfortable, and when
die some one may come along to
take up the work where I leave Off
and keep on adding to the collection
from the isles of the South Pacific
and other lands that have mot yet
contributed to any collection"
DR.. Strecker's collection contains
some flies valued at $1,000 each.
They are perfect. Some tattered flies
of the same species in other collec-
tons are held at $1,000 each, also.
Some Russian grand dukes were IN
monthly correspondence with him.
His largest butterfly is about II
inches across the wings and came
from Brazil.
His butterfly library consists of
more than 1000 very large volumes in
several languages. He rarely, if
ever, spoke on his favorite subject to
any one not scientist In fact, he
disliked to converse with unlearned
people an any scientific subject, and
it was with great dimculty that he
could be induced to give even the
shortest answers in relation to his
ollection.-Reading (Pa) Letter in
New York Sun.
EaebiOnSc chances