New-York tribune., 1886-06-06
oRyENTAL BOOKS IN WASHINGTON.
so>,E ODDITIES OF rHE CONGRESSIONAL


soNE ODDITIES OF rHE CONGRESSIONAL
LIBRARY.
- .,,, a, CORRESPONDENT TRIBUNE
WASHINGTON, June 2.-ln the Congressional
frarv the other day. strolied into an aicove contain
go, aoysn or moro shelves filed with books
d ,,isormly in bright red morocco with backs richly
ornameucd in gilded scroll work The books didn't seem
N have been handled for years The dust lay on them
,n ,pcbe. Taking one Of them down discovered tue
following inscription stamped In g' e''e's "P0A '
cover:
Don fait par s. NJ. l. ie sultan
Abdul IIamii IT,
n In Bibiotbequc Rationale
des Etats-U Uuis ID Amerique.
Par rcntremse do Il Honorable
Mr.. 4: s. Hewitt,
&c Ia Chambre des Representah's'
a washinsStsoIn ma ,SsI n
r,,. .xn,o,ned everything They we're the DOCKS
given 70 Mr. Abram S. Hewitt by the sultan. oh inc
hack cover of the booK>-which IN al or'e"'" uoon'
sa,v ,hs front cover-there was printed In TURKISH
what took to be the original OF the aooVe
inscription An attendant told inc that the DOCKS were
.,or o.,,ed for Once IN a'great while student VIII
s for one but no oftcn For the most part they are
stapdard works. some ore schooi poohs' WIN
n shrinking here and there OF hght read'hg
One was informed was translation OF Paui ae hocx
1Gustaye" with all the Objectionable passages care
fuy eliminated certainly curious tning Tor lurksn
editor TO DO who mTn. pe bot 40 Of these books
ne, "yr,nr to some hunder committed by the person
cntrnsted with their .striUuon, about one-thltu Oh
them are duplicates Tie PRINT IN al sruch INC as
remarkably good the paper and Dndna on tne ",nor %
hand IA wretched. Tho binding especially ~ poor.
though an excellent quality OF morocco scenes 10 nave
been employed. The covers are warped however, anu
I'm nauy Instances they have left the book ITSELF
In another corner OF the same alcOVe there were
ranged upon shelves what looked ike niue Woouen
cases done up in blue paper. These were collection
Of Cbipcse and Manchoo books brought to this country
Iv Caleb Cu hing after his return from China need
hardly say that nobody ever looks at them lher con-
tents were asccraincd far as practicable tney were
labelled and indexed and consgned 10 tneIr pisce n
fLe shelves library. aud here they nave remaheu
ever since IL that one OF the assistant
can read Chinese but he never dces except wheh nc
is forced 10. The reading OF Mr.. Cushiny's Chineso
books he tells is more wearing ana greater
strain unon the intellect than the reading or INC CON-
orcssionaI Hccord They are mostly philosophical
works Y nv valuable doubt from Cbinese point OF
view but not calculated to impress the NINA say o tuo
over,re Conrressmap. The little blue boxes contain
three four five more volumes, each ABOUT nan an
inch thick The paper Is OF the nnest quanty anu no
print reasonably clear. AS only rIce parcI s .' ~
Inc manufacture Of these books they wegn very He
hoy of Chinese literature weighing perhaps ohe-lourth W
what ono of our hooks of the same size wculd "csi
IN. greatest curiosity in this collection Is Dooh o
ysc the brother of the late Emperor OF 'hlna tho
As is well knOwn-tO Chinese students at thsl
the Chinese and Manchoo characters are tne same
thongn their aning and sounc are entircy uinerrh
referred when read accorulng 10 Tue
characters, is highly moral tale
The hero is of virtuc he wistands All sorls
of tempaion the VILLAIN is caught In us own uesues
out all right In the last padg
OF The last chapter the last page OF the n0oR
iust os in "A conventional Caucasian novel, but "heh
yon read this same book in the ManchOo way. then
we'll won't say what the learned librarian lou me )
but IL must be "a very wicked book indeed
For Reviews of New Books, including "Studies
in CrticIsm,' Henry George" Bits of Criticism"
etc, see 10;h page.I