The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-05

the meetings were delightful. There
was much of brilliant conversation at
times, and very often it had nothing
Whatever to do with books. As a rule
they all talked of rare editions, of Curl
Gus editions, of fine libraries they had
seen or dreamed of, and occasionally
they told stories"
SAINTS AND SINNERS"
1T was the most interesting group of
mars ever assembled" said DR.. Gun
saulus. For ten years that Saints
and Sinners Corner was a. place where
conSenial fellows met. 1t was an assoc
clatlon without rules Of order or times
OF meeting. We simply Toasted our eyes
on beautiful books, on old manuscripts,
ana chatted with each other after the
usual fashion of book fiends. remem-
Der taking DR.. Watson down there-Ian
Maclaren, you know. He was amazed
at the richness Of the collection He
SAID that he knew nothing like it in
London or in Edinburgh. 1 introduced
him to the fellows, and they were as
well pleased with him as he was with
Them
What did you do. doctor2"
Oh, Just discussed things. It was,
as l say, a most interesting collection
OF liars. Everybody carried some treas
ureS about with him. The stories told
sometimes were more amusing than
profitable. There was an old cot in the
place which Field lugged in one day,
and IT used to be the custom to hide
things in that cot. l don't know how it
happened that no one ever stole the
treasures which he found there.
'Millard. YOU know. had charge of
the corner, and one day a funny thing
happened. But. before that, let me say
that none of us was rich. They all
wanted to have the things they saw,
and often, suppose, we broke the COM
mandment which forbids us to covet-
For instance, there was no hope of our
ever getting a Treasure if Francis Will
son found it and wanted it He was
making plenty Of money, and he knew
what it was good to have. One day q
man came in there and looked around
and piled UP more than twenty of the
books and manuscripts which we had
all admired and desired. Then he said
to Willard:
Send these, with the bill, to the Au-
ditorium Annex
What name?' asked Willard.
George w. Vanderbilt replied the
Sinner
Willard almost went through ths
loo~-
Ben Cable was another Desirable
bitten, remember. with the scheme Of !
Illustrating, and 1 suppose If he had not
been made a college president he would
have produced Thompson'S Seasons in
thirty volumes.
WILSON'S TREASURE.
CDR. Frank Bristol was the most dar-
ing of the lot. He certainly collected
a great many desirable things. I re-
member one time a fellow came in there
with a copy of Burns. It had been
owned by George Washington, and had,
been carefully read and marked by
him. Bristol would have carried 1t
away, but that Francis Wilson came in
and found it. We never saw it again.
Another thing 1 think Of just now
was Fields rhyme by which he saved
book which he greatly coveted He
could not buy it, and he wrote this on
the fly leaf:
GUIDE friend for Jesus sake forbeare
To buy ye booke thou seeSt here;
For 1 have gone to earne the pelf,
mean TO buy ye boOke myselfe.
Field, you know, was a student Of
the classics. And he translated many
things in the most ridiculous and anus
ing way. One time he brought in
translation of Ovid Some Of the SIN
ners must have told about it, for not
long afterward Willard showed US a
cartoon which some of your clever
newspaper artists had made. 1t repre-
scented Mr. Gladstone reading Fields
translation, and 1 know I wrote some
thing Of that sort in red ink under the
picture. l fancy that cartoon was
burned with the rest of the Corner.
Harry 3. Smith used to come there
great deal. He was an acceptable
Sinner Oh, there were scores of
others. I cannot now think Of half
their names. The interesting thing
was that we found delightful COM
partnership and reveled in the books
and manuscripts. If we could not buy
them and take them home, we could at
least read them and talk about them
And we could tell each other about
the desirable things that we saw in
our travels. 1t was always a great
day when some one could bring a gem
that he had picked up in the wilds Of
Nebraska or something Of that sort"
There never will be another Saints
and Sinners Corner. These things take
years for growth. Such a place means
more than money and the assembling
of the men who made this corner at
McCiurg's so notable never viii get
! together again. Field is dead. Bristol
has gone to Washington. DR.. Stryker
! is no longer in Chicago. DR.. Gunsaulus
| is fearfully busy with other cares and
| interests. The old group is broken up,
and even if a new Corner were possible
the associations which made the old
| one famous could scarcely again be
realized.