Evening star., 1939-11-19
BY ROBERT A. ERWIN.

Janice MendelSOn, II, is girl o1
many hobbies-hobbies that range
from rock and fossil collecting ir
the Rocky Mountains, Japan ano
Hawaii to gathering a variety OF
miniature ornaments in China.
For the past year, Janice has lived
at 1921 Fourteenth street NV
Seven years of her life have beer
spent in China.
Her hobbies and talents seem tc
go together. In her collections are
two prize awards, shield for being
the best all-around British Cir
Guide in Tientsin, China, in 1887
and a tiny silver cup awarded fol
her rock collection at a Tientsin
hobby show in 1886.
Janice is an American girl, the
daughter of a retired Army medical
officer who is now practicing here;
but in Tientsin there was no Amer
ican Girl Scout organization, SO she
Joined the British Girl Guides
That's getting ahead of our story
however, so we shall stick to the rock
collection for the time being Janice
gathered many of her rocks and
fossils in Wyoming and neighboring
Western States when her father was
stationed at Fort Francis E. War
rem, Wyo.
One of them is fossihzed sea
shell, pressed into rock, that came
from wyoming. Another, one OF
Janice's favorites, is a tube-shaped
fossil, pointed at the end, believed
to have come from prehistoric ami
NAL similar to the modern octopus
Il found it buried in the rocks,
Janice said. When you examine it
closely, you can see fbers inside. ]
also have many-colored, egg
shaped rock, very smooth, that came
from Wyoming, too; some volcanic
rock from Hawaii and Japan, other
rocks from China and, of course
copper, iron and FOOLS gold. The
fools gold fooled me, too, because
when I discovered it 1 thought it was
real gold"
1t was in Tientsin that Janice OBJ
tained most of her attractive, odd
and colorful Chinese miniatures
They are small figures made out OF
agate, malachite and white coral
among them a chicken, an elephant
a rabbit, duck, fox and a frog
the last carved from amethyst. Her
favorite is the figure of an old Chi
nese man with a teapot, made from
clay and then glazed a green color
Janice always manages to keep
busy She was graduated from
Roosevelt High School last June and
now is a student at Wilson Teachers
College.
During her years in Tientsin, she
took an active part in Girl Guide
work.
when we had campfire session
at night" Janice related, "the
American girls would sing American
songs. Then the German girls
would take over and we would listen
to their German songs. There were
girls from Fance, Italy, Russia, Den
mark and other countries. I GER
tainly liked their spirit of friend
ship"
Janice is carrying on with her
scouting as a Senior Girl Scout in
Troop a.
While in China, she received hun
dreds of letters from girls and boys
in far parts of the world in response
to a letter of hers that was pub
lished in an American children S
magazine.
One of the letters, written by an
American girl, reached Janice in
Tientsin. The American girl as
sumed Janice was Chinese and
wrote: IF you can't read English
take this to the nearest Red Cross
and get it translated"
The Japanese Chinese war was
responsible for Janice coming back
to the United States. With her par
ents, DR.. and Mrs. Joseph N. Men
delson, and her brother, Don, IA
who goes to Roosevelt High, she
sailed from China to San Francisco
and spent six months there before
coming to Washington early in 1899