St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-01-21
: " -"
THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
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THE BRITISH MUSEUM. ea.a ID
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A Peep at an Army of Bookworms- Literal
allure of the Dad E&stEF EN- Au~
sIiors-Egyptfan sarc6phagf ana Fdner-
ais.
This is the British Museum, BIT Of !
its great front visible through Museum
street, which runs across ONford-a
great, gray, damp, massive and depress-
ing charnel-like treasure-house OF liter
ature, art and science, full of all the
books ever written by the many I'M
known and known authors Of the Brit
ish Empire. Two copies of every book
and pamphlet printed must be deposited
inthe British Museum library, behind
whose scenes you are only admitted BY
special permit, and whose floors are
iron gratings. Standing on these you
look doWnson rooms below stored with
tens of thousands of books, and above
your head gridironslike ,,,gglimpsesl
through successive Eayersof gratlngs Of
rooms above rooms flied with tens and
hundreds Of thousands more books "a
books of all ages; the first and last
printed; books in veHum and parch-
mert and of black letter, venerable ta
theseye and musty to the nose; books
of long, long ago dead, gone, forgotten
and never-to-be-resuscitated authors.
who grew pale, thin, worn, blear, blind
and holloW-eyed "writing for poster
ity.n Posterity knows not, nor ever
will know their names. PoSterlty
stands IN this charnel- house Of dead and
forgotten literature, and, oyerwhelmed
at these myriads of books above, below,
to right and to left and all about, Won
ders how man can ever dare to write
another book. Books here once deemed
full of wisdom, now known to be full of
nonsense; books once thought to be full
of truth, now known for theory, driyel, 4
Numbering and conceited guessWerk;;
novels here, too, b. former age
deemed of fascinating interest, now re-
garded only as duh and ponderous Curl
osities of antiquity; books once thought
airy, light, witty and humorous, now
known as dull, prosy and stupid; Bibles
here, too, treasured with most reverent
care, not because they are Bibles, but
for once having belonged to some wick
ed old King or Queen, who read what
parts of the Scripture which suited
them and dwelt with JUNCTION and salts
faction over the passage "Fear God and
honor the King,'' rejoicing that thus
they had the law and the Lord on their
side.
AN ANCIENT QUEENS BIBLE.
An assistant librarian showed me a
copy Of some ancient Queens Bible
I've forgotten who she was. An Amer
lean sovereign has no time for overload
ing his memory with the names Of dead
and gone Queens. This Bible was
small volume in green velvet. was
allowed as a great favor to holdgitsf for
few seconds. Ididh,t- realize at first
how great favor it was. l held this
extra sacred volume as / would hold
any common Bible. Then | saw the
custodian's eye fixed on me with a mix
ture Of surprise and disgust. thought
over the bolts and bars which had been
drawn and taken down, and the locks
unlocked ere this. Bible could be. taken
out, and that this was both royal Bible
and an ancient Bible, and that there
fore the book itself and the truths and
precepts it contained were in this Gus
todian's eyes far more Welghty than
those in the commoner Bibles owned
by common folks. The man looked as
if he begrudged the wear and tear OF the
book from my momentary lingering. So
I relieved his mind by handing the pre-
-cious volume back to him.
was at the time in the company OF
mighty old Bible hunter-an American
"a part of whose business in Europe
was the buying of very ancient printed
Bibles for that small and wealthy class
of people among us who have passion
for old books. He was in ecstacies that
day, having just secured, as he said, the
oldest Bible in Europe, for which he had
Maid. if recollect correctly, 3d. GOO he
had purchased it for a man in Connectl-
.cut, an antiquarian biblical mailman
rich enough to feed his madness.
BoOKWORMs.
Not only here are books, but book
worms and book mummies and book
ronkers and burroWers and searchers.
From one Of the library galleries you may
gaye down upon them; down there in 9
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