POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
AUGUST, 1934, 15 CENTS, 20 CENTS IN CANADA
 
Strange Things People Collect
Why a New Impetus Has Been Given to a
Group of Ancient Hobbies
 
By Thomas M. Johnson
 
THERE was an early and wealthy Roman, named Petronius, who collected drinking cups. Far and near he sought them, paying generous prices for specimens to add to his collection. The gem was a beautiful crystal bowl, over which he gloated. Proudly he displayed it to his friends, even to the Emperor Nero. The tyrant's eyes glittered with desire. Next day, soldiers called upon Petronius. They handed him a flagon containing deadly poison.
     "The emperor commands that you drink this," they told Petronius, "and give us the crystal bowl to carry to him."
     To refuse, meant lingering death by torture. Petronius poured the hemlock into the crystal bowl that had aroused the emperor's cupidity, and drank it. Sadly, lovingly, he gazed upon the beautiful bowl. Then suddenly, he dashed it to the floor. It shattered in a thousand twinkling fragments.
     "If I cannot have my crystal bowl," cried Petronius, "no one else shall have it after I am dead, not even Nero."
     Today, one reads this advertisement:
     "Will exchange liquor or beer labels with other collectors. I maintain a large duplicate stock. Mail your duplicates."
     A contrast between ancient and modern, yet underneath, a similarity. Always the collector, entranced with his collection, has made sacrifices and efforts to preserve and extend it. Today there are more collectors than ever before, what with the leisure of the depression and the New Deal, and the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

HE LIKES BANKS
Paul Scott, Glendale, Calif., has long been busy gathering toy banks of which a few are shown