The Cape weekly tribune. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1914, 1914-02-27
WOULD Be PRICELESS
ARcHAEoLoGlsTs HOPE TO FIND
LIBRARY OF RUSSIAN GAR.
Possibility That the Wonderful collee-
tion Made by Ivan the Terrible
May Net Have Been Destroyed
In the Great Fire Of 1872.

short time ago a professor o
theology in the university at St Pc
tCrsburg, Russia. purchased at a shoI
in Moscow a manuscript copy of the
Gospels dating from prior to 4. y
1000. On examination ii was found tc
have belonged to the great library col
lectcd in his youth by Ivan the Terri
Bile, when he believed that he had a
divine mission. This library was sup.
posed to have been burned in the
great fire of Moscow of 1872.
ON subsequent visit to Moscow the
professor traced his book to the fam
lily Of a labor"r, WHO said that he had
found IT. with several similar volumes
in subtorranean passage near the
Krcmlin
The famous library of Ivan the Ter
riblo is now supposed to be- still hid.
den in some underground vault, which
the efforts of generations have hther-
TO failed to discover 1t was Ivan the
TcrrblC-w whose reputation as a great
ruler has been obsCurcd by the fas-
Cinatiun of his extraordinary excuses
who established the printing press
in Russia.
There is wide field of conjecture
as TO what might not come to light in
the event of this curious library one
day being discovered Ivan the Terri
BILE was in close communication with
all the rulers Of our hemisphere from
London to Picking; one branch Of
knowledge is almost certain to be we'll
represented in this lost library, and
that is the sCenCc of black magic. 1t
is equally likely that new codices Of
Holy Scripture may yet come to light
for Ivan the Terrible undertook to
print the Scriptures in the vulgar
tongue. Only one thing Is certain
that such library existed and has
never been found nor is it even known
to have persisted in any of the numer-
Gus fires that devastated Moscow
References in the archives to its ex-
istenCe. as we'll as to the existence OF
the subtCrranCan rOadways. are SUN.
clcnt to whct the kccncst curiosity,
but not enough to afford much practi.
cal assistance t. the investigator
Apart from changes of surface feat.
ures in the Kremltn the level Of the
soil is six or eight feet above what il
was in the sixteenth century It is no
doubt the knowledge. an unpleasantly
vague knowledge, of the existence OF
these underground passages which
causes the police on every occasion OF
an imperial visit to Moscow to seal up
with wire and a lead seal every single
opening, cellar shoot, surface drainage
grid, to be found anywhere over the
area of the Krcmlln, and frequently to
inspect the integrity of these seals.
Legends of a labyrinth of under
ground passages have been current
among the pOpuaca for centuries, but
1t Is only within the last decade or so
that the very extensive building enter.
prise on modern lines undertaken in
Russia's premier capital has given
substance to these ancient legends
When the main drainage scheme had
been in operation a few years the al
teration of subsOil conditions caused
sinking of the foundations of many
of tho more massive public buildings,
which had TO be underpinned while
new ereCtons required much deeper
excavation In order that a secure
foundation might be reached 1t was
In course of these operations that
many underground passages came to
light. and eventually the newly fledged
societies interested in the preserva.
ton of monuments of antiquity at.
tempted to deal with the matter from
the historical standpoint