COLLECTOMANICS HABITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 68, 19 March 1908, Page 2

COLLECTOMANICS HABITS.

"It is strange." said a brain specialist to a London pressman, "how a large number o£ people suffer in this way. They seem to have a natural craving for collecting things, and it does not matter what. "Personally I think that very many collectors are only one degree removed from >he kleptomaniac. He purchases a few coppers from some poor individual, who does not know its real value, and the passing of these few copper.? gives the transaction the cloak of honesty. "Women are much worse in this respect than men. They seem to have an entirely different code of honour, aud steal any odd thing they can lay their hands on. "I remember a case not so very long ago in Paris when a young man was charged with stealing -432 bells. He pleaded guilty and explained that whenever he saw a bell ho felt a longing to possess it. It did not matter if it was small or large, the fact that it was a bell was enough. ".Mail} sufferers from kleptomania specialise in one kind of thing. There was a case a short time ago of a man who collected pipes. He was also a member of many clubs, and he used to visit each one every day, and annex any pipes that were to he seen. This went on for a considerable time, and eventually the committee of one of the clubs decided to keep watch. When the culprit was caught in the act he admitted that he was 'collecting' pipes, and I believe more than a thousand pipes were found at his home. "This case simply shows that many of these kleptomaniacs have no criminal intention. None of the pipes had been used or sold, but each was carefully placed in a drawer."