The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-06-07
KATE STEPHENS.
IN a FoREIeN FIELD.
How a Rare Dickens Play Was
Bought For a Penny.


Bought For a Penny.
London correspondent of the New
York Press writes as follows:
Dickens experts are excited over one
of those finds that every book bunter
dreams of 4nd not one in ten thousand
actually makes. A touch Of romance
is added to the story by the fact that
the man who made the and declares
that all the money he had in the world
was exactly one penny He was paw
ing over some tattered volumes in
second hand furniture shop n the North
End of London when he ran across
bundle Of pamphlets, stray leaves from
maya zines and such rubbish too nearly
worthless to be put on the bargain
counter. On looking it over, the man
with the penny in his pocket discovered
q 22-page octave booklet with a paper
cover, on which was printed. Is She
His Wife2 Or, Something Singular" II
was an old play by Charles DICKENS.
The man cannily put it back into the
bundle and offered the shOplSeeper tEat
one penny Of his for the lot. The offer
was promptly accepted and the man
took his precious play to another dealer,
got SO down for it and an agreement
that he should have half of anything
above that sum that the book might
bring. The dealer, in turn, sold it IOr
1915 to q collector Of Dickens editions.
John Morley, who has been giving all
of his spare time for two years to his
biography Of Gladstone, has made a
discovery that viii be of lively interest
everywhere All of Mr.. Gladsone's pa
pers were, of course. placed At his dis
posal and he has just found among
them fairly complete diary, the exist
ence Of which had not been suspected.
Regardless of the discoveries report
ed from America thaz Dante was a
bribe-t aker. as crooked as BacOn him
self the Italian cabinet has decided that
the greatest Of Italian poets oughZ to
have splendid statue ia Rome. and
bill is to be presented IN parliament for
the necessary funds for II work oil art
that shall be worthy Of Itaiy.
Frederic Harrison practically retired
from public life this week. lie told the
Positivist Society, of which he has heen
SO long the guiding star, that the work
must be left hereafter to younger men.
He intends to leave London and go to
live in the country. where, perhaps. he
may get time to respond TO some of tie
demands for articles that various maya
zines have sent to him in vain Of late.
The late Charles a. Dana used to say
that Frederic Harrison VAS the greatest
living master Of the English language.
Mr.. Harrison has led an active cheerful
life. and is today a young man OF 30
The original manuscript Of Robert
Louis Stevensons "Childs Garden of
Verse" in very small handwriting on
thirty-two leaves and containing nine
poems that were not published, is now
for sale at S1.SO0
Hesketh Prichard looms up large in
the English literary world. He is six
feet six, with maybe an inch to spare
one way or the other. He packed up
and sent off to his publisher, two days
ago, the manuscript of q big book that
tells of journeyings and adventures in
one Of the few habitable places on the
globe that inquisitive white man had
left unexplored. Patagonia. the scene Of
Prichard's latest activities. was visited
by him under the impression that the
giant sloth had refused to become al
together a fossilized geological exhibit,
and was stin roaming. very much alive,
IN Patagonia's forests primeval. The