The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-18
A RARE LIBRARY.
Governor Pennypacker's Books Soon
 To Be Sold.

To Be Sold.
 Whatever difference Of opinion may exist as to the executive policies ana performances of the present governor of the state of Pennsylvania mere can be but one notion as to his ability keen judgement and industry as collector of books, when shortly the library, which he has spent something like forty years in coIecting' shall be placed upon the market for sale. Gov ernor Pennypacker's library contains between 14,O0O and 15,O00 volumes, all relating to the history of PennsyVanla' and especially to the history Of print ing in this State. The number Of in existence is~unusual, but aside from this every volume has been selected for a purpose, and in the few cases where the title is not of great interest it will nevertheless be found that some portion of the contents is of particular value.
 No such collection of Franklin inn prints is owned by any individual or institution as is in this library. It alone excels in number and importance , that purchased by the government Tor the Congressional Library from Henry I Stevens, of, London, for $35,OO0 Though 1 the Boston Athenaeum has been colect- ing Franklin imprints fer fifty years, i it's showing is not nearly so complete. i MT. Henkels says this is because Coy ernor Pennypacker was in the right place to find the best of such matter, and whenever it was necessary went ! aF Tn fhn Franklin 1 collection are many autograph letters, Including one to the philosophers friend, Strahan, .. the publisher, in which he gives notes of Burkes speech before Parliament on the Stamp Act, taken by Franklin himself while he was in London as the agent of the American colonies.
 ! Among the imprints are a number of books from Franltlin's own library, fn- cluding his personal copy of his work on electricity. Then there is series of colonial and continental legal ten- der notes printed for the government by Franklin, though it is not generally known that Franklin did such work. There is also great mass. of Franl1liniana, consisting of biog- raphies and eulogies, complete file of
 "The Pennsylvania Gazette" which
 Franklin published, and many broad sides and proclamaticns printed for
 the government.
 Several things in the Washington
 library are hard to choose from in the
 matter of interest and valueand of these some are the only existing copies. One little book is composed principally of
 pamphlets, separately printed and sign-
 ed and presented to washington by
 their authors, relating to the founding of the city of Washington and the es-
 tablishment of the seat of government
 there. These bound into one volume
 by Washington with his own. hands
 it's creditable job, too-and on the in-
 side of the cover is Washington's book plate while on the title page of the first pamphletis his signature, Into the same volume is bound . printed
 Prayer Composed for the Benefit of
 the Soldiery in the American Army. to Assist Them in Their Personal Deyo- tions. and yRecolnmended to Their Part
 icular Use. by .Abiel Leonard. A. NJ,
 Chaplain to General Putnam's Regi-
 ment in Said Army. Cambridge.
 Printed and Sold by S. and P. Hall
 1775." The prayergi is eight pages in
 length, which, as MT. ,Henlsels suggests
 may account for the success of the American cause.ut Mir, Henkels says he would gladly pay $1OO page for this
 prayer, This book, in its entirely, he
 sold to Governop ,Pennypacker about
 fifteen years ago, It is now worth al
 least $2,OOO or $S,OOO. While other
 copies of some of the pamphlets may be
 in existence, the binding of them into
 this volume and the book plate and signature of Washington make it uni-
 que. .s.
 Another quaint volume is Advice to a Son." printed in 1716, and already q : family relic when 1t fell into Wash
 ington's hands. It was originally own ed by and contains the signature of John Custis, grandfather of Martha
 Washington's first huband, from whom
 it descended to Daniel Parke Custis,
 thence to Martha Washington, and so
 on down to Lawrence Lewis, Washing |. tons favorite nephew and son of Betty Washington, who married Fielding Lewis. Governor ;Pennypacker get the
 book from the Lewis estate.
 , An earlier print than this, also owned by John Custis, is, "A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement oi
 Their True and Greatest Interest. In Two Parts. By Lover of Her Sex :. London, 1697." This volume appears ,, to have been given by John Custis tc r his wife and perhaps she needed it, as . noted by Governor Pennypacker on thu fly leaf of the volume, Custis caused .. to be engraved on his tombstone his |, name and station, followed by the in :, scription: Aged seventy-one years
 and yet lived but seveA years, whicf
 was the space of time he kept a bache 0 lor' home at Arlington, on the Easterr
 Shore of Virginia"
 Among the Washingtonina the lives sermons and eulogies are some O : them exceedingly rare, especially z selection of lessons for reading ant . speaking complied by Noah Webste a and containing the rare portrait O
 Washington by Trenchard. In tht '. caricatures, of which there are some ' thing over one hundred, is one, the on ? ly thing of the kind ever made il which a portrait of Washington ap l tbSs ,oTtro;t' ;e .