Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-22
The Fewer They Hre

TN the lexicon Of the collector there is no
" such word as Junk" Anything may be
an item, now that the Nation has be-
come Americana conscious. The &C
uuisitive instincts which in childhood
were concentrated upon postage stamps, birds
eggs or chewing tobacco tags are being directed
now toward such bulky objects as cigar store
Indians horsehair sofas, cast-iron hitchlng
posts and complete files Of The Old Sleuth
Weekly Indeed, collecting is so widespread
and diversified that it is necessary to specialize
if you expect to get anywhere.
person can always achieve certain emil
nence If he accumulates enough of any one
thing, whether it be money or the heads OF
enemy tribeSmen. know man who mad the
largest collection of New England meat skewers
in sthe world. You would never suspect 1t to
look at him; he is as modest and unassumlng
as the fellow who brings you your GIN YET
they tell me that his name Is byWord In
Skewer circles everywhere.
The fact that an article is quite ordinary
does not make it less desirable hobby.
fashionable collectors are turning from the
exotic to the commonplace. They realize that
there are thousand prayer rug fanclers Tor
every circus handful fancier-so they achieve
distinction by tracking down all the old circus
handbills in the country and leaving them to
some museum when they die. The drawback
to the highly individual hobby is that it is sell
dom profitable. There is fairly steady market
for prayer rugs; in an economic crisis they are
insurance policy. But if a circus handful fan
cier wants to dispose Of choice item in order
to get little ready cash he Will be out OF luck
unless he happens to find some wealthy person
who shares his enthusiasm for ancient dodgers.
AN amateur who collects for the sheer love
of possession can afford to be eccentric in
his choice of hobbies. But the professional who
collects for profit must make some allowance
for the tastes of others; he cannot fling himself
wholeheartedly into the purchase of nineteenth
century earmuffs, for example, because there is
as yet no appreciate demand for earmuffs The
big money lies in the acquisition of articles
which have generally recognized value-books,
pictures, furniture, china, glassware, crockery
and other things found in museums and Depart
ment store Easements.
The average collector may be described with
feminine effusiveness as lust great big over
grown boy" While his contemporaries are busy
with such distractions as politics, science,
finance and religion he is preoccupied in ac-
cumulating tangible things-things that he can
take out of box and see and feel and then
lock up again with renewed thrill of possess
sion. And the spirit that animates him is the
same spirit that led him, years ago, to trade
his entire hoard of "commies" and classics"
for one flawless agate which was of no use what
ever in the marble ring.
All of us are collectors by instinct. We begin
by collecting lint from the carpet and trying
to put it in our mouths. Then we collect spools,
baking powder cans, curtain tassels-n fact,
any colorful object that can be held in the
hands.
Badges usually come next; there is a time
in the life of every boy when he decorates him.
self with printed buttons and embossed medals
until he resembles a sort of human whatnot.
He struts around, spangled with campaign
badges, advertising tags and vaguely official in
sigma, while all about him there is faint
fragrance of camphor-the perfume of those
exotic celluloid rosebuds that bloom only at
carnival time He even goes so far to join
Mr. Witherspoon's Sunday school class, SO that
he may have another trophy to add to his
lapel
But as he acquires sense of dis
elimination he abandons badge wearing and
takes up a more serious hobby-stamps, coins,
natural history, etc. There is certain dignity
about being philatelist or a numismatist or
an ornithologist, though isn't quite
sure Of the pronunciation. Furthermore, such
hobbies enjoy adult sanction and encourage
ment. And so he sends of for the Big Eureka
Surprise Packet 1000 Assorted Stamps-No
Two Alike') and laboriously pastes them into
an album Later, If he has not grown tired of
the bleak profile of Queen Victoria and the
belligerent mustachios of various South Ameri-
can dictators, he sends for approval sheets and
barters with other collectors for stamps with a
catalogue value"
A ND then, midway in the teens his hobby
pulls up with decided limp caused by one
Of Cupids darts. There are few female phila-
telists in the world, and he discovers that the
Not Impossible She is no exception. She stiles
pretty yawn when he shows her his album;
even the triangular Cape Of Good Hope speci-
men fails to impress her. So he drops philately
and collects cravats and Cole Phillips posters
I.ackn