The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-07
The Euening Story
The Collectors.
(By Donald Allen.

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 a score of per-
sons said that John Blanchard had
| fad, he said to himself that he was
the only man in a thousand who
| Steered clear of them.
| AS a youth, John Blanchard was in
| clined to serious thought; one of the
| most serious was the preservation of
| the present for the future. He rea-
| lized that all things, even to nations,
must decay and leave no more behind
| them than the cave-dwel1ers. There
must come time, maybe a hundred
| thousand years hence, when a new ma
| ton would long to know how the
They would go hunting around for
relics and souvenirs, and they would
| find remains of skyscrapers, subways,
elevated roads. Here and there they
would uncover poem written by
Yankee schoolma' am-now and then
speech delivered by a senator; but
from those things could any future
historian make out the real life of the
people?
And John Blanchard went to
making a collection. 1t was such a
collection would enable the future
historian to make out our everyday
life, even down to the brand of cigars
the men smoked, and the name of the
bar 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
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 magazines;
he gathered postage stamps and coins
John Blanchard was the son of
wealthy parents. When he attained
his majority he had more wealth
awaiting him. He could and he did
erect a building and stuff it from
basement to garnet with his collec-
tions. 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 extreme, and it
never occurred to him that a female
might enter the lists against him. One
did, however. 1t was Miss Myra Day,
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 a later race and to be the
hooting place of big-eyed OWLS and
that she had a 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 bears, if our bluebirds
woodpecker emerged from his cave
at midnight to revel in human gore.
1t was her mission to leave a 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 specimens! In this
she spent thousands of dollars. She
th0rO1Ip-b in he
could speak and write three different
languages and she never packed up
and laid an egg a stuffed specimen
away without writing on three differ |
ent cards:
This is the eggs of a quail" or
This is a quail himself" or whatever |
egg or bird it 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 horseflies, hornets and fleas |
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, 1 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 |
pesky varmint isn't right here, as big |
as life, and the hossfly 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 grass
hoppers, but when it came to a wo-
man racing up and down with a net
in her hand and hr eyes bullying out
he would stop his pillow to stare
Good lands, but 'spose I had mar
ried that thing instead of Mirandy."
Mr.. John Blanchard heard of a
farmer who had a valuable collection
Of manuscripts that would give his
tory a fair insight into our ways of
doing business in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. 1t was a farmer
who never paid debt unless he was
about to be burned at the stake, and
the valuable manuscripts were the
Cumming letters he had received. .
You may call it a coincidence. You I
nay call it Luck. You may say it
was the hand of Providence. What
ever it was it brought the two col
ectors face to face on that farm 1t
ween them. 1t made Miss Myra agree
hat the dunning letters were the cap
sheaf of the collection, and it made {
Mr.. Blanchard volunteer to go with {
her and help capture few crickets.
The farmer refused a very liberal
offer for his manuscripts, on the
grounds that if he had money his .
creditors would pursue him afresh;
ind when he came to half understand
he business of the collectors he was
ll1ed with contempt.
That Teller orter be splittin' wood
and that woman orter be slicin' ap-
pies to dry" was the way he looked
1t it, and when they came to ask
where the largest and choicest crick-
its could be found he pointed to a
r.