Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-12-08
FROM WASHINGTON.
The Old Curiosity Shop-vIts Manager
Intellectual Dust and Cobwehs.
How Books as Well as Orators are
Silenced by Newspapers. The
Old and the New.
Bill McMullen aud John Kelley showed
Under, Philosophy OF their Fall.
The Revelations Bayard aud Cokc--A
rhrophct In the Israel OF
Democracy.
ny Nah md Telegranh.

$500 : ~ "
ny Mall mud Telegraph.
Washington, December =. IS. NJ.
II aldwin Is Old Mortality OF the capi-
tai. He was horn and reared la
boz k store. II was his business to
know something OF the contents and
literary value of Every hook OH his
shelves. His reading was most our
sorry. He appropriated u little learn
Ing from every conceivable source
aud his mind aud memory became an
Old Curiosity shop. All sorts Of no
tons We're stored away on It's shelves.
When II was necessary 10 haul down
q package for an anxious customer
the dust OF ages from the chambers
Of his brain aud I'm intelltc-
tual fog envelopcd him.
Books with tho ), lapse Of years
were finally printed 50 rapidly aud III
numcrably that Baldwin abandoned
the task OF reading tito pages aud
prefaces and reviews and In unuttcra-
BILE despair went back IL old volumes
deemed standard works In his yonth,
my or sixty years ago. His aversion
to namby-pnmby literature grew into
detcstation, until, at laat, he became
addicted 10 black-letter literature OF
the middle ages. He sought the old
cst books everywhere, the world
over. He delved into monk
ish clostcrs OF Spain, Italy,
France and Germany aud brought
forth old books CHASTITY In their faded
pages and grim Typography. Stained
and musty, bound IN clapboards, like
coffin lids. and Iedolent or the odors of
hoar antiquity, they exhnle the
breath aud dust of dead centuries.
His store-room, beneath the apart
mcnts Of the GAZETTE In the coun-
try's capital. Is very charnel-house
of obsolete ideas and dreary super
stitlons, and Baldwin, strange rs the
assertion mny seem, ~ living thee
hundred yeaisayo. His hair Ia dend aud
pale ns his face is col0rle~, and both
like his clothes and the pages OF the
quaint old books, over whose pages he
pores, have grown dingy and yellow
aud lusterlcss. hut do you inquire for
some old tome that delighted Chaucor,
or talk tn him of the genius Of Hero
dotus, or of the Fragments of Do
dorus SIculus, and Baldwin's eyes aud
face do glow with unwonted lustcr,
and he will pronounce an eloquent
culogium. upon the literature OF the
age Of thc'auihor designated, aud de-
fine the peculiarltics OF each great
writer Of the period
| learn from MIR. Baldwin that there
are not less than b,CDD collectors, like
himself, OF Old books In tho United
States. With many OF these he con-
ducts a system Of sales and exchanges.
He draws his supplies from
the same class of people every
where In Europe, and his shelves
speak In all languages. Swante
Palm, the admirable gentleman repre-
scnting the king Of Sweden In the cap
ital of'fexas, II one of the sturdiiNL
collectors of old and valuable books on
the continent. Some years ago his
library contained SIX thousand vol
unes, none OF which were printed In
the 10Th century.
And thus II happens that, II II be
true that "of ilaking many books
there shall be no end the time may
come when these books Will have even
fewer readers than to-day. The few
est survive the yenr Of their birth, and
the mass of authors who win immor-
tality are those who wrote In former
centuries.
foSa AGO.
can remember when every gentle
man In the Southern town OF my
youth was expected IA rend and dis
ctiss the virtues OF every new book.
Social laws and habits cSncted the
the execution of this task, New books
and the reviews and quarterlics were
theories Uf discussion IN the homes of
the old planters OF the old South : but
to-day nobody reads "A book unless H.
have reference 10 his business pursuits
aud nobody dreams OF learning even
the titles or authors Of modern publ
cations. Newspapers have not only
put a period 10 book-rcading, but ~
well, in the old states. 10 speech-InalS-
ing. md The speeches that are 1rinde
are only designed 10 be hcnrd through
the press aud the press Will hardly MS
sent always to the Insertion Of this
sort Of advertising into IT. pages IIIi-
less paid FOR IT, Thus
il seems that nothing Of literature
can live except BaldwInnHd the news
parcrs--thc old and the new--.tile AM
tiqiiarian aud the ironoclnsiic news
paper.
sucl, is the patropymic Of Sam Ram
daliis chIefest striker. His heavy
surlare face unnai1ral,y elongated this
morning, and he wentaway 70 Philndel-
phIa With heavy heart aud light
pocket. He Yields ut viii the irish
yolo OF Ill ward 10 Philadelphia. aud
Il the strongest fnctor IN knndaIl's bi-
ennlal triumphs NJ candidate for
congress. Mast, when depicting iilsli
nationality, always used McMui-
LENS photographs. therefore hi-
pupped nose aud heavy
laws are familiar 70 The newspaper
rcnding world. Bins gin-niili II .piV-
ductive ~ much money ana though ~
des,nep OF Phiiaseinhia have no com.
peu,afinn rs such, BIZ has grown yerys
IicI,. while serving many terms Ia ne
Of tint city. He always
cnsfs tic vote OF hts ward for Randall
tnol,gh. IN other contcsts, he often go
With The HppubIicalip. Blu