New-York tribune., 1909-02-14
GDe NemDork gribnqts
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY IA. 1909.

To competent biographers and to equally COM
s,tent editors of the correspondence Of celeb
rites we may be duly grateful, but gratitude
need not blind us to a defect which is often
exasperatingy displayed. Why do they IN
many cases tacitly demand that the general
public for whom they labor shall have such
phenomenal memory as to be always able TO
distinguish in their collections the newly dis
covered letters from those printed in previous
-.litions or in other collections? Not one reader
in a thousand can do this or can fail TO resent
the editors expectation that he shall do it The
student who has leisure for The task of turning
over many volumes may satisfy himself on this
point of the presentation of fresh material;
but it must be said that he could find more
useful occupation for his spare moments. Pos
sibIy, too, the necessary books may not be at
hand-and if they are why give him the trouble
of searching? Why should not the new letters
be indicated in some unobtrusive fashion! Gan
it lie that the desire TO add greater Importance
to his book sometimes leads the author to thus
mingle old and new in an effort to conceal the
actual slenderness of his fresh material? There
is no good reason for the practice, and there Is
q certain disingenuouSneSs about it
When we consider that one OF the most fas-
cinating things in the world is a search for
buried treasure Of whatever sort we can Dut
wonder that the owners Of great fortunes miss
so sure a source of eXhiarating enjoyment 10
read Professor Lancanis latest report concern
fng the probabilities awaiting the eXcaVator IN
Rome is to realize how slowly, after all, the
story of the ancient city has been drawn to the
surface He reminds us that large part OF
the contents OF the Capitoline Temple of Ju-
piter lies in q mass of ruin many feet deep at
the foot of the hill down which it rolled long
ago and that every time an accidental search
has been made in it documents concerning the
history of the world have been found in guam
titles" He does not forget moreover, to men,
tiOn the gold nuggets placed under the fGunda-
tions of the temple when the first stones we're
Iaid-and those nuggets rest there still. He IS
certain that an important document on the
Social War which has just been published by
order of the Archaeological Commission came
from those rains below the Capitol, having been
discovered, doubt, by a workman engaged
in raising the foundations of a new house
Engraved upon that bronze Sheet, says Ian
ciani in The Athenaeum," "is one of the most
interesting pages in the history of the Civil
War and the life Of the Roman leader Cn1euS
Pompeius Strabo, the father of the triumvir.
1t speaks of a review of the army held at Ascoh
PicenO by the commander in chief, Of the re
wards granted to infantry and cavalry army
corps, of the cOuntries-mostly Spanish-from
which the men had been drafted, and Of other
unpublished historical details of Pompcus's
campaign" So much for material precious 10
the historian, Some splendid works of art
have been lately found and will presently be
ensIIrined in the museums Meanwhile new
law is being debated in the Italian Senate
law calculated TO give the state absolute power
over any finds made private property.
MI Kipl;ng we are told, has written Teg
long novel. following in the wake of other au-