Evening star., 1936-01-19
By Don Bloch.

-
Greet feds aud little feas upon
their backs to bite 'em.
And little feas hare lesser feds.
and so dd snfnttum.
TN NO possible sense but one. and
that which considers him as an
international collector OF minia-
L lures for hobby, could the above
bit OF century-old doggerel apply to
Russell Hastings Millward, CONNER
cial explorer, big-game hunter, archie
ologist, photographer and the man who
generally is accorded the distinction
of having travelled the worlds record
distance afoot, some 20,276 miles, in
unexplored, uncharted portions OF Al
rica, South and Central America and
Mexico"
To walk into the apartment home
OF Millward at the Chastleton Hotel.
and talk with the small, intent-eyed.
staccato-spoken host is to lose all
sense OF time and space.
To the man who for more than
three decades made his home for years
on end in those vague, tropic areas,
unnamed, unknown, SO that they are
called only for convenience Land OF
No Twilight" and The Mystery" for
NAL conceptions OF time have been
lost Having. among other archeolo2i-
cal labors, once spent years in patient
effort mapping out the extent of the
once proud Maya Empire in Guate-
mala, where he uncovered 800 groups
of ruins of palaces and pyramids so
ancient that when Cortez arrived
there grew on them trees more than
1000 years old" the air of timeless-
ness about the man may be more cas-
lily understood.
So, too, in the presence of man
whose memory includes fresh and
strange anecdotes about such diverse
and fascinating world figures as
Grover Cleveland, Iris Speaker. Gems
George Goethals and Lee Christmas,
Nine. Schumann-H -Heink, 'Philadel-
phia Jack" O'Brien, Frederick Goudy
Dick Alexander. Sam Drebbin, Dick
Marston, Bob Bartlett-so. too, mcy
the interviewer be excused for settllrg
back in his easy chair with his scotch
and-soda, and giving real story
teller the spot.
BEFORE one rambles too far afieid
however. there is the matter of the
smallest spoons in the world The
smallest dolls in the world" the
smallest altar service in the world.
and the myriad OF other carved
woven. baked and otherwise manu-
factured minutiae gathered by Mil
ward in his wanderings over the world
These tiny objects, carefully mounted
in mahogany. glass-tcpped boxes. are
the by-products of his travels, collected
solely as hobby. They are gifts from
Mexican and Latin American dicta-
tors, revolutionary leaders. soldiers of
fortune, purchases from zulus. South
American mission workers and un-
known jungle craftsmen.
Although Millward still owns some
scores Of these lilliput.an objects, by
far the greater portion of those he
has brought back from his Journeys
has been given to the American
Museum Of Natural History in New
York and to staff members of the
Smithsonian Institution Most of
them must be viewed for their detail
through a magnifying glass and. ss
one gazes into each little box which
is monument to some ones patience,
he finds his sense of spatial ratios
slowly slipping away. and the words
Of the jingle above coming to his
mind
The worlds smallest spoons arc
first. There is story about thom
that is told here for the first time by
Millward.
1t goes back. he SAYS. to an old sea-
farer of Nantucket. Mass. now in his
80s. named Moses Joy, Sd. If you
visit Joy he will take you proudly to
the historic Captain West House. There
you will see one Of the most inter-
esting curios ever brought home by a
sailor
Ou ChIllDIlIOIl tiltIC III d SfI1dll
glass-covered case is diminutive
trinket that has puzzled travellers for
more than 125 years. 1t is a tiny
cherrvstcne. Capt West bought this
miniature wonder in London. and later
presented it to his bride in 1912 as
a wedding gift.
THIS cherrystone is followed and
highly polished. Upon its broader
side is a beautifully carved leaf de-
sign. 1t is fitted. by means of minute
screw threads, to delicate ivory
standard which is also exquisitely
modelled and engraved. With a few
turns these two parts can be readily
separated or assembled Within the
cherrystone are inclosed IL dozen
sterling silver spoons. perfectly FASH
ioned. each one measuring five thou
sandths Of an inch in thickness and
weighing but one hundredth of a
erain-the smallest spoons in the
world Extensive inquiries have re-
peatedly failed to disclose the identity
of the maker or prove where it
originated.
"A grandson OF Capt West has Of
fered the most probable solution Of
the mystery. Here is his statement:
We infer that it Is Chinese rather
than Japanese for several reasons.
First, because China was was open
to other nations at that time, while
Japan was not. Second. it was wrapped
in Chinese paper and was kept in that
piece of paper until recent years,
when the paper had become worn to
shreds. Third, it was always kept in
my grandmother's work box, brought
from Dunkirk, France. her home since
she was 4 years old, in 1852, at which