The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-08

ing fell, and this precious collection
came to light.
"The Gold and Silver Gospels is the
name of very peculiar book now pre-
served in the Upsala Library, in
Sweden. 1t is printed with metal type,
on violet colored vellum the letters
being silver and the initials gold. When
1t was printed, by whom or what were
the methods employed are questions
which have great interest for the
curious. but have never been answer
ed.
The first book written against the use
Of tobacco was penned by no less a
character than James l., Of England,
who, in 1916, wrote the "Counterblast
to Tobacco, in which he describes the
use of the weed as "a custom loathsome
to the eye, hateful to the nose, harm
full to the brain, dangerous to the lungs,
and in the black, sinking fume there
OF nearest resembling the horrible Styg-
ian smoke of the pit that is bottom
less"
The first book written in the English
language, that is, after the Saxon had
assumed a form we now call English,
was the Travels of Sir John Mande-
Vile" This book is remarkable from
rect idea Of the shape Of the earth,
and that 1T is possible to travel round it
and return to the starting point from
the opposite direction, thus anticipating
the discovery of Columbus by nearly a
century and q half
brewster says the first book printed
III the German language was the "Edel-
Stein,' or Precious Stone" in 1851 by
| Ulrich Boner. Seven years before this,
| however, in 1854, Gutenberg and Faust
printed in Latin an indulgence issued
by Pope Nicholas ", to PaulinuS Chap
pc, an ambassador of the king of
Cyprus. There is much conflict among
| the authorities as to the dates of the
earlier copies of the Faust and Guten-
berg books, and in many cases the ex-
act time Of their issuance is conject-
ural.
One of the most valuable books for
the professional collector is esteemed
solely on account of its errata and the
authors peculiar explanation of how
so many blunders came to be made.
The book is entitled the Anatomy of
the Mass" 1t consists of 172 pages, and
is accompanied by a list of errata of fif-
teen closely printed pages. The au-
thor, in his explanation, attributes the
mistakes to the devil who, he says,
first caused him to drop the manu-
script in the ditch, and thus made it
almost illegible; and, secondly, by be-
fuddling the printers, made them COM
nit a number of blunders never equaled
in a work of that size.
The most popular children's book ever
written was Mother GoOse's Melodies. .
Mrs. Goose or Mother Goose" as she
was Familiarity called. was the mother
in-law of Thomas Fleet, a Boston prin-
ter, early in the last century. When
his first child was born his mother-in-
law devoted all her attention to the
baby, and, it is said greatly annoyed
Fleet by her persistent and not partic-
ularly musical chanting of the old En-
glish ditties she had heard in her child
hood. The idea occurred to Fleet. OF
writing down these songs and pub
fishing them in book form. The old
est eXtant copy bears the date of 1913
The price marked on the title page was
two coppers.' This account Of the
origin of Mother Goose" is discredited
by some critics. who declare that in
1897 Perrault published "Contes de ma
Mere POye," or Stories Of Mother
Goose" The name Mother Goose was
familiar in French folklore, being used
by writer's of this literature over a
century before the time of Perrault.