Show PRETTY BUG CATCHER Nothing succeeds like success and fcuccreh has dropped bur blossoms into the lap of Mary Yocmans so thaievery oie aIls her a clever woman WSien she first began to catch butterflies her neighbors who chanced to know of It jlled her a bug catcher and many L tulo they told at hcr expense to Fhoitcn the long trails over the mountain moun-tain tainBut But wheit they found there was money to he had for the butterflies and j > ow her Increasing her stock and buying buy-ing more land the farmer folk wished they knew which of the butteillies were the rare ones Mary Yeomans knew arid because she knew she ownE today a ranch worth 40000 An English girl the had collected buttarnieb for pleasure at home and knew how rare and how valuable val-uable rome of the jpeeiesnxere Phe knew that in Europe rich men and women collected bUtteriUefe and v ould journey half around the world to find a missing species She knew tuo that they were glad to pay well lor what they wanted Besides the pri sate people are museums the academics acade-mics of science and colleges all wanting collections She had visited great establishments > H London and Pans where the sole tack in trade was thousands and thousands thou-sands of butttrfliesr and beetles and insects With her two brothers she came to lie in the wilds of northern California twenty years ago three gentlepeople who must for the first time take thought of what they should eat and wherewithal they should be Hotbed Like most English colonists they I came out to farm and how well they have succeeded their wellfenced miles of sheep lands shoo Their sheep and 1 thEIr wool always have a market beaU be-aU O they use their brains In their I farming They took up a great tract of land I and when they went out to open up woods and build fences over it Marx was afraid to tay at home alone and went with her brothers camping sometimes some-times for days In her new homo she 1 had forgotten butterflies till one hot afternoon as rfie lay on the mountain = ide under a great mossy tanbark oak listening to the distant strokes of an ax a flock of great yellow pansylike wings hOvered a moment over her and then flew up the mountainside to a patch of yellow honeysuckle All alert in a moment she followed the butterflies up the steep mountain Mde She thought the recognized them as a species known only in the hIgher Alps and very rare and valuable When at last I did get one in my hands I was sure it was the very kind I wap too excited to wait till morning which is the best time to catch butter flies because they are sluggish then in the cold damp foliage I caught six before nigSit and the rest of the flock in the morning I pinned one out carefully care-fully and sketched it in water color I had to be saving of my postage So I sent the skettft instead of a box of butterflies but-terflies home to England Such A long wait as it was and fancy my delight when 1 had word at last to Fend all the butterflies to London Lon-don You would never guess what they offered me for them 25 each and asS as-S there were twentythree of them I had the tidy little sum of 373 all my own and the first money I ever earned in my life That was my beginning and I was always on the lookout for butterflies With my money I bought ten fancy sheep Miss Yeomans cellar is not for eatAbles eat-Ables but Is her nursery for beetles What appears to be unsplit stove wood lies in rows on the floor Each piece has been split but tied together again and in each piece are different species of beetles They eat the wood making their way out and lay their eggs in the wood I keen watch and when a beetle gets to the surface I put it back Tho most valuable one It all depend upon the demand A beetle is worth just what I can get for it i Dr Le Fontuin who came out from Prance to study the insects of Cnllfornia came to our house by chance He did nut tell us who ha was merely that he was a stranger passing through thtr country I but when I chanced to see him before 4 dawn creeping with a candle l In his i hand under the pine trees 1 knew he must be after insects H < was in raptures I rap-tures over a beauty he had found and I wften I told him about my butterflies and showed him what I had he forgot l i all his Englisli and rhapsodized in French He taught me a great deal i about beetles and told me of a certain one he was most eager to find in California Cali-fornia He believed it was here though he could not find it It had been found only in italy and had almost disappeared t disap-peared Aft Yoa had better not look at it you will be disappointed She poked about in a box or twigs and laid I injny hand what was to me ainost ordinary 4 or-dinary little black bug with long sJen der legs and then she placed beside it a little round red one no larger than the head of a pin I TClie tiny one is the ape > which tiLe ti-Le Fomain traveled mIles and miles r to find and could not1 found it The oilier je 1 the beauty he caught under I the tae trees You understand a collection of beetles is not complete without all the I different species Some arc very corn anon but others are most difficult to find Dr Le Font ln made me a sketch of the beetle he was looking for and then we went out to find a mate for thff bsauty he had caught in the morning morn-ing for where one is more are sure to be We found four and they were the I ancestors of the ones I have here He I shtwod me how to make what we calla call-a serles That is a butterfly or a beetle in all its stages from the egg to I the perfect creature each stage shown by a specimen and tacked in order on a card I always make notes as to time eah stage requires and food and where I the life was lived He was so kind and I interested I was delighted when at last I found the beetle he wanted It was I three summers later and I made a long journey for it I had wanted for so long to go back to the RedwoodS we passed coming up You stopped in tho woods and know how that silence of the great trees haunts one who has onceknown it Brother Tom and I made the journey on horseback and camped a week right in the heart of the belt It was there I found my beetle I carried a white I iheet along and spread it on the ground Taking up an armful of dried pine needles I shook it over the sheet If awr of the fallen particles scuttled off I knew it was an insect and one of the scuttling specks was my long wishedfor muchdesired beetle The Indians know about butterflies and know where to find them and they are the only ones who have even helped me to any extent except a Chinaman I have a great respect for Chinamen and Indians they see things which few of our own white civilized men can comprehend even though it means dollars We went back to Miss Yeomans sitting sit-ting rooma room speaking of more culture more real living than almost any room I ever entered maybe because be-cause strong personalities only lived there and their strength had not been diluted by complex living On the floor were skinsbear panther coyote I and many I did not know There were beautiful Indian baskets with bird I plumages and many books and engravings engrav-ings and water color sketches and a piano All one end of the room the only one not having great wIndows looking into the oak grove or themoun tains was covered with mounted butterflies but-terflies blue and brown and red and pnk yellow white and colors for which I have no name Each had its story and a talC of mate which had jburneyed across the sea < to tell those who cared to know that the butterflies of California are the most gorgeous of all the world e Gt 11 |