St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-05-06

. LOndOn-Charaeteristi OF the Noted
1sibliophile.
& Prof. James d. Butler of Madison,
~ iscOnsin, contributed to a recent
hmber of the Nation the following
Interesting sketch Of the late Henry
Hevens, whose tutor he was in college
# d whose career he has since watched :
e Henry Stevens, who died at his home
&n London on the last day in winter,
I'll lived there forty years, but was by
%.Ifth "A VermOnter. His father, far
In far up the Connecticut, when the
" had learned ''small Latin and less
feek" from the village minister, gave
HI a colt and told him he must work
j passage through college. The
6hngster rode to Middlebury, entered
HID freshman class in 1888, sold his
Use to pay for books and board, and
S I'D out his income by teaching PEN
tDship. After a year or two, obtain
I1g "a committee clerkship in Washing
-, he became acquainted with Peter
prce. Thanks to a few old revOlu
Binary papers sent to the young clerk
MI his father. he obtained from Mr..
rec and others funds enough for his
4ppOrt while completing his collegiate
eurse at Yale. Being a bibliOmaniac,
a pth by heredity and habit, he was
hger to see a library worthy of the
hme. Obtaining a loan of $500, half
Om Mr.. Force and half from Francis
arkman, he crossed the ocean in 1916.
efOre lac had rambled very long in
Ie British museum he detected some
A f its weak points. In an interview
With one of its managers he pointed
4 ut its lack of certain American books
could not afford to dispense with. In
lis exposure he showed such intelli-
ence that lie received a commission to
pply the deficiency. Faithful in
ttle, he was gradually commissioned
do much. In 1884, he told an Amer
an visitor that Le had furnished the
Aseum library with 100000 books or
nphlets. He showed him one thin
t ume for which he was paid $3.50.
had supplied the greatest of Brit
4 libraries with the larger part of it's
Elerican books. In turning over its
talegue for ali illustration, he open
4t to the name of Joshua Bates, once
ksident of Middlebury college, and
a id the titles of twenty eight of his
~ 1blicatiOns garnered up there by Mr..
tevens.
# One of his early enterprises was
lying up the books of Washington
IN the proprietor of Mount Vernon,
III forcing the solid men of Boston to
IN well for those of them that were
stained in America. Another of his
IlOits was cleaning and gathering so
any papers of DIR. Franklin that con-
ess paid $30,0O0 to secure them.
II. Stevens was followed abroad by
pthers, and trained up son to take
- place as literary and pre- eminent
an historical intermediary between
H. new world and the old. His book
Ure lately showed more than $4,000
'NifiOus and rare pamphlets relating to
Nfherica, each bound up as separate
" ume, and his last labOrs were in
kparing IA catalogue of this unique
lection. On the whole, while COM
B pnplace i'll his relations, he always
* fned fOndly to his mother state.
He named his house Vermont cottage.
NJ. b., meaning Green Mountain
~, was the only title he would affix
his name. When freshman at
81 hldlebury he had advertised his wish
81 be a writing master by writing his
in a superb hand, on a sheet
paper which he stuck up on bull
In board. That sheet he carried to
bndOn and hung it in frame in
bnspicuOus place on the wall of his
lore. No doubt it hangs there still.
n Among Mr.. Stevens's published
forks were Historical Nuggets-rare
pOks relating to America A Cata-
Ague of American Books in the Brit
d museum Notes on the Earliest Dis
bveries in America. The work above
entiOned, for which he was paid
ESQ and which the museum today
build not sell at any price, at first
)st Stevens no more than sixpence.
Il ffOre the year 1000, DeBry had pub
hed IL work on Virginia full of pic
Trial illustrations. The question
hether these were fancy drawings or
lawn from life was warmly discussed
few decades ago, but still remained
doubt. Stevens had bought up an
III Irish library, which, however, was
lon afterwards more than half burned.
he water which quenched the flames
1T the books soaked to pulp, but by
e adroit use of glue-size the paper
covered its cOnsistence. One of the
Orched manuscripts thus restored
tevens was able to prove to be the
ing sOught original sketches for De
&fy's pictures. Thus he could supply
missing link which the queen of Ii
'islres could not afford to lack.