The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1869-03-12
PHILADELPHIA.
I Correspondence to the Bedford Gazette
MERCANTILE LIBRARY.

Correspondence to the Bedford Gazette
MERCANTILE LIBRARY.
We received recently a draft of the new
Mercantile Library building; and as
we are member of that institution,
feel some interest in it. It contributes
very materially TO our improvement
and pleasure. Wecan while away many
hours among the mighty dead who yet
speak from those silent shelves and
open new fountains of thought and
feeling. A public library is a public
blessing. Among the pleasing features
there is the social, as well as intellectu-
al and literary. Thousands of ladies
and gentlemen every week visit this
place-idle in easy chairs, read every
thing from a ponderous tome to a daily
paper, or pass the time in the chess
room, if they admire the game and
each other. But you must not forget
that we are governed by law! And a
law that takes so we'll: for no one is
permitted to speak aloud-that is, you
must ,chisper and don't you see what
a charm there is in that? Words
sound sweeter and carry a different
feeling with them when they glide in
to the ear in soft, low syllables. Or
they used to when we were young.
But l was going to tell you that we
were having a new building on Tenth
above Chestnut, and expect to get into
it by summer. The main room will be
the largest in the city, and the whole
building taken entire in all its various
apartments and Improvements will be
the best of the kind in this country.
1t will cost about quarter of a million.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES.
After a pleasant chat, on Tuesday, with
our friend J. r. Of Bedford, at the
Bingham, we hastened to fulfil an en-
gagement for / p. NJ. In company
with Messrs. @. and McC., ofyour place,
we took a stroll through the Museum
at the Medical Department Of the Uni
versity of Pa. 1t is very fine one,
and these young gentlemen enjoyed
it very much but as | had some re-
gard for my appetite in anticipation Of
dinner at D, / proposed getting out of
that place as soon as convenient. Medi-
cal Museums are bad on appetites-ex-
cept to Medical Students are
more instructive to the head than a
greeable to the other department. In
consideration thereof we got out, hav-
ing ''doDe" that Institution in an hour,
and wended our way to the Academy
of Natural Sciences on Broad below
Chestnut. A collection like that de-
serves a finer and larger building.
Such move, we understand, is now
contemplated. The average number
of visitors daily is about five hundred.
Well, there are no Suud7tS in this cOun
try or Europe could successfully vie
with US in 'doing" a Scientific Institu-
ton, for by 4 p VI. we had rummaged
the whole thing from toe to top, five
stories in all, and didn't half try. We
put through the snakes, birds, animals,
skeletons, etc, in double quick, calling
it a ''cursory view," and expecting to
take more time when we had it to
spare But it is wonderful place and
would richly repay a long visit. We
concluded that any man who visits and
studies what is collected in that build
ing, and can come away and say there
is no God, is, as the Psalmist says, a
fool. We cannot leave, however,
without speaking of one thing which
interests US exceedingly, and that is
THE HADROsAURUs
or great herbivorous lizard, the skele-
ton Of which was found in a bed Of
mari in Camden CO., n. J., in 1858. 1t
belongs to a remote age Of the world,
known to Geologists as the Cretaceous
period. The skeleton, which however
is not entire, measures 26 feet in length
and stands on It's hinder extremities
and tail l3 feet high. 1t is supposed to
have been amphibiOus, and to have
browsed on trees for which its peculiar
structure seems to have been adapted.
its hinder extremities greatly exceed
ing in size the fore limbs; and the po-
sitiOn necessarily to be assumed ap-
pearing to be that of the Kangaroo. 1t
corresponds in length with the whale
taken some time ago from the Della
ware, the skeleton of which is also
there. How would you get a reptile
like that in ST. Patrick's box? ? On our
way back, we dropped into an Art Gal
lery on Chestnut street for short
time, and enjoyed some charming pic
lures, after which we took seats and
enjoyed, before parting, nice little
gossip as the men only know how to
get UPON short notice. Our sheet is
full and our pen empty. Entirely, &c,
LINDEN.