The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-29

Springfield, Ill. Sept ZS--N nat
is said to be one of the finest COLI
! lections of aboriginal American rel
J les and weapons in the world Is
, the work of Edward w. Payne,
! banker of this city.
Not only is the collection most
unusual one, but the making of 1t
is a most unusal avocation for an
American business man. 1t is true
that some wealthy men in this
country collect pictures, prints or
rare books, often employing ex-
perts to do most of the work of Sc
lection and buying. But these men
enter we'll known fields and for the
most part obtain treasures which
would otherwise be more available
to the public in other places. Of
course, the majority of business
men devote all of their leisure to
amusement
Mr.. Payne is the rare example
of man who has devoted his leis-
ure for 80 years TO collecting ma
terial of high scientific value, much
of which would never have other
wise been brought to light. He con-
collection to some public institu-
ton, perhaps together with a build
ing to house it. At present, less
than one-tenth of it is in cases
which fill four rooms of Mr..
Payne's dwelling. The rest of it is
stored away, five vaults being fill
ed with the more valuable objects.
Most of the objects in the Payne
collection come from the great
central region of the continent in
which he lives. This region, as you
may know, is dotted with artificial
mounds, varying from relatively
small ones to some that rival the
pyramids in bulk. It is from these
mounds that a large part of the
Payne collection has come. It in
cludes innumerable arrowheads,
spearheads, and ak heads, and is
especially notable for the beauti-
full carved tobacco pipes, and the
stone butterflies and crescents
which were evidently religious
symbols to the ancient men who
made them.
Theory of a Vanished Race.
These articles deeply impress
one with the artistic skill of their
makers, and seem at first to indi-
cate that they are the product of a
race far more cultured than the In
dians as they have ben known in
historic times. In addition to this,
the enormous quantities of such ar
ticles that have been found, and
the great number of mounds would
seem TO prove that the people who
made these things were more nu-
merous than the Indians whom CO.
lumbuS found here. The occur
renee OF Lake Superior copper far
to the south and other like facts
show that commerce existed among
them
These mounds and the men who
built them have engaged the Amer
lean imagination for a hundred
years, since first they were no
ticed. The view long accepted, and
still held by many persons, is that /
outlined above-that the mounds
We're built by a race far more nu-
merOus and more advanced in cul-
ture than the Indians as we know
them. This view seems to be
shared by Mr.. Payne, who, however, /
frankly approaches the matter as
a collector rather than as a stu
dent.
Science no longer accepts this
view of a vanished race. Exten-
sive study of the mounds by the
bureau of American ethnoIogy has
convinced the world of science
that these mounds and all of their
strange and beautiful contents
were the work of the ancestors of
the Indians whom Columbus found ,
here. In fact, it was established |
that some of the more western |
mounds were built after the white /
men came, as shown by the finding /
in them of steel knives, European