The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-01

one exception, the greatest in the world.
one or the most pleasant things we
saw ar the museum was an attendant
feeding the birds on the graveled place
in front of the entrance. These winged
creatures alighted on and all about the
ofhcer, eating with the utmost conf
dence from his very fingers. He could
have easily caught them with his net of
kindness, but would evidently have
broken the snare beyond repair if he
had used it to capture
The number of antiquities. mummies.
thousands of precious stones and mill
lions OF ornaments worn by people of
all ages living thousands of years
apart, the bronzes, the terra-cottas and
all here are sufficiently numerous to
require catalogue like an unabridged
dictionary and are of greater or less
interest as the visitor has time and in
clinatjon-
We ATTEMPTED to see only few of
these things thoroughly, of course, OBJ
serving the frieze or cornice of the
Parthenon. about four hundred feet of
it, which is preserved intact mainly as
1t stood at Athens four hundred years
before Christ was born. This piece of
work, with some fine sculpture from
the same locality. cost the British gov
eminent about S200. 600, and is free to
the sight of ALL
The famous libraries here contain
two million books. which are on forty
miles of shelves. The increases are one
thousand volumes a week. The reading
room is a beautiful circular gallery.
about a hundred feet high, the diam
eter one-half as large again, and a
glass dome larger than that of the
state house. In another room the
books showing the growth of printing
is of especial interest
the hand work done by the monks
When they printed the entire Bible.
each letter penciled by hand and the
chapters embellished with initials. of
elaborate design. all show the industry
ana the enormous amount of time
winch must have hung on the hands of
| these penInen.
l was particularly anxious to see some
OF the original manuscripts of letters
ana documents by people prominent in
ancient and modern affairs, having at
nome fac-similes of a hundred or more
OF these. of which the persuading book
agent had told me the originals We're in
the British Museum I put him to a
| test which he stood and saw manuscripts
actually prepared by Anne Boleyn, Ma
poleon, Thomas Gray, this was The
elegy in full. Lord Nelson. George
Washington, and others. To be sure,
The handwriting was not always as
good as that produced by twelve year
Iold pupils in Topeka schools but many
of these celebrities never had the educa-
tional advantages of our rising youth
The part of the museum which I
very greatly wished to see we could
not get into without more red tape than
[ had time to unravel AS a rule there
museums and galleries of art and curios.
Too late I learned that to visit the
newspaper reading room certain form
alities were essential I was obliged to
I'LL out a blank, giving my name, rank,
profession, purpose and address. This
was easy enough, as 1 could specify my
rank as Karnival Knight, a body of
distinguished Americans which held
sway over the greatest city in Kansas
| at certain periods in it's earlier history.
The thing which troubled me most was
that in addition to all this l must be
| recommended by some we'll known
London householder" King Edward
having parliament off his hands, was
| taking a rest at a German watering
place. The only one knew I could
think of was Annie Diggs. She had been
in London year or two. but was only
occupying a cozy and comfortabl fiat.
l was afraid that this would not put her
under the classification of a household
err So We left the British Museum with.
! out seeing the great files of newspapers.
Annie Diggs, whom we invited to din
ner one evening, is happy and success
full and wanted to hear all about Kan
! sas. She and her daughter are there.
Evidently she works hard and her time
| is fully occupied for she is regularly
engaged to contribute to a half dozen
English magazines and periodicals. She
| is also writing a number of articles for
the Cosmopolitan, one of which has ap-
/ p6areQ describing the CO-Op-
erative community. Cadbury is the
great chocolate maker of England and
/ he has an establishment something like
the City of Pullman was few years
| ago.
Mrs. Diggs is making a thorough
study of the working people. She says
the conditions among some OF the
working classes especially of the lower
grades is something appalling, although
| in many industries the laboring men
| fai1
comfortable quarters. The lives OF the
very poor, she finds, are most distress
| ing and that some human beings i've
with fewer comforts than American
beasts, women and children sometimes
living not only in Easements and cell
lars, but in the third story underground.
We set aside several hours to West
minister Abbey, half a day to the Ma
tional gallery and about as much more
time to the National Gallery of British
| Art which is called the Tate gallery
after the man who made 1t possible
six years ago. This time was profitable
and the paintings interesting to US, but
our daughter got too much picture, just
as she can get too much chocolate l
am not going to pail the appetlte OF the
reader on art, particularly as the sub
ject is somewhat beyond the writer
depth. and as one of the State Journal
subscribers warned me last night:
s"These people who go to Europe and
| tell us how much things cost, what the
people do themselves and how thew do
| Americans-ror about these everlasting
| tips" A story about the latter seems
to go like one of Incoln's.
One of my friends asked last even
| ing: Now do tell me what impressed
you most in Europe" This lady has
been abroad several times and visited
foreign countries for months at a trip.
Naturally not wishing to make any
breaks, / hesitated. Not desiring to
pass e hasty opinion. 1 waited as long
as politeness would permit. and had to
reply: 1.-The price of cabs in Paris"
Perhaps she was sorry she hadn't wait
ed for the ending in this story. She
had been wading through the articles.
but was determined to get information
before the last chapter appeared.