Evening star., 1932-11-27


quires whole-hearted devotion in
which women have no share.
This is true even in childhood. Almost
everybody is an ardent stamp collector
until he reaches his early teens. But
with the dawn of his first love he dis
covers that the most wonderful girl in
the world is not passionately interested
in his albums and approval sheets. She
is, he tells himself, as intelligent as she
is beautiful, and yet she seems utterly
unable to share his admiration of tri-
angular Cape of Good Hope or water
marked MauritiuS. Even the fiashy CEN
tennial issues fail to hold her attention.
And so he concludes that perhaps
the arduous accumulation of bits of
gummed and perforated paper is not as
important as he had thought. Philately
fades into the limbo of lost enthusiasmS,
along with air rifles, magic lanterns and
the Merriwell Brothers.
Women are definitely, though quite un-
consciously, antagonistic toward the
hobbies of men. They resent the con-
centration of masculine attention upon
cautious coquette, venturing against her
better judgment into the apartment of
an eligible bachelor who has offered to
show her his collection Of rare old coins,
is chagrined to discover that he does
exactly that and nothing more-al
melodramaS to the contrary notwith-
standing.
Cn1InafiY1rr &c inIol lxv ir11rN al
suit; there is very little You and Me in
it. Even the lion hunters are not inter
ested in the companionShip Of the celeb
rites they pursue SO much as in the in
cidental trophies of the chase-the auto
graphs, snapshots letters and presenta-
tion volumes which are destined to be-
come items" in their collections.
Women, of course, have the collectors
instinct just as men have, but it is more
capricious and diffused They are ardent
antique hunters, but they do not devote
their lives to particular period or their
energies to the acquisition of all the
known varieties of certain object. And
while they agree that every person ought
to ride hobby of some sort, they usu-
ally refuse the pillion seats offered by
their husbands. They select their own
mounts.
Thus we find in the average household
an i'll matched team of hobbies in dou-
BILE harness, pulling in opposite direc-
tions. Sometimes a third hobby adds
to the confusion. The MilfretS, for ex-
ample, are enthusiastic about taxidermy
and lepidoptera and cactus growing Mr..
Mllfret collects stuffed animals, and the
stuffed animals collect moths which
Mrs. Milfret mounts on the spines of
her cacti But each is jealous of the
acquisitions of the other.
The PennifeatherS attempted to COM
bine rabbit breeding and tulip growing,
but the Belgian hareS ate up all the
Queen Wilhelminas- in turn,
produced fatal attacks of Indigestion
so the Pennifeathers are back where they
started. Mr.. Otway collects last editions;
whenever a newspaper or magazine
discontinues publication he buys copy
of the farewell issue and preserves it
for posterity. His wife, Scorning such
valedictory bibelots, devotes her spare
time to the accumulation of jade ele-
phants.
But it is among people of wealth, like
the Pendovers, that hobbies find their
fullest expression. Two years ago Mr..
and Mrs Pendover sold their town house
and retired to a place in the country
where they would have more freedom
to cultivate their respective enthusiasms
dog raising and antique collecting. Mr..
Pendover needed larger kennels to house
his pets, and his wife needed broader
attics to shelter her relics.