Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-03

To have a hobby in book collecting
! IL no less a useful thing than to have
hobby IN life.
| Books themselves are, of course. a
h~bhy. but when one has certain aims
In their gathering he hes what may be
termed a hobby within hobby. some
+, thing like Poe's dream within a
dream
We were at the home recently of a
gentleman who hfs made speciality of
! LwO classes of books. those of the an
Client authors particularly those of
I;ome and Greece, and French litera-
ture.
There seemed something appropriate
! about these two great loves. AS faI
apart as time has placed them, they
unite as one in being truly great end
| highly consistent with the best in lit
. CT ture.
1t was genuine pleasure to look
over the well stocked shelves and to
see what one without special equipment
might do in his chosen book hobbies.
Our friend is by no means a scholar
in the general acceptance of that term.
His collections of ancient authors are
wholly in English translation, and
therefore might not meet with the APP
prevail of the purists.
Little he would care for their scorn.
HIS books have been collected solely to
suit one person. himself: on that basis
and none other he has got together a
very creditable array of the fine old au-
thors to whom the world is In debt.
He began as boy with an old set OF
Plutarch, which he picked off the tables
OF secondhand book store
Good old Plutarch!
Readers who are trying valiantly to
keep up with the new books" should
go beck end catch up with the old ones.
And how could they bsgn better than
By reading Plutarch?
What wonderful old fellow he was.
with his insa tiable curiosity, always
eager to hear Some good story about a
nero and not chary about setting It
down for posterity to read.
1t Is good history, too, AS far as It
goes. If 1t is not "documt nted" as well
as some might wish it more than makes
up for 1t by the interest of the indi-
vidual lives.
Dip in anywhere and come out with
memory. Here is the life Of Camillus.
brave Furius Camillus. one of the he
roes OF the Roman republic, who lived
about 400 years BIC.
The Gauls came down on Rome, Law.
ing waste the land as they came. Out
side the walls they were met bv a Ro.
man army, which was defeated.
Inside the city terror reigned. All
who could fed, but the high priests
and the elderly Senators thought such
flight beneath them.
Calmly they seated themselves in
their ivory chairs in the forum, and
clad IN their best robes. and leaning
on their long STATS they waited for the
entrance OF the barbarians.
When these gentlemen entered thev
Immediately went to the forum. This
was sight new and amazing to the
Galils.
The grave Romans sat without NOV
ing, making no sound. creating such
an impression that at first the bar
barians felt that they we're in the pres
ence of group of superior beings.
For while they stood in awe. but
at last one Gaul, drawer than the rest,
reached forward and touched the nose
and stroked the long beard OF one
Marcus Paperius.
This was too much for Marcus.
Raising his staff. he smote the bar
barian a wicked crack on, the head.
This was too much for the barbarian.
He drew his sword and Topped of
the head of Marcus Paperius.