Omaha daily bee., 1897-08-01

obscure and unvalued, in an unimportant
private library. 1t was generally supposed
that only two copies of westinghouse first
essay in authorship existed, and within the
rast fifteen years both OF these copies had
come up for sale-one Of them in the Brinley
auction of 1882, fetching $3.50, and the other
being bought for a large price by the Lenox
library trustees.
The discovery of pamphlet number 3 was
made by accident-a visitor to the house In
which it lay having found it while grabbing
among some dusty papers in the library.
This gentleman, knowing something of the
value OF such a prize, persuaded the unbe-
lieving owner to send ii to New York for
valuation. 1t happened that the wealthy COL
lector who made the purchase, wanted that
particular time-worn print to complete his
set of Neutrality-suspicious.. and quite willingly
paid 81 900 for it. Little did George WASH
ington, colonel of the Virginia militia, think,
as he corrected the proof sheets of his Re
port" away back in 1754-5, that a copy of
that unpretentious work should one day be
worth thousands of dollars.
When Washington set forth at the head of
a detachment of militia to examine into the
condition of the ~sparsely scattered Ohio forts,
the journey was not one suitable to a mere
carpet knight. Indians and French were
united against the British-for, 1t must be
remembered, that George Washington was to
al intents and purposes, a 'Britisher' In
1754-5.
NET WITH ADVENTURES.
VI iiNS Iph ( IIoHl DUl1
to point, the young colonel met with adj
ventures not a few. but throughout his ire
port he Is extremely careful to eliminate
anything that might be described as stirring
or unconventional although current history
tells us that the expedition encountered
many events of this nature. On the con-
trary the report" simply recounts the con-
dltion of the blockhouses and stockades Wig
tied, the health and standing of their gar
risons. and the exact quantities of ammuni-
ton, food, etc, in their stores. Altogether
it would be difficult to extract material
for a historical romance from this meager
work by the father of his country. But your
true book collector never looks beyond the
title page. To the man that owns 1t,
Washington's Report of a Visit to the Ohio
Forts is well worth 81 900.
Book dealers and collectors are unanimous
in announcing that a notable demand has
sprung up throughout the country for books
and relics OF the ante-revolutionary and
revolutionary periods. Perhaps the many
societies recently founded by persons de-
scendcd from paTticipators in those ~eventful
epochs may have something to do with the
revived interest of the nations early history.
1t would be interesting to know how much
colonial money Governor Dinwiddie and the
Virginian government assigned to Colonel
: Washington for the printing OF this little
report; and to compare that amount (Which
probably did not exceed $75 for the entire
edition. with the price just paid for a single
] copy. The sale ought certainly to be an
, incentive to all persons in whose libraries
old pamphlets and books have long ac-
cumulated, to overhaul those dusty treas
ures. Who knows that another copy or
Colonel Washington's REPORT on the Ohio
Forts or some work OF equal value, might
be thereby discovered?