Mrs. George M. Woodward, by a large gift of American magazines, has helped to complete many sets.

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions has presented the original passport given by the Sultan of Turkey to the Rev. Rufus Anderson, an honored, early missionary of the Board. One of Worcester's leading Armenians has kindly translated this interesting manuscript broadside:

MR. ANDERSON, eminent in learning and a nobleman of America, in company with an indigenous servant and interpreter, has made application to us through the United States embassy, for a written permit, to enable him to travel by land and sea towards Beyroot, holy Jerusalem, holy Damascus and Cairo of Egypt.

During his travels to and from these places, all the clergy, students and governors, members of councils and all others in authority in those states, must honor and protect the said nobleman, that he may return safe and thus our royal command be carried out.

The servant who accompanies him is not one of those who takes an assumed name nor he dress in European attire, but is, nevertheless, a true American.

During their sojourn in Constantinople or in their travels in the above mentioned places, whenever they may tarry and on their return and whenever requested and in accordance with my Royal commands, their necessities should be obtained and delivered to them and payment be demanded for them. Never to annoy or discomfort them but give them due respect and protection.

Dated 1260 Mohamedan era
1844 Christian era
Literally translated from the orignal by Michael H. Topanelian.
Worcester, Mass., A. D. 1905.

We make special acknowledgment of the many bibliographical aids supplied by the Library of Congress through Dr. Herbert Putnam, its efficient head.

The first twenty volumes of the "Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections" were received from our late associate Hon. James V. Campbell of Detroit, upon application of the librarian. Volumes 21-32 have reached us with the following gracious letter:

LANSING, MICH., December 2, 1904. I have your letter of Nov 29th. We will send you by express the volumes of the Pioneer and Historical Collections, which are necessary to complete your file. We are very glad to do this as a tribute to the memory of our honored and revered Judge Campbell. In the books we are about to send you will notice vol. 30 is lacking. This volume has not yet been published.

Very truly yours,
MARY C. SPENCER,
State Librarian.

The Worcester County Law Library Association has thoughtfully furnished a framed photograph of their Vinton portrait of the Honorable George F. Hoar. It has been placed in the office with the portraits of the other Presidents of the Society.

Two copies of the rare volume two of our Archæologia Americana have been secured by purchase, both containing manuscript notes. The brief "notes and queries" in one copy are by the late Judge Hiram W. Beckwith of Dansville, Illinois, from whose library it was obtained. The other copy is backed in gilt, Archæologia | Americana | 2 | Synopsis of Indian Tribes; and upon the fly-leaf in ink "Mr. Schoolcraft | St. Mary's | with Mr. Gallatin's respects. At the end of the Synopsis Mr. Gallatin has added extra pages 419-422 in print, the first two pages containing "Supplementary Cherokee Transitions," with notes by Mr.Gallatin and the Rev Mr. Worcester: the others marked "Errata and Corrections" are followed by a note of the Publishing Committee. Not only are the Errata double in number but they do not wholly agree with those in the regular issue. There are also some erasures which are not noted even in Mr. Gallatin's

revised Errata. All changes in the text have been made with ink, by the author. The present interest in Indian linguistics is perhaps a sufficient excuse for this brief statement, to which the special attention of our associates, Drs. Hale and Chamberlain is called.

We have been able from time to time to throw light upon the evolution of the American public library. The social libraries, lyceums, reading clubs, village libraries, etc., suggest some of the early forms taken by this important movement. The brief official record of the "BoardingHouse Library" established at Worcester in the year 1817, is here preserved. The minor entries of the clerk and treasurer, which are for the years 1817-19, 1821 and 1822, relate to the purchase of books with the receipts therefor, and the payment of dues. The agreement, which contains nineteen signatures, is apparently in the handwriting of Isaac Goodwin clerk-an honored member of this Society for twenty years and of its Council from 1825 until his death in 1832. Following is the compact:

"C. C. Pleas, Worcester, December term, 1817. The subscribers, members of the bar of the County of Worcester, desirous of purchasing a small number of useful law books for their mutual accommodation, during the sitting of the Courts in Worcester, agree to pay into the hands of such person as a majority shall designate as their treasurer, the sum of fifty cents each at the present term, and twenty-five cents at each of the succeeding terms of the C. C. Pleas for the year next ensuing the date hereof and for such further time as two thirds of the members for the time being shall agree upon, to be appropriated for the purchase of the books aforesaid.

And they hereby mutually agree each for himself with all the others that the books to be purchased as aforesaid shall be kept in the town of Worcester at the house occupied by a majority of the members of this Association as a boarding house, and shall not be carried therefrom on any occasion unless by the permission of such majority.

And they severally agree as aforesaid, that if any one of the members of this Association shall voluntarily leave the said boarding house he shall be considered as having relinquished his interest in said books for the benefit of those who may remain, and for such others as may be admitted parties to this agreement in manner hereafter provided.

And it is furthur mutually agreed, by the parties aforesaid that no person other than the original parties to this agreement shall become members of this Association without the consent of a majority of the members for the time being, and paying to their treasurer two thirds of the sum that shall have then been paid by each of the original members.

Worcester, Decr. 11, 1817."

I present the following letters from our Associate Dr. Kingsbury:

WATERBURY, CONN., Oct. 11, 1904.

EDMUND M. BARTON, ESQ., Librarian, etc.,
Dear Sir:-

There is, or was a few years since, a word in common use in Eastern Massachusetts, to wit "Cornwallis," in regard to the origin of which, as it was there used, I have been much puzzled.

I think I first saw it in Hosea Biglow's letter where he says,

"Didn't we have lots of fun, you'n I an' Ezry Hollis,
Down to Waltham Plain last fall, a havin' the Cornwallis?"

and in the Article "Cambridge" in the "Fireside Traveller" Lowell says, "The Cornwallis had entered upon the estate of the old Guy Fawkes procession, confiscated by the Revolution," from which I judge that the Cornwallis' was a burlesque military performance, like what we in Connecticut used to call "The Invincibles," and which I think was sometimes called the "Antiques and Horribles," this evidently being a play on the title of the "Ancient and Honorable" Artillery Company of Boston.

I cannot learn that the name 'Cornwallis' was used in Western Massachusetts, but lately to my great surprise, I came across it used in Eastern New York with apparently the same sense that it had in Eastern Massachusetts.

In the diary of a Connecticut boy, Daniel Garnsey, of Waterbury, then about 21, kept while visiting, or temporarily residing, at New City, now the shire town of Rockland County in the State of New York, under date of Nov. 6, 1781, he writes: "went through Warwick, where was an ox roasting for the Cornwallis. A huge number of misses, women and children gathered around it and among them many fashionable ladies, all very earnest and much excited."

I had supposed that the name Cornwallis was a post-revolutionary title given to this sham military performance as a slur on the military abilities of the defeated general, but this use of the word in a way that

shows it to be apparently a phrase of common usage certainly points to an earlier introduction. Whether its use spread from New York to Massachusetts or vice-versa there is nothing here to indicate, although this application of the word seems more like a piece of Massachusetts humor. Cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown was less than three weeks before the date above given in the diary, hardly more than time for the news to have reached that point and certainly not long enough for the word to have been applied to this use and adapted as a part of the vernacular. All this points to some earlier date and apparently to some specific occasion as having given rise to the application of the word in this sense.

Mr. James L. Whitney of the Boston Library, to whose attention I called the phrase, suggests that as Cornwallis had been in the country five or six years the name may have been first applied on some previous occasion. This is plausible; but when and why? There is just a possibility that this New York State celebration was one of a number immediately following Cornwallis's capture, and that there was genuine rejoicing, of which Cornwallis's defeat was the occasion, and that afterward the celebrations, while retaining the name, lapsed in dignity until they became a mere burlesque. Indeed, on reflection this appears to me a quite probable solution. But I would like either a confirmation or a confutation.

It has occurred to me that there might exist in your library some material known to you which would throw some light on the question. If not I leave it as a nut to be cracked by students of "words and their uses." Truly yours, FREDERICK J. KINGSBURY. SBUR

Oct. 21, 1904.

My Dear MR. BARTON:

I have another note in Garnsey's diary concerning his visit to Warwick, viz.: "Nov. 6, Thro. Warwick, where great number of people gathered for public rejoicing for the taking of Cornwallis, and whole ox a roasting." This shows that my conjecture as to the use of the word in that place was correct, but leaves us in the dark as to how the Massachusetts use came about.

Yours truly, FREDERICK J. KINGSBURY.

Mention of the Cornwallis is to be found in Senator Hoar's "The Life of a Boy Sixty Years Ago." See The Youth's Companion of March 10, 1898. After quoting three verses from Lowell's famous ballad "The Courtin'" he writes: "We did not have fire-places like this in my father's house although they were common in the farmer's houses round about. We ought to have had the old King's arms. My great-grandfather, Abijah Pierce of Lincoln, was at Concord bridge in the Lincoln Company, of which his son-in-law, Samuel Hoar, was lieutenant. He had been chosen Colonel of the regiment of the Minutemen the day before, but had not qualified and had not got his