Evening star., 1896-12-05

| & u ~ rnent. composed In
grea measure of
| students not attached to any college or
| univerSity-middle-ag and old men, and
| women, too, of means. who live in books
and who have found In Washington an at
mosphere eminently suitable for their in
| dulgeI ce in the mild mental passion for
| book research and collection.
| Boston used to be the great scholarly city
| of the United States. But it does not stand
alone in that respect today 1t divides its
scholarly eminence with the national CAPT.
tai, which is gradually becoming the liter
| ary capital of the country.
The men and women OF Washington i'm
bued with the passion for reading and book
| collecting are comparatively few in num-
| ber whose wealth Is SO great that they
| have been able to accumulate their collec-
| tions all at once or even with any great
| degree Of rapidity. The collecting work of
| n ost of them has extended over MANY
| years The government departments of
| this city are leavened by many learned
| men with whom the collection of old and
| rare books is the chief interest of their
lives. well-known dealer in old books
| said to Star reporter the other day:
There are many remarkably good prf-
| vate collections of books here l don t
Know of any other American city where
there Is such general passion for the ac-
qulrement OF good substantial libraries
among all classes of people, The Young
men of this city begin very early to estab.
llsh the beginnings of libraries for the
adornment and use of their future indiyjd
ual homes, and as book collecting is a pas
sion that does not burn out bur wages
stronger all the time. good MANY of
these young men develop into bookworms
OF tne most settled type. There are pro-
portlonately very few Washington homes
mat do not contain a greater or less nun
Der OF excellent books and some of Wash
lLgton's private libraries, undergoing con-
slant amplification along special lines in
Sceoroahce 5 win the mental trend of stu
dents who are to a certain degree hobby-
ISIS also, are among the very best in the
%loie country. AS a whole. / don't think
ma. ,nat washington Is particularly a fiction
are general readers, many of them exceedl
hsiy omnlVerous ones, their intellectual
alet mas always seemed to me to be of the
to own the ha sort: Moreover: they like
iiaihes inscribed on the. fyleaves"
Along Special Lines.
These remarks related chiefly to tbe u,;aa
class of accumuIators of good hooks on
general subjects. The, collectors. strictly
50 called 1orm separate class. There are
many collectors Of books here who stick
10 certain lines of collection and rarely ~
never deViate from them, Bishop Hurst
OF the American University, for instance
mas been Tor many years an ardent col
rector or rare books on church history He
mas now gotten together a collection of
works on this subject, it is said. that can
not be surpassed, it, indeed, it can he
equaied. IN the whole country. He is a
man of keen discrimination in the selection
or Old black letter tones of a religions ma
ture. and can instantly detect forseries
he mas also passion for the ACQUISITION
oi e Ola liiuminated> missals, and his collec-
tlon or these Is large and valuable Some
or them date far back to the darkest ne
rious OF the middle ages. Bishop Hurst has
bes!ues a considerable collection OF ya,u-
@ ao!e oid church manuscripts. These books
and manuscripts he has gathered in ali
parts of the world for he has been great
traveller, and his name has at one time or
another been on the order list of a major
fty of the leading dealers in rare hooks in
the worlds cities.
Mr.. W. P. Robinson a book lover. who
has found Washington a more fruitful aid
congenial field for the Indulgence of his
passion for collection than Boston, his for
mer home, has just sold to the Lenox
Library of New York, for S12 600, his mag
nif1cent collection of genealogical litera-
ture, one Of the best if not the very best.
IN the country The sum he received for
1T by no means represents it's actual value,
but Mr.. Robinson disposed of it in bulk in
order that he might be certain it would be
properly cared for and kept together in a
ahead getting together another collection
OF rare genealogical works.
Mr.. William r. Smith, the superintendent
OF the botanical Gardens, has spent many
or the latter years Of his life in the col
lection of rare old Scotch literature He
Is Scotchman, and there is probably not
another native of the land O. cakes in this
country who knows more of the early lit
erature OF Scotland than he does. He is
particularly devoted to Burns His collec-
ton of Burnslana has certainly no dupli-
cate in the United States, if in the world
he has every known edition Of Burns
works, and all Of the published biograph-
ical literature on Burns. He has a fine
aggregation of Burns portraits besides,
some of them of great value. Every scrap
OF original and valuable Burnsana that
Americas most interchangeable collectors of
and dealers IN rare books sooner or later
finds its way to Mr.. Smiths Burns collec-
ton, If It. can be had for money.
DR.. l.. M. Taylor has collected remark
ably comprehensive and valuable lot of oc-.
cult literature. He is still adding to it. Dr.
Taylor has been famous traveller in his
Gay. especially in oriental countries, and
IN those countries he secured many curious
old books and manuscripts relative to the
mystical religions. His Sanscrit collection,
including precious manuscript editions of
the Indian Vedas, is practically Invaluable.
His library is especially strong in ancient
Persian literature. and his collection of
Buddhistic and theosophical works is per-
haps the best in existence, DR.. Taylor is
thirty-third degree Mason, and besides
WI hS VI ocCuil literature ne mas 1Or many
years devoted himself to the acquisition
OF rare books on Masonry q He is regarded
as one of the chief authoMties on Masonic
matters in the country @Pref. Elliot Coues is
another orientalst of distihction and learn
ing. He has valuable collection of old
Indian Rrahministic and Buddhistic books
and manuscripts
Industrious COLLECTORS.
Mr.. John Hay. who wrdte, in collabora-
ton with Mr. Ncolay, the iwell-known life
OF Abraham Lincoln, has probably the best
collection of Lincolniana In the world. 1t
includes not only innumerable books, but
pictures and manuscripts, many of them as
yet unpublished, of all sorts. AS President
Lincoln's private secretary, Mr.. Hays
facilities for getting hold of rare Lincoln
data were, of course, Of the hest. and he
made good use of them. His collection
Bears not only upon Lincoln and his per-
sonallty and administration, but covers the
entire period when the war was only an
embryotic possibility, the war itself, and
the period of reorganization and recon-
struction after the war
Mr.. Henry Adams, the historian, has a
magnificent collection Of Americana. A con-
siderable part of 1t came to him through
Inheritance, for is a member of the
family which gave two Presidents to the
United States. but he.aAas added to it with
such care and patience that 1t is now one
OF the best in eXiSteYYee ItembraceS the