Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-02-03
ONE OF PRICELESS RELICS IN J..
r. MoRGAN's LIBRARY.
New York MuIti-MilIionaire Also
Owns the Original Manuscript
of Milton's Paradise
Lost.

loaned at the request OF the Columbia
university trustees for a three weeks
public exhibition.
The poem has never been published.
It's title is "The Bear Hunt" and the
first two stanzas are:
A wild bear chase didst ever see?
Then hast thou lived in vain;
Thy richest bump of glorious glee
Lies desert in thy brain.
When first thy father settled here,
Twas then the frontier line;
The panther's scream filled night with
fear
And bears preyed on the swine.
The poem is written in the large,
Lincoln, but perhaps most readers
will agree with the sentiment ex-
pressed by Prof. Shnkhovitch, who is
in charge of the photographed de-
partment of the university:
81 have always had a great ad-
miration for Abraham Lincoln and the
broad wisdom of his public utter
ances," he said, 'but 1 must confess
that he hardly comes up to my esti-
mate of poets standard.
1--WE have about $50 volumes of
manuscripts here and after made my
selections from Mr.. Morgan's library
you would hardly have noticed that
anything had been removed. 1t is a
most remarkable object lesson of the
vastness of Mr. Morgans literary ma
terial."
A small case at the entrance con-
tains four of the finest things in the
room-Milton's original manuscript of
the first book of Paradise Lost" some
poems and letters of Tasso in bold,
sharp hand; the original warrant I'M
der which John Bunyan was arrested,
which resulted in his incarceration for
several months, in which time he
wrote Pilgrims Progress" and Rob-
ert Southeys manuscript copy of his
Life of Bunyan."
Another choice bit is a splendid let
ter of Oliver Cromwell to his wife,
written in September, 1850, and it is
much easier to read than the hand
writing of many modern notables.
Thackeray is represented with his
complete manuscript of Vanity Fair"
but perhaps the most interesting re-
hinder of the popular novelist is his
little diary of his American visit in
1852.
John Keats manuscript of his long
poem, "Endymion," and the ode to
Psyche" will not attract the sympa-
thetic interest that will be given to a
little three-lined note written in a
scrawling hand, the last pathetic mes
sage to Fanny Brawne, with whom he
was in love, and, says an explanatory
note, ''the premonition that he would
not be long i'll was too true, as he died
few months later at Rome"
Lord Byron's long manuscript of
"Don juan is full Of interest. There
are many erasures, and it contains
number of stanzas that were never
printed.
Some of the other choice things in
clude Charles Dickens manuscripts of
the christmas Carol" Sketches of a
Young Gentleman" and Holiday Ro-
NANCE" Wilkie Collins Woman in
White" and "The Moonstone," Bulwer
Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii,"
Charlotte Bronte's "The Professor"
Thomas Moores "Lalla Rookh," Dry
denis manuscript of "Eleonora," and
then volumes of Sir Walter Scott's
writings. including 'Ivanhoe," Waiver
ly,'' "Old Mortality" 1.-THE Monastery"
and "Tales of My Landlord"
American writer's are represented by
James Fenimore Cooper's "Deerslay-
err" John Fishes Destiny of Man.
and Through Nature to God,'' Edgar
Allan Poe's "The Bells" consisting of
three or four sheets pasted together,
beautifully written, but badly SCARED
in places and stained as though res
cued from a watery grave; Washing
ton Irving's Conquest Of Granada"
Oliver Wendell Holmes "Autocrat Of
the Breakfast Table" Walt Whitman's
DIARY of the War" and Ethiopia Sa-
luting the Colors,' written in a large,
heavy hand; Whittier's unpublished
poem, ''Vathek," and several others.
Among the interesting letters are
several from Benjamin Franklin and
the complete autograph manuscripts
relating to the siege of Yorktown and
the surrender of CORVALLIS bound in
handsome volume. The letter which
appears on top, written entirely in
Corvallis hand on October II, 1871,
Is his offer of surrender, which virtual
Iy closed the war for independence. 1t
is short, but very much to the point,
as follows:
81 propose a cessation of hostilities
for q hours and that two officers may
be appointed by each side to meet at
Mr.. Moores house to settle terms for
the surrender of the ports of York
town and Gloucester"
Washington's famous letter to James
Madison requesting the latter to write
forawaII address for him and ont