The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-15

hundred tons in weight and worth
f2,000-but what in the world has all
this to do with my bookcasel
A BOOK TO PAY a DOCTORS FEE.
Flammarion's ''L'Atmosphere'' is my
next book, you see, and a. very gorg-
eous one it is with colored Illustrations
and its red and gold cover. The book
has a small history and l value it. A
young Frenchman dying of fever upon
the west coast of Africa gave it to me
as a professional fee. The sight of it
takes me back to a little ships bunk
and a salow face with large black eyes
looking out at me. Poor boy, i fear he
never saw his beloved Marseilles again.
AN EGG BOX OF DECAYING VOL
UMES
There used to be a book shop in Ed
inburgh which had q large egg box in
front of the door three parts full of
volumes in various stages of decay.
Above hung the inviting legend, All
books in this box twopence." L never
passed without diving into this lucky
bag where, among heaps of theological
literature, obsolete algebras, torn Latin
grammars and tables of logarithms,
one might OCCASIONALLY come upon what
would repay one. Many twopenny
classic have I upon my book shelves.
The two volumes of "Sully's Memoirs, 4"
and the "Gordon's Tacitus," and the
Essays of Sir William Temple" and
the queer little book of international
law all came from the egg box. This
latter is worth looking into so brown
at the edges, so squat, and with such
bullet-proof cover. The date you see is
1912, so it was printed when Charles
head was still firm upon his shoulders
and when the Pilgrim Fathers were
just getting fairly settled in their new
home. On the fiyleaf in the dimmest
of ink is written, "exlibris Gulielimi
the forgotten Willie Whyte one would
say that he was a pragmatica1 seven
tenth century lawyer. So at least L
always picture him when 1 look at his
angular twistified writing.
THE BEST PICTURE OF NAPOLE-
ONS SOLDIERS.
1t was a real blow to me when some
one began to throw doubts upon the
authenticity of "Marmots Memoirs"
Homer may be thrown over to the crit
les and dissolved into a crowd of skin
clad bards. Even Shakespeare might
be threatened by the Baconians with
out causing me more than passing
pang. But the inimitable MarmotI His
book is the one which gives US the best
picture by far of the Napoleonic sol
diers, and to me they are even more
interesting than their great leader, al
though his is the most singular fig
ure in history. But these soldiers with
their huge shakoes, their hairy KNAPP
sacks and their hearts of steel-what
men they were! And what a latent
power there must be in the French ma
ton which could go on pouring out the
blood of its sons for twenty-three years
with hardly a pause! 1t took all that
time to work off the hot ferment which
the revolution had set up in mems
veins. And the very last fight which
the French fought was the finest Of
all. Proud as we are CT our infantry
at Waterloo, it was with the French
cavalry that the laurels of the action
really rest. They practically extermi-
mated our own cavalry, they took our
guns again and again, they swept our
allies from the field, and they finally
rode off unbroken and as full of fight
as ever
It must be confessed that Marmot's
details are occasionally a little hard TO
believe. Never in the pages of Lever
has there been such a series of dare
devil exploits and hair-breadth escapes.
You may remember his adventures at
AUsterlitz-how a cannon ball striking
the top of his helmet paralyzed him by
the conclusion of his spine, and how on
Russian officer running forward to
cut him down his horse hit the mans
face off. It needs robust faith to get
over the incident. And yet Wnen one
reflects upon the hundreds of battles
and skirmishes which a NapoIeopic
officer must have endured-how they
must have been the uninterrupted rou-
tine of his life from the first dark hair
on his lip to the first gray one upon
his head, it is hard to say what may