The San Francisco call., 1906-09-30
By Agnes Foster Buchanan

hobby horse which no amount
of nersuasion could induce him
"a rsde gently or in reason Neither
bride nor bit can curb the onward
rush Of the hobby ridden TO death
The fnconsiderate lady who borrowed
the famous pony ~Dapple Grey and
then rode him over bog and mire with
vicious disregard Of the owners feel
ines was discretion and gentleness
compsred to most Of us when we mount
our .favorite hobby horse.
The most popular hobby-She one
most often ridden-is that OF collect-
ing II doesn't matter much what the
collection is II may be the works of
the masters Of the brush or il may be
the oro6ucSions Of the pen bound up IN
rare first editions
one ambitious youth in whom glowed
the real enthusiasm Of the collector
called upon a young lady one night
and at what he thought was justShe
proper moment he asked:
Miss Jones. may I have one of your
evelashes2'N The story runs that there
was a pregnant silence for moment
and then the girl rather frigidly asked;
what in the world do you want that
for9" certainly expecting the one and
only answer that should have followed
such a request To which the youth,
WHO knew not what il was to dissem-
bic. answered SlL-dlS SHlWde-
ITO add to my collection
THAT was collecting with a ven
eeance. wasn't it? But it is this same
instinct ia men which leads them to
snoop around in the out-of-the-w way
corners Of the earth for queer and rare
things and then TO appropriate them TO
their own uses. The result has been
many famous collections of various
kinds.
one prominent woman in New York
spent years in gathering together
unique and interesting teapots. There
were hundreds Of them-big and little.
erotesoue and beautiful. and when her
DAYS Of collecting things were over, her
viii directed that they be given to the
Metropolitan Museum of New York
city There the entire collection now
stands. an endless source Of interest
10 visitors.
OF a different type but a result of
the qualification OF the same hobby, is
the famous Bancroft library now in
xossession Of the State University.
There are thousands OF books, many of
which it would be impossible to dupli-
cate representing years of labor and
toll and a fortune in dollars and cents.
Famous collections Of miniatures.
paintings, horses and gems, all tell the
same story-that. here was a hobby
horse which had reached the goal to
which it had been driven.
Especially is this fad for collecting
INDUCED in by American tourists
abroad. The average American feels
It incumbent upon him to collect"
something while travelling in the old
world Ii may be laces in Italy. rugs
IN Persia. japanese prints in the Mi
kado's realm or mummies in Egypt
And every one making such a collection
becomes at once a mark for unscrupu-
ions dealers with their stock of mod
ernr antiques. These men can, on the
very shortest notice, produce old silver.
old pictures and prints, furniture and
tapestries which with their deftly cop
led designs oftentimes deceive even the
elect.
This difficulty was an almost insur-
mountable one in the case of Miss
Sadler Of Alameda. who decided that
her collection should be one of spoons
not the regulation souvenir spoon,
all bedecked IN gold and silver dress,
bearing some well-known landmark of
its native town, but spoons which We're
suthentically and historically typical
OF certain countries and centuries BY
such z collector the professional anti
quarry must be avoided If possible And.
drst OF all. the hall marks" of ster-
ling silver in the various countries
must be known and the key to the CEN
tury mark must be learned.
For instance, sterling silver in Eng
land always bears the imprint of the
British lion. In Italy 800 is the guar
antee OF pure silver; France and Aus
tria use the mark Of the mint, and Bel
gums signature is a crown. Holland
uses q lion, differing only from that of
England by an extra crook in the tail
In England there are still two other