Evening star., 1935-03-31
Tales of Well-KnOwn Folk
In Literature, Art, Politics
President Roosevelt, Dame Crowley, Robert
Anthony Eden Make Good Print-Chinese His
tory at Confessional Owen Book.

lected from Charleston and its i'm
mediate vicinity, except the 70 in the
associations permanent collection and
the 80 from the collection of Mr.. Her.
bert Lawton of Boston. He adds, Had
there been funds for express and in
surance beyond the limits OF the
county an equal number of merit could
have been gathered within the State"
Mr. WhitelaW speaks of the very high
and artistic standard of the work,
which ranges from the early seven
teenth century to the year 1860. A
seventeenth century enamel of Peter
the Great, given as present by the
Gar to the ancestor of a Charles
tonian, is in this collection, which in
cludes Englehart, Smart, Sicardi, Isa-
bey and Davis, and superb Cosway
OF 1892, which was never before at
tributed or exhibited, but when opened
was found to be signed and dated"
Henry Benbridge has the largest
group in the exhibit, and next is the
Is ivories by Pierre Henri, Paris.
Malibone has 10 fine worries, Fraser
20 and Trumbull 2. There are two
miniatures of George Washington.
One after Smart; one enamel by
Birch, dated 1897, which was a gift
by Gen. Washington to Gov. Edward
Rutledge of South Carolina. There
also is listed miniature of Lafayette,
painted by Fraser when the marquis
visited Charleston in 1925.
It gives one an awfully dopey feel
ing to wander around in a Chinese
library where there are rows and rows
of curiously looking books done up in
black cardboard cartons, which are
held shut by funny little gadgets made
of Chinese wood or bamboo, and on
the backs the titles are lettered in red
or yellow-lookS as il a chicken had
stepped in pot of paint.
1t does not, however, seem at all
queer to DR.. Arthur w. Hummel, chief
of the Division of Orientalia, in the
Library Of Congress, because he
spends hours day wandering around
IN the stacks and thinks nothing of
taking down volume a thousand or
TWO years old and reading few pages
There may be five or six unbound
volumes in one of these cartons-they
resemble large pamphlets, are printed
or beautiful rice paper and are fas-
cinating to look at.
DR.. Hummel is so used to ancient
tones, manuscripts, Chinese art and
dynasties that he quite naturally
speaks in cycles of a thousand or two
years and an Illuminated manuscript
of the early Christian era, or an edi-
tion de luxe Of the IA or Is centuries
would seem to him like the latest
best seller. He talks about China
and the Chinese Just as If they were
his neXt-door neighbors-he lived for
is years in the Celestial Empire,
speaks their language and seems to
understand their psychology.
This Chinese library in the Library
of Congress, of which DR.. Hummel
has charge. is collection of 1853 900
volumes printed wholly in the Chi
nese language and Is the largest out
side Of China and Japan. DR.. Hum
mel says that the year around it is the
gathering place for students of all
natlonalitles who wish to do authori-
tative research on the politics. Ian
guage, literature and history of the
Oldest extant civilization of the earth.
The largest encyclopedia in the world
is in this library; it was printed some
time in the eighteenth century. It's
awfully interesting to know that the
Library of Congress sells annually
more OF its printed catalogue cards to
China than to any other country of
the world
"Yu Hal Chu yuan" that means
"A Sea Of Jade an Ocean of Pearls
and that means "A Vast Repository Of
Precious Things; Dr. Hummel, ex-
plains that this metaphor, which is
on the gorgeous plaque one sees from
the reading desk in the reading room
of the Library of Congress, is bor-
rowed from the storehouse of Chinese
literary illusions; is one employed by
men of letters when they wish to refer
to a great library filled with rare
ltems-in this particular instance
the Library of Congress.
The plaque hangs in MIR. Martin
A. Roberts Office on the wall facing
the reading room Of the Library and
is plainly seen through the middle
arch of the alcove. It is over 8
feet long and IS inches wide and is
decorated with four large characters
In gold 18 inches high on a back
ground Of dark blue; these characters
read from right to left Chinese FASH
ion, mean Jade Sea Pearl Ocean"
The plaque is the gift of the great
national library of China to the
great national library Of the United
States.
The characters were made by one
of the finest calligraphers of the
Chinese Republican, less a person