The San Francisco call., 1904-04-18
4 Remarkable Index.
snecin1 corresnondenee.

GARDEN. LONDON, April 5.-In Lon
don there viii be completed in the next
month or so one Of the biggest tasks of
a literary kind ever perhaps under
taken by any one man. This is the
work to which the late Benjamin
Franklin Stevens United States dis
patch agent in London for over forty
years, devoted large part of his life
the making Of a complete index of all
the official documents that exist on this
side Of the ocean regarding the Ameri-
can Revolution and the making Of
peace thereafter.
II is difficult to give a true idea Of
how tremendous an undertaking this
was. but il occupied Mr.. Stevens and
the twenty or more assistants, whom
he paid out Of his own pocket. over
thirty years TO gather the necessary
material At the end OF that time they
had catalogued all the documents re-
lating to the revolution in the posses
sion Of the British Government. in pri-
vate collections in this country and all
those in the Government archives Of
France. Spain and Holland, the three
European powers concerned in the
war. The documents thus catalogued
immense index in which the character
and location of every one Of them is
indicated fills $50 folio volumes. each
containing about 500 pages.
Mr. Stevens kept no actual record Of
the amount Of money which he spent
upon this work. but estimated that it
was in the neighbOrhood of s100. 900.
He died two years ago, leaving the
work unfinished. All the material was
in hand, however, and for the most
part already Incorporated in handsome
j. bound volumes. Mrs. Stevens and
her late husbands partner Immediately
sat about completing the index, and
the last ten volumes Of it are now be-
ing bound.
Stevens expectation was at the be-
ginning that the United States Gov
ernment, recognizing the Importance of
the work be had planned, would fur
nish the funds for carrying il out, and
his final hope was that Congress would
buy the index for the Congressional
Library. but though a bin to that ef-
feet was reported favorably on by two
committees of the House of Repre-
sentatives the matter never got any
further.
Benjamin Franklin Stevens, who was
a Nermonter. came to London in 1860
he already had had a good deal of ex-
perience with historical documents. for
as assistant 70 his father who was
president Of the Vermont Historical
and Antiquarian Society, he had copied
many old state papers, both at Albany
and Boston. Mr.. Stevens had been in
London three or four years when it be-
came necessary that he should make
some transcriptions Of documents in
the public record Office Of England re-
lating to New Jersey. and then it was
that he discovered that to these, as to
the other documents concerning Amer
lea in different British and foreign re-
positories. there was absolutely no in
dex. II soon became evident to Mr.
Stevens that he would be called upon
10 make constant reference to dOcu-
ments OF this kind for several years
10 come, so he began making careful
notes Of each one Of them that passed
through his hands. with the result that
in 1852 he had gathered no end Of ma
terial.
In 1881 Secretary Of State Bayard
wrote TO James Russell Lowell then
American Embassador 10 the Court Of
81. James. that in view Of the prepara-
tions then being made in the Uni
ted States for celebrating the one
hundredth anniversary Of the recogni-
tion Of American independence. il was
desired TO gain permission from the
British Government 10 make as com
plete as possible an index to the
American historical documents I'm the
archives of Great Britain. This per-
mission was granted and Mr. Dwight.
Chief of the Bureau Of Rolls and Ii
brary. was sent over 10 make the index.
but when he got here the magnitude Of
the task that he had undertaken stag
gered him. He could not possibly give
the time TO fl that would have been
necessary, so he returned to the United
States without having accomplished
anything
Then il was that Benjamin F. Stevens
communicated with the State Depart
ment. describing the work he had al
ready done toward indexing the Euro
pean Americana and offering TO COM
plete his task on behalf Of the Govern
ment. Much official correspondence
followed ana Mr.. Stevens. who had the
support of Lowell. Edward Everett
Hale and many other distinguished
Americans, was so much encouraged
that he went on steadily with his task
In England he was given every facility
by the Government officials, and in
France, Spain and Holland the various
representatives of the United States
aided him. The matter came before
Congress in 1884 and 1887; but. as has
been said, never got beyond the COM
mittee stage.
The $50 volumes which contain Mr..
Stevens index are written entirely by
hand in a "copper-plate" that is de-
light 10 the eye And to show with
what infinite care this monumental
index was prepared, it may be said
that the volumes consist Of three sets,
fifty OF which give list of the Euro
pean historical Americana in the order
in which the documents appear in their
volumes in the different foreign ar
chives, 100 Of which give the papers in
Chronological order with q description