Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-27
AMONG THE BOOKS.
Peeps Into the Great Reading Rooms
at the British Museum.
FORMALITIES TO BE OBSERVED.
Pen Pictures Of Typical Frequenters Of the
Mammoth Storehouse.
THE GOOD THAT Is ACCOMPLISHED
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. /.

| old master OF words whose burden OF 1our-
score years seems but to have fired him with
new and living eloquence-whether in the
splendor of his recent great oration in the
House of Commons, his last criticism on
Homer, his essay on the construction of .
library, or his defense of Revealed Re
| ligion'-"books are the voices of the dead,
the main channel of our communication
with the vast human procession of thought
toward another world" 1.-THE true univer-
sity of our days. ays another master, the
stern old sage of Chelsea, "is a collection of
books"
And, as far as mere numbers 60, the col
lection in Bloomsbury in the reading room
of the British Museum is probably without
q rival in the world. It is indeed no small
thing for man to sit down in the presence
of million of books, all waiting to be
opened and read, and have to make choice
as to where be shall begin, and what
mighty voice out of the silent past he
| shall summon to hold converse with in
this age of universal knowledge, when
| the difficulty is not to find an author on any
given subject, human or divine. but to meet
| with q man who hasn't written at least one
book and cannot talk OF a thousand others of
which he has written none and has seen but
few. But at last the student makes up his
mind. he will dip into the wise and witty
pages Of Sidney Smith or the dreary ones of
Herbert Spencer on the 'Homogeneity of the
Acephalous Atom, whichever his choice be.
HOW TO GET BOOKS.
There is only one way of getting what he
wants, and that is simple and easy enough.
First, taking blank ticket from the rack,
he must go to the catalogue, seize that one
out of the 80 volumes which contains his
book, fill up the ticket with its exact title,
size, edition, date, birthplace and number
on the library shelf, adding his own name
and the number of the seat he has taken day
of the month and year. The ticket so filled
up he places in basket at the central desk;
thence it passes on to an attendant who
hunts up the desired volume and brings it to
the expectant reader. who, when his tolls
are over, takes back his books to the head
center and receives for them the cancelled
ticket.
Meanwhile-before his books arrive-the
student may take any light refreshment he
pleases from any of the lower shelves of the
great dome, which are filled with such sue
ulent and choice dainties as dictionaries,
encyclopedias, parliamentary papers, topog-
raphies, biographies, indexes, maps and
charts; in all languages. living and dead;
to the modest amount OF some thousand vol
umes. on any Of which he may quietly feast
without ticket. But, if not inclined for
any such preliminary tonic, he can look
about him and take a survey Of the quiet
host of readers. There are some 900 or 700
of them, if one may rightly guess from
casual glance, Of all ages. between 20 years
and fourscore, and of almost as wide a range
as to rank and condition and personal ap-
pearance.
TWO SPECIMEN READERS.
Look, for example, on that little withered |
old man, in a gray, dingy, old dress
ing gown, who sits at the end of the row! |
Summer or winter, rain or shine he is here |
every day. and all day; in the same corner,
with the same one book before him-gossip-
ing old Bishop "Burnett's History of His
Own Time" When he is not dozing in his |
chair, or mopping his bald head with that |
scrap of faded, yellow bandana silk hand |
kerchiei, and he is teebly glancing at the |
printed page, and trying to look alive, as he |
has been doing for the last 20 years. The
museum library is his club, without en-
trance fee, or subscription, where for SO
many hours out of each day he can
find shelter, warmth and comfortable arm
chair. He is harmless and nobody molests
him; not even his next-door neighbor, q |
stout, horid, well-to-do parsonage robed in |
sable garments of strictly ecclesiastical cut,
knee breeches and CATERS. His clerical hat |
is beside him on the desk; he is calm, digni-
fed and conscious OF his own Importance
perhaps, also, of his own inability to write |
a sermon suddenly demanded on an occasion |
when his very best will be needed-before |
the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs on Sunday |
next, for the great schools of st. Agatha,
city.
At sll events-able or important-he |
thinks it we'll to consult some Of the most |
famous preachers of the day and see how
they deal with things in these terrible days |
of scientific inquiry. If he can prevent it,
he has determined that Moses shall not be
abolished, and here, under the great dome,
are score, or 100, or 500 mighty orators and
divines, from st. Augustine down to Mr..
Charles Spurgeon, all ready to help him.
He is taking goodly sheaf of notes.
TWO OF THE LADY READERS.
A country cousin, who, under the guild
ance of an official, has just now strayed into
the domains of learning, takes the portly
scribe for His Grace the Archbishop, and
looks on him with silent awe. Only for a
moment, however, for his eyes gladly travel
on, as our own also do, to smiling maiden
OF many summers, who, in spite of advanc-
ing years and disappointed hopes, still
keeps up an appearance of skittish youth
fulness and is now intent on her next con-
trlbution to that famous journal, The Young
Christian Woman's Budget She. looks
askance at our Archi-Episcopal friend, but
still more disapprovingly on the young
lady seated at desk over the way who is
said to be-though I don't vouch for 1.-THE
reporter for Jenny's O,on Journal and the
author of Jack and Jill, or the Rights of
the British Female Each of these two
sister laborers in the vineyard knows what
the other is about, and what the one tries
to build up the other rejoices to pull down.
When the clock strikes 6 P. M. they will
greet each other with sugary, but bitter,
smile of recognition as they pack up their
MSS. for the night and rejoice over the
labors of another day.
But, in addition to these and a score of
other amusing types OF readers under the
the great dome who might easily be cited
and made to speak for themselves, it must
not be forgotten even for moment that to
this quiet and noble domain Of learning
there comes every day a band of
BRAVE AND EARNEST STUDENTS
of high intellect and trained skill; worthy
alike OF the famous library and of the treas
ures which it contains. Men and women
they are of rare and undoubted accomplish
ments - poets. painters, philosophers,
scholars, novelists, dramatists, orators, di.
vines, drinking-in fresh inspiration and new
life, sweetness and light, from the foun-
tains of past ages-from the voices of many
lands and the living words of many men,
who, though dead, yet speak, and will be
heard while time lasts. It is these who
give dignity and add luster to the whole
nlace and tn the assembled crowd of stu | ;