Free press., 1908-01-11
a FREAK
COLLECTOR
He Ned an Eye Gone and He
Bought Remarkable Substitutes

whom / ever knew OF was that which
caught Ike Smalley. Ike and his
brother AmZi were earlies at Cripple
Crek, although they didn't limo UP
under the family name there. Ike w..s
the elder and fought his brothers bat
ties, likewise those OF his brother-in-
law, Barzilla linton Of New Jersey.
One night Ike took up scrap that fell
to Barzilla and lost his left eye.
When / met him in San Francisco
he was pretty lean in frame and pock-
ct, but he managed to get TO Alaska,
and sent for AmZi and his brother-in-
law after making a stake. He came
back three years ago with something
less than a ton OF dust, leaving AmZi
and BarZilla up there to share a half
interest in paying proposition, while
he held them accountable for the other
half
while up in the wilderness of that
eye on things. When he got down to
San Francisco he began to think about
appearances. He got to talking to me
about glass eyes, and took him to an
Optist's shop and showed him tray OF
eyes in the window. We went in and
the eye sharp matched his eye pretty
we'll and charged eim 500
"It was a difficult job to find any
thing to gee with lke's good eye, for
it was yellowy gretny lamp with &
f1shy look to 1t; but the optist did his
worst and 1t wasn't his fault that the
clay bird had more expression in it
than the real pigeon. Ike spent an
hour looking in the glass ar prac-
tising with it before he left the shop,
and on the street he admitted to me
that the phony lamp had more charac-
ter than the real locker.
He wore it a week or two night
and day and sorter became absorbed
in 1t. Then he branched out. He'd
got the habit and just went in for
glass eyes.
He bought light blues, dark blues,
browns, hazels, and all kinds Of com
binations, all Of which diverted alton
ton from his live eye. He used the
artificial eyes like an English duke
would his collection Of scarf pins, and
soon had a different glass eye for
every day in the week and two or
three for Sunday.
The field on the coast got too mar
row for him, and he came east and
looked up a Frenchman who makes
eyes in Chatham square and got him
to make some specialties for him. He
had original ideas, and the lamp ex-
pert was willing to humOr him at $50
q throw.
Ike startled me one night with a
topaz eye, only an imitation gem, but
mighty fetching. Then he had an anne
thyst eye and a turquoise eye, but
really this was only starter
He was looking over the shop win
dows in Maiden lane one day, when he
came across a crystal brooch scarfpin
with a picture of trout painted in it,
He wanted something just like that
for glass eye, and made inquiries
about how the work was done. He
managed to find out that an old
Frenchman in Newark painted such
things and chased him to his dugout
There he made a combination be-
tween the glass eye maker and the
miniature man and set up q new line
of work. He gave the artist lire Of
subjects to bring out on the blanks
made by the Chatham square man and
had the colors baked into the glass.
"As artistic specimens they were
great, but as facial ornaments they
were rather startling. The first time
l saw Ike with one was in the cafe of
an uptown hotel. 1t jumped me when
1 saw pretty butterfly staring out
of his left optic.
Il met him again that night to go
to theater, and he called my atten-
tion to the fact that he had changed
the ornament for the occasion. The
picture this time was a woman's head
and bust
I'VE went to Boston on the boat,
and on the way to Fall River he wore
an eye with a picture OF a steamboat
in it. He said it cost him 5000 Next
morning he showed up with locomo-
tive head-on in his eye-socket
That afternoon he showed me what
he had in his collection. He had a vel,
vet-lined leather case with "a eyes in
it. There were fish, game, flies, elks'
heads, steamships, yachts in full sail,
bulldogs, insects, actresses, an auto
mobile, monogram, and lot OF plain
eyes of different colors.
Ike wasn't satisfied. He said that
the work wasn't fun enough for him
and that he was going abroad to see
what he could do in Paris and Geneva.
Somebody had told him about ia
nous Swiss miniature painter, and
somebody else had put him wise to a
firm in Paris that made splendid little
photographs on glass. He let on to
me that he was going to travel some
and have eyes made reproducing all
of the famous buildings and art works.
He's got the collecting habit in
him bigger than woodchuck and
Lord knows he's got unlimited money
to indulge himself In the fad He car
ries a pocket magnifying mirror