Los Angeles Daily Herald

They Are All Right If They
Good Ones-A Diversity of Fads.

It is a good thing for rich men to have
fads. A hobby is not only a distributor
of wealth in many ways, but when it
takes the shape of collecting it is a con-
servator of riches, too, while it is more
than useful in occupying hours that
might elsewise be given over to the
services of the--ahem! Books and pic-
tures are the commoner materials that
rich collectors accumulate, and in our
cities millions of dollars are locked up in
these treasures; but the hobby takes
many other forms: Mr. George W.
Childs is as noted for his collection of
clocks as for his charities, and another
distinguished editor, Charles A. Dana, is
an authority on orchids and porcelain.
Some people prefer violins--instruments
made by Stradivarius and Guarnerius,
and worth thrice their weight in gold.
for use and age
have mellowed
them until they sing like angels
under the touch of a master;
but
masters are seldom allowed to touch
them, and more's the pity. For 2000
years coins have been a subject of esteem,
not only with people who spend them
but with those who have an eye for
artistic beauty; and it may be remarked,
en passant, that our own coinage is a
pretty bad thing to look upon, especially
the silver pieces decorated with a goddess
of liberty whose legs grow out of her
waist and whose hair grows where her
face ought to be.

Postage stamps have engaged more
than juvenile interest, and there are
philatelic clubs in this land whose al-
bums are worth a comfortable fortune.
Mr. Brayton Ives, a well-known mem-
ber of the New York Stock Exchange,
solaces his leisure with the perusal of an-
cien missals, so ancient as to caligraphy
and orthography that few people else
can read them. He knows a genuine
antique from a bogus one at a glance,
and is fond, too, of editions de luxe and
rich bindings. The autograph fever has
never raged as fiercely in this country as
it has abroad, and many so-called auto-
graph collections contain little but signa-
tures written on cards; things that the
advanced collector would consign to
the waste basket, for he is after
letters, documents and manuscripts. The
poets Stedman and Aldrich have gath-
ered a large number of manuscripts, as
their literary friendships and editorial
functions have enabled them to do.
and Mr. Stedman has "extended"
his copies of his own books with
portraits and original letters. It is
doubtful if $5,000 would represent the
worth of his extra illustrated copy
of The Poets of America. One broker in
New York spends his superfluous wealth
on sapphires. He has a case of these
stones that delights the very souls
of all who see them. A Brooklyn
man rides a similar and equally expensive
hobby, and his diamonds, rubies, emer-
alds, topazes, zircons and tourmalines
are said to rival in splendor the crown
jewels. This was one of Mr. Beecher's
delights, and he always had gems
wrapped in bits of coarse paper care-
lessly mixed with small change and
keys in his pockets.

The house of Tiffany owns a sumptuous
case of jewels, cut in the rough, all of
which were found in American soil, and
were exhibited recently in Paris. The
mineralogical expert of this house, Mr.
George F. Kunz, says there are not over
100 gem collectors in this country. He
himself is the owner of a remark-
able group of meteors, mostly from
Mexico and the United States. The fin-
est private collection of minerals in the
world is that of Mr. Clarence S. Bement,
of Philadelphia, who has, by search and
purchase, acquired a remarkable number
of them, typical of their species in color
and crystallization, and many of marvel-
ous beauty.

The collection occupies a large room in
his house that has been fitted with cases
so placed as to secure light on each, and
it includes many of the finest and
rarest specimens
that have ever
been discovered, including the larg-
est known crystal of emerald--a
North Carolina product. Mineral hunt-
ers and dealers, on finding anything ex-
tra good, do not think of selling until
they have heard from Mr. Bement, and
he is said to have enriched them to
the
extent
of $125,000, while
his museum is constantly growing.

One of the minerals associated with the
zinc ores of Franklin, N. J., has been
named benentite, in his honor. There
are collectors of china, of canes,
of umbrellas, of archaeological im-
plements,
of
plants,
of
woods
(Morris K. Jessup,
for
example),
of Japanese sword guards, of carved
ivories, of play bills, of hair clipped from
noted beads, of the first copies of papers
and magazines, of buttons, and the ex-
treme has been reached by a man who
has made a collection of cigar stumps, for
which he refuses $10,000, though it is
inconceivable that any sane man should
have offered it.

This collection includes butts that have
been cast away by General Grant,
the Prince of Wales, and other celebri-
ties. It is a wonder that this out-
rageous did not try to bottle the
smoke puffed from the lips of eloquence
and command. Stranger things have
been done, for in one of the European
museums along with the china from the
few cords of wood remaining from the
true cross, is a bottle containing some of
the darkness that fell upon Egypt.

[Society.