86 
Vol. XI 
A PROBLEM IN INDETERM IN ATES 
By P. M. SI L POWAY 
WITH THREE PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR 
G IVEN: a man with a hobby; a box filled with cotton; a camera; and a 
bright day in the collecting season. Question: what will be the probable 
results? To the plain, matter-of-fact citizen, whose soul is bound by the 
chains of conventionality and commercialism, the problem seems impossible and 
well-nigh incomprehensible. In the first place he can not understand how a man, 
a full-grown, sensible man, 
can have a hobby. If at length, 
however, it finally dawns upon 
him that a man can have a 
hobby and still be a man, the 
aforesaid citizen can not pos- 
sibly comprehend the box of 
cotton. The idea that a grown- 
up man should be seen wan- 
dering over the prairie or 
along streamside or thru the 
woods with a box of cotton 
(and intentions not so evi- 
dent), is to the aforesaid citi- 
zen prima facie conviction of 
deep-seated dementia. And 
the camera, why what on earth 
is there to be seen worth pho- 
tographing? The bare idea 
of a man going around photo- 
graphing birds’ nests — what 
can you get out of it? And 
the bright day in the collect- 
ing season — what has that to 
do with the question? And 
so the problem assumes hope- 
less proportions. 
And yet to you, gentle read- 
er — you who have a hobby 
yourself, you whose soul 
is free to go forth from its sordid surroundings and occasionally invigorate 
itself by drinking at nature’s fountain, you who once at least were not ashamed to 
be seen afield with a cigar box tuckt under your arm or at least a baking powder 
can stowed away in your coat pocket, you who appreciate somewhat of the pleas- 
ures of kodaking and picture-making, you who see everywhere around you many 
things worth photographing, you who love the birds and flowess and the sunshine 
and the breezes — to you the problem is not only comprehensible and possible, but 
easy. Let us consider one solution of it. 
It happened last spring that a stranger came to our town — a man with a 
hobby. Upon his inquiry for anybody in town to sympathize with him, he was 
