Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-16
DIR. ABBOTT'S CAREER
He is the Largest Contributor
to the National Museum.
TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES
Millionaire Scientist Fond of out-of-
the-Way Places.
HAS LIVED WITH WILD PEOPLES
Goes About the World in His Own
Yacht-Sends Collections to
Washington.
TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES
HAS LIVED WITH WILD PEOPLES

DR.. w. L. Abbott who has the distinction
| Of being the largest individual contributor
| the National Museum has ever known and
who has devoted great wealth. high scien-
tific attachments and twenty years of his
| life to enriching the national collection, has
been paying visit to Washington.
DIR. Abbott is peculiar personality. One
| Of his peculiarirties is stunning of pub
licity He is and always has been a de-
voted scientific worker. He has been over
all the world and has means to keep that
| sort Of strange globe trotting up so long
| as II pleases him. But he let's other men
| reap the fields that he has sown. He col
lects, collects and then collects some more.
He ships his finds to Washington and oc-
casionally comes this way and helps the
scientists of the museum to work them
up. But he writes nothing himself, at
| least over his own name. He furnishes
the data and let's the other man do the
| writing and take the credit. One Of the
officials of the museum who knows him
| well asked the other day if he were not
| going to write up history of his explora-
| with a shrug of his shoulders that he
hadn't been anywhere much, compared with
! the places there were to go, and that as for
/ adventures, he had never had one.
| Case of Excessive Modesty
This Is the view taken of his own work
| by millionaire who keeps a schooner
yacht in commission for threading the is
| land passages around Borneo and Sumatra
| who has lived with the Dyak head hunters,
shot the great horned sheep of the Hima-
| layas atop the roof OF the world" stalked
| lions and giraffes In Africa and fought with
| the natives against the French in the in
| terror of Madagascar. Incidentally in one
| of his letters not long ago he congratulated
| some of his friends in the Smithsonian on
| getting a collection of his trophies because
the vessel on which he was travelling with
| them came near laundering in a typhoon.
] Blu. he has not had any adventures and
has seen nothing to speak Of" The only
| trouble with DR.. Abbott, according to his
| friends, Is a bad case of ingrowing modesty
| and failure to recognize an adventure
| when he has one.
| Dr. Abbott comes from an old Philadei-
| p1a family and was reared in the midst
| of luxury and the be,it social atmosphere
| that the country afforded. He was wealthy
| and could do about anything he pleased,
| including doing nothing and leading the life
| Of a social butterfly in the old Quaker city
| But loafng, of the sort fashionable In the
| east, did not appeal to him. He went
through college, took a bachelors degree
| and followed that up with a course of med
| lcine- But he never practiced, at least not
| in civilization, though many an outcast in
| the wilds has had good cause to bless his
|
| parted for Central Africa in 1856 in COM
| pany with William Aston Chanler and some
/ other young fellows who had plethora of
| money and love of adventure. He hunt
| ed big game in Central Africa and sent
| back to the National Museum lot of
| heads, horns and hides of antelope, CRATES,
| rhinoceros and other welcome additions to
| the collection. He ACCOMPANIED the gifts
| with some notes that showed both good dis
! criptive power and keen observation. The
| museum was glad to get the collection and
thought IT kind of a wealthy young fellow
| like that to remember them.
| His Fondness for the Jungle.
But this was only the start. He had a
more persistent fondness for the jungle than
| Chanler and his fellows and when they
were ready to turn back and take swing
around little old New York Dr. Abbott
headed FOR Madagascar. While the French
| weIr having all sorts of trouble with the
| Hovas. DR.. Abbott was living with the ma
| tlyes in the interior and got caught up be-
| tween the lines of fire. as it were and liz
! he had not already been wealthy in his own
| right, might have risen to fame and opu-
| ience by casting his lot with the natives
| He said after he got out that it would have
| been no trouble for the Hovas to have
cleaned out the French. There were only
few thousand French troops and over
100000 Hovas, who are credited with being
tine fighters, but they seemingly lacked
leadership and initiative and were finally
still by mere handful of Frenchmen
The French were glad enough to get rid
Of DR.. Abbott by giving him safe conduct
out of the country and showing him all
the courtesy they could possibly use to
speed a parting guest. Just what part he
took in the war in the interior possibly no
one will ever know. and he Is not likely to
tell But he had abundant opportunity and
Ii was at an age when he says that every
man has natural prediction for fight.
Age Limit of Pugnacity
In this connection some of DR.. Abbotts
views on the fighting bent OF humanity are
interesting He says that Emperor Will
liam will never embroil Europe in war
now because he is past forty-five. That is
the limit, he says, at which man ceases
to go out and look for a fight, though he
may fight If it Is forced on him. This, he
says, was the case with Napoleon, who
never voluntarily went into a campaign
after he was forty-fve. What fighting he
did after that was because circums tanceS
compelled him.
The French were reasonably glad to get
rid of the doctor, and he decamped, send
ing good collection of material 10 the
National Museum, accompanied by more
notes. BY this time scientists there who
were in the field part of the year them
selves and in the museum working up their
| collections the other part decided that they
had got hold of a good thing in the person
OF the new collector. When he came back
to this country he was welcomed in the in
stituton, and number of the scientists
who had gone to college with him and who
knew well enough who he was were glad
to renew old acquaintance and were anx-
ious for him to work up his new finds. But
he would not write anything. He went
over the collection he had sent In and told
how and where it had been gathered, all
about the natives and the animals, made
sketches and contributed notes. But he in
sisted that some one else should do the
work and incidentally get the credit.
Then he foated off again. and the next
that was heard Of him he was shooting
owls poll up In the top ranges of the Hima-
lsyas and having a generally good time
with the people
He sent back more collections to the
| museum, but that was by no means the
end of his activities. He thought that he
would take in Burmah and the peninsula,
all of which he did. and then he got
schooner yacht, which he christened the
Terrapin. and crawled down through the
Straits Settlements and around Borneo and
Sumatra.