The Western outlook. [volume] (San Francisco, Cal.) 1894-1928, 1915-05-15
FOR AGES TO CONE
Future Generations Were Their
Sole Concern Until They
Met One Another.

per SyndtcateD
There were those who said that the
reason Joseph Blanchard had reached
the age of thirty without ever having
been in love, to say nothing OF having
taken a wife, was because he had a
fad.
Every man has a fad, even to the
fad of picking up stray pins on the
sidewalk, but what all men are ready
to deny is that they have one. Some
other fellow is invariably the guilty
party. Thus, while score OF persons
said that John Blanchard had a fad,
he said to himself that he was the
only man In a thousand who steered
clear of them.
As a youth, Master Blanchard was
inclined to serious thought; one or
the most serious was the reserva-
-tion of the present for the future. He
realized that all things even to ma
lions, must decay and leave no more
behind them than the cave jewellers.
There must come a time, maybe a
hundred thousand years hence, when
new nation would long to know
how the American lived In this day
and date. They would go hunting
around for relics and souvenirs, and
they would find remains of sky
scrapers, subways, elevated roads.
Here and there they would uncover a
poem written by a Yankee school
ma 'am-now and then speech de-
livered by senator; but from those
things could any future historian
make out the real life of the people?
And John Blanchard went to max
ing collection It was such collec-
ton as would enable the future his
torians to make out our everyday life,
even down to the brand of cigars the
men smoked, and the name of the
bars Of soaps the women bought for
the laundries.
John Blanchard's name was to be
saved to posterity. The first move
he made was to write out his history
from birth to date, and then begin a
diary, which should only close with
his death. He bought books to be in
closed in iron boxes; he filed away
daily papers; he preserved maya
zines; he gathered postage stamps and
coins.
John Blanchard was the son of
wealthy parents When he attained
his majority he had more wealth
To hn
erect a building and stuff it from
basement to garnet with his collec-
tons. He was still at it when he
made a new acquaintance that was
bound to bring about changes In his
life.
John Blanchard might have been
the only male faddist in his town
that carried the idea to an extreme,
and it never occurred to him that
female might enter the lists against
him. One did, however. 1t was Miss
Myra Ray, a young woman who had
dwelt in this vale of tears almost as
long as he had, although her fad
wasn't born so early.
Miss Myra realized that the day
must come when the last trust, the
last CRATER and the last American
must go hence, and leave the ruins
of his cities to be paved over by relic
hunters of later race and to be the
hooting place of big-eyed owls, and
that she had duty to do. Those
people who were to come after would
be curious about our bird life. They
would wonder If our robins had teeth
like grizzly bear, If our blue
birds carried off and devoured babies,
If the woodpecker emerged from his
cave at midnight to revel in human
gore.
It was her mission to leave leaf
Of history behind for their benefit.
She, as well as Mr.. Blanchard, had
wealth and could indulge herself.
She began collecting the eggs Of
birds and acquiring stuffed speci-
mems. In this she spent thousands of
dollars. She was thorough in her
work, too. She could speak and write
three different languages, and she
never packed up and laid away an egg
or a stuffed specimen without writ
ing on three different cards:
"This is the egg of a quail" or
"This is the quail himself or what
ever egg or bird 1t was.
When Miss Myra had accumulated
enough specimens to load several
trucks she turned to insects. The
race that was to come would ask
what kind of horsefies, hornets and
fieas the lost Americans did business
with. The collection of the young
woman would answer any question.
She could imagine the investigator
Of 100000 years hence inquiring of
himself:
Now, then, wonder If the blamed
old hornet Is a new thing with us,
or If they had him in the long ago?"
And then her collection would be
discovered. IN be hanged II the
pesky varmint isn't right here, as
big as life, and the hossf1y is in the
next stall to him." the investigator
would exclaim.
Miss Myra bought insects of small
boys, and she went afield for them
personally. The farmer didn't pay
much attention to the boy roaming
over the fields In search of the grass
hopper, but when 1t came to woman
racing up and down with a net in her
hand and her eyes bullying out he
would stop his pillow to stare.
Good lands. but 'spose had mar
ried that thing instead of Mirandy!"
Mr.. John Blanchard heard OF a
farmer who had a valuable collection