Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-03-08
The Observer.

few weeks ago the Observer was
reading "Henry Esmond" for the first
time, be will contide to the reader, and
was glad to get the first hand views of
Dick Steele and Marlborough which
that charming novel by Thackeray
affords. Through his interest in Mari
borough, the Observer was beguiled
into reading a chapter or two in
Knights popular History of Eng
land y A reference in this to MARI
borough's correspondence with Charles
XII of Sweden led the Observer to
drag out from a dusty closet an old
volume, brown with age, entitled His.
toire de Charles XII, Roi de Swedc y
The fly leaves and title page are miss
ing, but there can be no doubt that it
is acopy OF Voltaire's well known work.
1t once belonged to a Young man
who as a student at the University of
Edinburg, saw the decimated ranks OF
the Scots Greys enter the city on their
return from Waterloo in 1915 As this
student was not in the habit of tearing
leaves out of his book, unless, per-
chance, being j SeCCder, he wished to
avoid the scandal of having ia his
/ possession a book bearing the name Of
| Voltaire); il Is almost certaint that he
! bought it second hand Just because
/ the title page was missing, the Obser-
| yer became all the more curious to
! know, possible, what year the book
was printed. Men, in their way, can
! be as idly curious as children-or
women However, it is less reprehen-
sible to try to discover the age of
book than it is to pry into the mystery
of Mrs. Dorcas Youngheart's age
Another indication of the age of the
book is the use of the old fashioned
long SIS which look so much like f's.
When did the long SIS go out of use
An answer to this question would be
of some help in determining the date
of this old book.
search through the Britannica and
Globe Ency yclopedias and the Standard
Dictionary tailed to find the slightest
mention of the old long g. The only
remaining method of finding an answer
to the question was to examine the
Typography of such old books as were
at hand Here, for instance is a vol
ume of Puritan sermons published in
London in 1858; also Latin handbook
of Calivinistic theology, published in
Amsterdam in 1921; volume of Jona-
than Edwards, discourses published in
London in 1895; a copy of Principal
CampbelPs book in refutation of
Hume's celebrated argument against
miracles, reprinted in Philadelphia in
1880; set of Witherspoon's Works,
published by Woodward in Philadel-
phia, in 1902 anda little volume of selec-
tion from Ovid, published in 1909. In
all these books the long SIS are used
On the other hand, set of Quinctilian
(1810), set of Christopher Swarts
Horace (1S12) and Greek Testament
Al l.
This trivial investigation goes to
show that the long went out of use
with the year 1909; and consequently
the copy of ''Voltaire's Historic de
Charles KIP, was printed at some time
previous to that date. In appearance
it is older than the copy of Edward s
Discourses (1795). The presence of
catch words at the bottom of the page,
Ia usuge no longer observed when the
copy of "Edward's' was printed) con
firms the story told by the darkened
paper and faded ink. 1t is not prob.
able that the book was printed later
than 1890, and its dates may easily
have been a decade earlier. The first
edition of "Charles XII" appeared sur.
reptitiously in Rouen in 1881. Voltaire
died in 1878.
Really, it makes not two cents differ
ence whether this mutilated old book
was published in 1871 or 1881; but the
quest for its date has thrown a little
light on the final dates of long SIS and
the catch words at the foot of the page.
Yes, the "Histoire" contains an in
teresting account of highly charact.
eristic interview between the two
greatest generals of their age
Speaking of 'Henry Esmond," it is
novel that is in every way worthy of
the great heart and splendid intellect
of Thackeray.