On the Plains, and Among the Peaks by Julie McCown

Author:Julie McCown [Dartt, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Colorado

14

Sale of Specimens.

Before the summer of 1870 was over, her collection had grown to such proportions as to have attracted the attention of the leading men in the Territory, and she received an offer of a pass to St. Louis and return, with transportation for it thither if she wished, if she would consent to arrange it in Denver for the Territorial Fair.88 This she felt obliged to accept, as it became apparent that she must make a disposal of all her mounted specimens. Through adverse business fortunes, the finances of the family were in a straitened condition. Her utmost sacrifices, with those of her husband, were needed to rescue some fragments from the wreck. Yet, so great was her attachment to her specimens, so enthusiastic had been her desire that each one should be of permanent good to natural history, that it was with the bitterest pain she thought of their disposal. She had given them all an artist’s love for his work, and his patient care and labor; aside from that, many had cost her great exposure and suffering, and many, from other associations, were very dear to her. But there was no alternative, and after vexations and anxieties at St. Louis, which we will not recount,89 they became, for a sum insignificant compared with their cost to her, the property of Shaw’s Garden, in that city.90

However, with this timely assistance, a home at least was made sure to herself and family, and her untiring will and energy left less fettered. With the many duplicate skins which she had, unmounted, she resolved to begin again, and at least replace the specimens with which she had parted.

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