THERE are two kinds of collecting; the one rescues memorable objects from the scrap-heaps of the past, and the other gathers together memorable objects of the present to be rescued from the scrap-heaps of the future.

Both have important services to fulfil, but in this country the aim is far too much toward the former and far, far too little toward the latter.

Collecting, instead of being a fine art as it was of old, has degenerated into a curious modern craze or passion in which professional and amateur connoisseurs and collectors outbid each other by fabulous sums for the possession of objects whose entire value often hinges on some detail unessential to either their artistic importance or broad human interest. Again and again they find themselves duped, faked and re-duped until the ability to distinguish between the false and the genuine resides only in their fond imagination, but again and again they take up the pursuit afresh with unabated faith and enthusiasm.

It seems too bad that all the money, energy, and knowledge, gained from wide study and experience, which could exert such a vital effect in stimulating and encouraging contemporary artistic endeavors, should be so concentrated and often so futilely expended.

Scattered throughout this country to-day from the New England coast to the broad reaches of the Pacific, there are American men and women dedicating their whole-souled efforts, their fine intelligence, and broad artistic training to the making of beautiful things; things which are beginning to demonstrate to the older nations our possibilities of that independent and individual artistic expression in which they have so long found us wanting, things which will do more to preserve for posterity those finer intimate qualities of our national character than all our architecture and painting - and making them with what sacrifices and against what narrow and crushing impediments, only inspired Pilgrims of an unrecognized Faith can know!

These are the things which will be the "great finds" of the morrow, but how much more thrilling, how much better a test of real powers of artistic discrimination, to seek them out now and to establish their worth before the revolving decades have sapped their spontaneity and deprived them of their human touch and timely significance!

There are a few collectors of memorable art objects of the present in this country, in the foremost ranks of whom stands a woman whose name has always stood for excellence in all branches of artistic endeavor - Julia Marlowe Sothern. Mrs. Sothern began her collection with a few remarkable pieces of handwrought jewelry and increased it to include some fine specimens of modern American enameling and, finally, a superb service of handwrought silver which, when it is completed, will be one of the greatest modern masterpieces of the silversmith's art. This service, which, with its plates, platters, side dishes, tea, coffee and breakfast-in-bed sets, will soar above the hundredth mark and consume many years in the making, is being undertaken by Mr. Arthur Stone of Gardner, Massachusetts.

While Mr. Stone is of British extraction, he has spent over half of his life in rural New England and has imparted to his silver that simplicity and sturdiness which marked the early Colonial work; but to it he has added an artistry, a refinement and individuality which bears in itself a flattering tribute to the American ideals of to-day. In form, texture, modeling, finish, and sheer grace and beauty, these pieces wrought for Mrs. Sothern by the masterly sweep of his hammer can take their place with any of the rare and highly valued products of the past.

In a noisy handwrought silver shop in Boston a diffident little New England woman, Miss Knight by name, is turning out exquisite objects of the delicate and beautiful filagree work which we are accustomed to associate with the super-craftsmen of the Renaissance. In the work of several other New England silversmiths and in that of Mr. Clark and Mr. Ellis of New York, there is discernible an emancipation from convention and an application of taste and intelligence which is one of the most hopeful characteristics of American craftsmanship.

Mrs. J. M. Sears of Boston has done much to encourage the art of enameling in this country by her very representative collection of old and modern examples, by her active interest in the art itself, and by her magnanimous generosity which has made the fresh and charming work of one of our foremost enamelers, Miss Copeland of Boston, possible. Miss Copeland's fascinating silver boxes covered with raised translucent enameling in fluid designs and luxuriant colorings would, indeed, prove a strong positive asset to any collection. The work of Mr. and Mrs. Dixon of Riverside, California, also, is of remarkable merit and interest.

To one who collects handwrought jewelry, - and it is one of the most fascinating and humanizing kinds of collecting, - there are many contemporary examples of rare imaginative quality. An artist-jeweler attempts to interpret the spirit of a beautiful stone in plastic gold and other stones, just as an artist does a landscape in paint, or a sculptor the human figure in marble. One remarkable necklace called "Birth of the Northern Lights," has been executed by Miss Hazen of New York. It was inspired by a large black opal and worked out in beaten gold, small diamonds and emeralds, to give the transient, shifting effect of lights flashing out of darkness. Another pendant, "Spirit of Spring," emanated from an amethyst and evolved itself in delicate young intertwining leaves of gold, green tourmalines, fresh water pearls, and pale yellow sapphires. "Seaweed Dripping," flapped its dank gold sprays about the sides of two pieces of clear green jade. To the name of Miss Hazen many others can be added; among them that of Miss Lilla Davis of New York stands out for delicacy of touch and Mrs. Josephine Shaw of Duxbury, Massachusetts, for strong and masterly conceptions.