Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-06-27
A LIBRARY OF ANARCHY
Story of Columbia University'S
New Acquisition.
EXHAUSTIVE COLLECTION BOUGHT

archist Believed to he the Most
Complete In Existence-Entire Lot
Purchased For 800, and Scraps
Could BE Sold For over That sum.
The story of the successful acquisi-
ton at nominal price of what is be-
ieved to be the most complete collec-
ton of anarchistic literature in the
world was recently made public by
the library authorities of Columbia
university.
Some time ago, says the New York
Post, it came to the attention of DR..
Vladimir -. Sienkhovitch, the univer-
sity bibliophile, that a French an
archist long resident at London, and of
considerable literary ability, had died
in the course of the winter, and that
his library had passed to administra-
tors who were plainly ignorant of the
character of the calling of the man.
DR.. Sienkhovitch, however, knew that
the dead man had spent the greater
part of his life in making an eXhaus-
tive collection of all the valuable an
archistic literature eXtant; he noticed
that this collection, which consisted not
only of books and pamphlets, but also
of posters, periodicals, Journals and
broadsides, was turned over by the adj
illustrators TO the Sothebys, the Lon
don book auctiOneers, and soon found
hidden away in their spring catalogue
an item advertising the sale of the
entire collection.
This item appeared to have escaped
even of those dealers who specialize in
the literature of political and social
science. DR. james H. Garfield, libra
rian of Columbia, approaching the sig
nificance of this find" at once pro-
ceeded to collect funds for the pur-
chase, and was soon able TO authorize
his deputy to bid roo $3.50 on the
articles listed. 4 cable message an
nounced n few days later that the en-
tire collection had been acquired with
out competition for the ridiculous fig
ure of f20 ($1O0).
The entire collection, in twenty-fOur
large boxes, arrived at New York in
the spring. The work of examination,
classification, appraisal, cataloguing
and binding has been going on now for
completed. Neither the scientific nor
the pecuniary value of the consign-
ment can as yet be ascertained, but as
an Indication of the worth of the col
lection it may be stated that much Of
this material appears in no existing
photography. being hitherto unknown;
furthermore, for single pamphlets Of
fers have been made running into four
figures OF marks and francs.
The list includes 252 sets Of newspa-
pers and periodicals, nine-tenths of
which are absolutely complete; in addi-
ton there are nearly 300 anarchistic
pamphlets and books, q collection of
go huge sheet posters and broadsides,
most of which have no duplicates;
hundreds of photographs of prominent
agitators of all countries; an enormous
body of letters, documents, manifestoes
and autograph manuscripts by most of
the leading anarchists, from Bakounin,
the Russian, down TO the present time,
and a vast quantity of infiammatory
songs and clippings from nonanarch-
istic publications.
Access could be had to only a small
part of the collection, most of it now
an idea of its scope, magnitude and
Importance can be gained from the fol-
lowing specimen items: A death war
rant, forecasting to the inner circle the
assassination of President Sadi-Carnot
of France six hours before it's occur
renee; nine manuscript writings by the
famous Louise Michel; a warrant is
sued from a London police court for
the apprehension of a desperate foreign
incendiary; the school books of Rava-
chol; announcements of attacks to be
directed against nearly all of the
crowned heads of Europe and photo
graphs of Lucheni, who assassinated
the empress of Austria. Another strik-
ing exhibit is a batch of scorched pa
pers found on the person of a London
anarchist who died while hurting a
bomb into a crowded square.
Among the periodicals in the collec-
ton are La Pere Peinard, published in
Paris by e. Pouget from 1889 to 1896,
only two copies being known; Der So
cializt, published in Berlin; the Alarm,
which comes from Chicago; La Cues
tone Sociale, an italian paper printed
in Paterson, n. J.; FL Porvenir Anar-
Quista, from Barcelona, Spain; Gazeta
Robotnicza, a Polish publication from
Chicago; Volne Listy, q New York
anarchistic paper in the Czechish
tongue; Freedom, the great organ of
the London agitators; the Beacon,
printed in San Franchises; LIE Tempre
Nouveau, Prince Krapotkin's paper,
and Caserio, which appears in Buenos
Ayres, the capital of the Argentine Re-
public. These periodicals are printed
IN English, German, French, all the
Scandinavian languages, new Greek,
Italian, Polish. Russian, Slavonic,
Czechish, Spanish, Yiddish and many
other dialects and languages.
On the opening of Columbia's one
hundred and ffftieth year in the
autumn the entire collection VIII be
placed conspicuously on view in the
university library. A member of the
foofaIfu who cnocia1izad in this