The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1878-07-03
88tsfeIlaneons. g
FoR THE HERALD.
BKOADBRIM'S PARIS LET"
TER.
NO. Z.
Exhibit Of the Bibliotheeue Rare Boaks--An-
cient Manuscripts -- Sights About the
Grounds-French Funerals, etc., etc.

Close to the main hall, on the
northwest end of the Exposition
building and Immediately adjoining
the British Department, is a rare
exhibition of statuary by the mo-
dern artists of France, but it is not
Of this that Tnow propose to speak;
but of a little exhibit in a room on
the left, of rare and exceptional mer-
it. Thousands daily pass it by; no
statues mounted on proud pedestals
attract them no splendid pictures
challenge their admirationr. ; thera
is nothing here bu t q few books,
manuscripts and medals ''only
this and nothing more" Yet, in
these low and unpretending cases,
are priceless treasures, richer than
Pluto's mine not treasures of silver
or gold; not jewels nor costly array,
but rare books and curious old
manuscripts, whose histories go
back away inpt99 the very twilight Of
time. The mere pleasure-seeker and
and sight seer had better pass on
his way, for this exhibition has no
attraction for him; but it is sacred
as Mecca to the scholar and the
man of letters. This is the exhibit
Of the French Bibliotheque and of
manuscripts, some of them so old
that we have no authentic history
of the people by whom they we're
originally written they are Egyp'
tian, Assyrian, Greek, Persian,
Arabic and Hebrew. Before me is
contract for a piece Of land,
written five hundred years before
the birth Of Christ, every character
as bright and as clean as if cut by
an engrayers tool. The cases are
full of rare reprints Of works,
choice specimens of that art which
has made immortal the names Of
Gutenberg and Faust. Right roy
ally here, an ancient Theban bears
testimony to the virtues Of his de-
parted wife; and yet, when this
hoary manuscript was indited'
Queen Esther was pleading for the
life Of 'lner-people before the Great
King Ahasherus. Hear the dead
man speak after a lapse OF more
than thirty centuries, and listen to
the testimony with which be has
embalmed in Immortality the gentle
memory of this fair Theban wife.
''She was comely tolookupon, says
the chronicler, sand Of temper so
sweet and placid that in al her life
7 never saw it runed. She was
kind and charitable and loving, and
of life so pure and holy that the
breath ofsuspicion or scandal never
assailed her," Three thousand years
have passed since this grand testimo
nv ofvirtue andlove was written, the
race to which she belonged has been
annihilated and blotted out; the
sands of the desert roll like an
angry sea over the proudest Of its
imperial cities, yet surviving the
history of it's magnates and kings
is this ,,shining tablet to the virtues
of p Theban wife whose holy life is
thus immortalized, but whose name
unfortunately is lost to posterlty
forever, Near by is a will written
about the time that Hiram was pre-
pairing the stones which were used
in the temple of Solomon, The
characters are Greek and the Oldest
known to literature. It was made
in the island Of Cyprus before
Homer had written the Illiad, and
while philosophy was yet a stranger
to the sacred groves of the acade'
my not only houses and lands fell
to the lot of this dainty cypreot
dame, but stores of jewels and gold
that might have furnished an outfit
fol- the Queen Of Sheba. The books
are the rarest and noblest speci'
mems Of the printers art; all the
pages are bright and clear, and the
type as sharp and clean as if it had
been cut with diamond; but much
as we might feel inclined to linge1
over this interesting collection, we
are compelled to hurry on, for there
are other cases in this room which
contain treasures as pricelessas the
books.
Here, in a brief space, France has
enshrined her immortal dead, and
here she has preserved in gold and