The Portland daily press., 1894-03-23
words long; some contain as many
thousand words.
Hnru Access Can he Obtained.

WOO(tSu CASES buo OoAOA NoP"A0
ment records in a room which communl-
Gates with the library. Any of the clerks
of the library can have access to them,
and ii clerk had any occasionsto.remoVe
one of the volumes to another floor OF
the building he would find no objection.
He would be required to give receipt
for the volume and he would be held
responsible for its safe return. Inc re-
sponsibility would not be small, Tor 5he
documents are absolutely unique; they
could not be replaced unless they were
laws passed IN the time of cleveland OF
Harrison They are handled at brief in
teryals, but no harm has come TO tnem
yet. They are all un brokensrecord from
the First Congress to the Fifty-thlrd:
The parchm ent is as well preserved and
the handwriting as clear in the earller
as in the later laws. OF course there
are printed copies of these laws which
are accepted in all the courts through
out the United States; but two or three
times month come applications Tor
certified copies of one or another of them
to be used in trials. Ibis is the prIn-
cipaI use to which these originals are
put. The department clerk does not
turn to his printed copy OF the statutes.
He must take down the original ana
COPY and compare them before he can
certify in the name of the department.
that what he has written is true copy
of the law of Congress-" There is no
difficulty about seeing these original
laws. Any one of the library clerks can
show them to you and he can show you
the signatures of all the Presidents ana
the Vice Presidents of the United States
and the Speakers of the House of hep
resentatives which have made them law.
Another set of valuable documents IN
g ~. Cfof0 rt
is the collection of treaties with many
nations. And it is one of the prettlest
show pieces, too. The State Department
en- crosses our copy of a joint treaty on
plain, heavy paper of a light blue. NO
attempt at ornamentation is ccade; puG
the treaties of other nations are painted
on satin, embroidered on silk, decorated
with ribbons and gold lace, lncloseo IN
boxes OF rich woods adorned with prec-
ious metal and with jewels. They make
a very gorgeous array, and one OF the
courteous clerks in the library can snow
them, to you if he has time.
Then there are letters from kings and
queens, autograph letters sent TO ghe
President of the United States, wh1cD
President takes with him when he goes
out of office, but which belong to the
government, and are preserved by the
State Department.
The Most Valuable Archives.
Still the most valuab of the depart
ment archives are the manuscript records
of the Continental Congress and the
manuscript letters of famous Americans.
These are kept in the main room OF the
library behind glass doors. The safe
guards that surround them are not very
elaborate, considering their immense
vale. But the librarian has no fear that,
they will be stolen or injured. Inc
building is fireproof. The library IS con-
stantly watched during the day; at
night the halls of the building are pa
trolled very half hour, and there are
watchmen III constant attenda nee at the
doors. Access to the documents is had
only by order of the Secretary of State,
and you must give the Secretary a very
excellent reason before you can OBTAIN
an order Then while you examine the
papers they must remain in the 1orary
room and under the eye of custodian.
But the chief reliance which the libra
rian has Tor the safety of his charge is
sin the ease with which anyone OF the
manuscripts could be identified and the
difficulty thief would have in dispos-
ing Of 1T.
Department. Some of them were taken
to the Worlds Fair and before their de-
parture for Chicago two of them were
taken under special order of the Secre-
tarv of State and the eyes Of the depart
ment people. When they went to Fh1la-
delphia their custodian was the foreman
in charge of the work of restoring man
uscripts, which has been going on at the
department for three years. de was at
one time foreman of the Philadelphia
concern which did the special work of
restoring the two volumes for exhibition
at the Worlds Fair. The work done on
these two volumes cost several hundred
dollars 1t was by a process known as
"inlaying," which is quite beyond the
selected FOL exhibition were school
COPY book of George Washington, and
the last entries which be made in his
diary-the two extremes, his earllesG
and his latest writing. The sheets of
the manuscript were of rather thin pa
per. The experts in Philadelphia took
leaves of thick paper OF uniform size,
drew on them the outlines of the manu-
scriut leaves and then cut out all of the
lnclosed space except very narrow
margin. The thick paper around this
omen space was then split with a keen
knife to the depth of the frame. The
edges of the manuscript page were
fitted between Gno bnIn Walls OIL GHiS
naner frame" doweled," to use the
technical term-and glued in place.
Where the writing on the manuscript
ran to the edge of the page, as it did in
some places, the fame was. trimmed so as
to obscure none of it, When all of the
napes of manuscript had been set in
tfese frames, the leaves were bound to-
gether in heavy Russia leather, lined
with watered silk. The work was done
SO perIecly that turning the pages of the
restored book, you could hardly tell
where the border of the frame began
except by the dizziness of the older
paper.
Restoring the Manuscripts.
This "inlayina" as I said, is quite be-
yond the department people. The work
men who are doing the work of restor-
ing now are four-two women and two
men. They were not familiar with the
work until the Philadelphia concern
sent it's foreman and a force of workmen
! to Washington two years ago to begin
the work for which at that time Con-
| gress had made a special appropriation.
| Iha n r.