E/1 Library Letter from 'The Boston U!Thenteum

ATHE ITE

e/1 Library 'The Boston Letter from u!thenteum

No. 68 MARCH 1958

The Let-it-Alone Club R. SULLIVAN, in his Boston Old and New, observed that Hin one of Miss Beatrice Herford's entertaining monologues a member of the new 'Let-it . Alone Club' explains the purpose of its association: namely, to 'look for something which is getting along perfectly well and then,-just let it alone!'" The butcher stalls on the ground floor of Faneuil Hall are a case in point. As they have been "getting along perfectly well" for upwards of two centuries, many Bostonians feel that they are the ideal project for the "Let-it-Alone Club." Since the appearance of the last issue of A therueum Items, in which the views of the Massachusetts Histori cal Society, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities on this matter were summarized, two spirited and witty defenses of the butcher stalls-one in verse and the other in prose-have appeared in the Boston press. The Boston Globe published on 1 February one of Francis W. Hatch's lively bal lads1 entitled "In the N arne of Peter Faneuil-Beef Before Baubles." This spirited reminiscence of the delights of buying bacon, broiler, tripe and cheese in Faneuil Hall, which concluded Let tourists come, Let tourists go And carry home belief That Boston Patriots are backed By honest Yankee beef! was a few days later reprinted in the form of a handbill that has circulated widely through the city. A fortnight later, The Pilot's editorial of 15 February intimated that the idea of separating the market from Faneuil Hall-"brought in by gypsies we must imagine" -"might not end till the most awful things had happened. After Faneuil Hall is 'cleaned up' for the tourist traffic, they would wrap the old State House in cellophane and then, we suppose, laminate the gold dome of the new one. Before we knew it we would have a rotary around the 'massacre site' and even the tramps would be thrown off the Common."

"This," continued The Pilot J "may be fine for those who feel some interest in the past but really have no sense of history. For the rest of us it is nonsense. Old things, full of memory, should not be sterilized, polished and wrapped as if to make of the city some precious antiseptic n1useum. Just as long as men buy beef at Faneuil Hall, and men take books from the Boston Athenreum, and lunch is served at Locke-Ober's -Boston and our city and our country will be better for it." Athenreum readers will rejoice in the last sentence, which suggests a more cheerful view of the universe than the old triple requirement of a share in the Athenreum, a lot in Mount Auburn and an uncle in Waverley. Without disrespect to the admirable cemetery and hospital in question, The Pilot's 1958 version of the test of a true Bos tonian is distinctly more genial. A branch of the Let-it-Alone Club is urgently needed in Washington, where at this moment a special Congressional Commission seems bent on squandering some ten millions of public funds in an effort to disfigure the United States Capitol by extending its east front some thirty-two feet and resurfacing it in marble. The central block of the Capitol, based upon designs by Dr. William Thornton and Benjamin H. Latrobe and completed by Charles Bulfinch, was built between 1793 and 1828. The material used was Aquia Creek sandstone-also used in St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston which had to be painted in 1816 to conceal the marks of British fire. The marble wings, which project about thirty-eight feet beyond the central portico, were added (1851-1867) from designs of Thomas U. Walter. Now, in spite of vigorous protests from the American Institute of Architects, the Society of Architectural Historians and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Commission proposes changes that would sabotage the designs created by Thornton, Latrobe and Bulfinch and ap proved by Presidents Washington and Jefferson, in order to make the distinguished central block match the banal mid-nineteenth-century marble wings. Plans for this vandalism were carried forward with the utmost secrecy, and the Architect of the Capitol (a building contractor) took the amazing stand at a public hearing on 17 February that what was done was not the public's business! Such goings on give sub stance to H. L. Mencken's aijegation that the government "is apprehended" by the people it governs "not as a committee of citizens chosen to carry on the communal business of the whole population, but as a separate and autonomous corporation, mainly devoted to exploiting the population for the benefit of its own members." They call not only for more poets like Frank Hatch but for an effective public scold to fill the places left vacant by the deaths of Mencken and Bernard de Voto. House Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin, Jr., of Massachusetts is reported by the Washington Post to be the only member of the five-man Commission for the Extension of the Capitol to oppose this foolishness. Vice-President Nixon, Speaker Rayburn, Senator Knowland and the Architect of the Capitol appear to have adopted as their motto the eighteenth-century line: "Some write their wrongs in marble." Representa tive Martin deserves honorary membership in the Let-it-Alone Club. The Current Exhibition An exhibition of paintings by Professor Ernest Gyimesy Kasas will be on display on the second floor of the Athenreum from 27 March through 12 April. Professor Kasas in his native Hungary had painted nun1erous historical scenes; since his arrival in this country a year ago, after the Hungarian uprising, he has continued to \vork in the same vein but in new historical territory. Thus the paintings being shown at the Athenreum include the arrival of Ma}[lower II at Plymouth last June, Faneuil Hall, Christ Church from Salem Street, Concord Bridge, and a dozen other New England historical scenes. These are not sentimental reconstructions, but records of the sites as they present themselves today to the fresh eye of a European artist. Thus the Paul Revere House and Christ Church appear as the points of interest in sympathetic repre sentations of today's North End. Professor Kasas hopes eventually to continue his series in other parts of the coun try, and to treat in similar fashion Mount Vernon, Gettysburg, and historic sites in Philadelphia, but the present exhibition will introduce his work to New Englanders who might find use for the enthusiasm over the American past of this newly arrived resident. WALTER Mum WHITEHILL

NEW BOOKS OF VARIOUS INTEREST SELECTED FROM THE FULL LIST OF ACCESSIONS Belles Lettres ADAMS, HENRY. A Henry Adams Reader. LATIIMORE, R. A. Poems. ATKINS, JOHN ALFRED. Graham Greene. LAUGHTON, CHARLES, ed. Tell Me A Story. BROOKS, VAN WvcK. From a Writer's Note- rv1 YRA BUTILE, pseud. The Sweeniad. book. PAUL, ELLIOT HAROLD. That Crazy American CARDUS, NEVILLE. Talking of Music. Music. CURLE, R. H. P. Joseph Conrad and His READ, Sir HERBERT. The Tenth Muse. Characters. ROCHER, PIERRE. C'est Tous les Jours Di DUNN, THOMAS ALEXANDER. Philip Massinger. manche. EDEL, L. and LAURENCE, DAN. A Bibliography SCHLUMBERGER, JEAN. Madeleine et Andre of Henry James. Gide. FADIMAN, CLIFTON, ed. Fantasia Mathematica. SLIM, Sir W. J. Courage and Other Broadcasts. FITZGERALD, F. S. K. Afternoon of an STEIN, GERTRUDE. Painted Lace. Author. THODY, PHILIP. Albert Camus. FRAENKEL, EDUARD. Horace. THOMAS, DYLAN. Letters to Vernon Watkins. GLASGOW, ELLEN. Letters. WATSON, M. R. Magazine Serials and the HALLIDAY, F. E. The Cult of Shakespeare. Essay Tradition. JIMt;:NEZ, JuAN RAM6N. Selected Writings. WEBSTER, MARGARET. Shakespeare Today.

Biography • ADAMS, W. S. Edwardian Portraits. COOKE, J. E. Frederic Bancroft, Historian. ADRIAN, A. A. Georgina Hogarth and the FERGUSON, CHARLES W. Naked to Mine Dickens Circle. Enemies. BAKELESS, JoHN E. Background to Glory. HAHN, EMILY. Kissing Cousins. BELMONT, ELEANOR. The Fabric of Memory. HE\VINS, RALPH. Mr. Five Per Cent. BIRRELL, FRANCIS. Gladstone. JOYCE, STANISLAUS. My Brother's Keeper. I '

LOCKHART, Sir R. H. B. Friends, Foes and PUTNAM, CARLETON. Theodore Roosevelt Foreigners. (v. 1). MAUROIS, ANDRE. Les Trois Dumas. RAY, GoRDoN NoRTON. Thackeray. MAUROIS, ANDRE. The Titans. SELLERS, C. G. James K. Polk, Jacksonian. ~IAUROIS, Mme. SIMONE. Miss Howard and SHAW, M. R. B. Laurence Sterne. the Emperor. STIRLING, MoNICA. The Fine and the Wicked. MITFORD, NANCY. Voltaire in Love. VA LOIS, NINETTE DE. Come Dance With Me. MONAHAN, JAMES. Fonteyn. WALWORTH, ARTHUR CLARENCE. Woodrow ~fORGAN, EDMUND SEARS. The Puritan Dilem Wilson (2 v.). ma. WERTH, ALEXANDER. The Strange History of PINCHERLE, MARc. Vivaldi, Genius of the Pierre Mendes-France and the Great Conflict Baroque. over French North Africa.

• Description and Miscellany ATTENBOROUGH, DAVID. Zoo Quest for a ?vfEADOWS, C. A. Trade Signs and Their Dragon. Origins. BELL, CoRYDON. The Wonder of Snow. PHILLIPS, G. L. American Chimney Sweeps. BEMELMANS, LUDWIG, comp. Holiday in RAY, RANDOLPH and STILES, VILLA. My France. Little Church Around the Comer. BOLITHO, HECTOR. No. 10 Downing Street, RIDDELL, JAMES. The Ski Runs of Switzerland. 1660-1900. ROSKILL, STEPHEN WENTWORTH. H.M.S. CLEAVER, HYLTON. A History of Rowing. Warspite. DALZIEL, MARGARET. Popular Fiction 100 SELTMAN, C. T. Wine in the Ancient World. Years Ago. SITWELL, SACHEVERELL. Arabesque and Honey- JOHNSON, WM. BRANCH-. The English Prison comb. Hulks. STEAD, P. J. The Police of Paris. JULLIAN, MARCEL. H.M.S. Fidelity. WEST, V. SACKVILLE. A Joy of Gardening. KEMBLE, J. H. San Francisco Bay. WILLIAMS, GLUYAS. The Gluyas Williams KRANCHE, T. and BRENNECKE, H. J. Gallery. Pocket Battleship. WILLIAMSON, A. and LANDSTONE, C. The LUDLAM, F. H. and SCORER, R. S. Cloud Bristol Old Vic. Study. History and Politics ACHESON, DEAN. Power and Diplomacy. HOCKING, WILLIAM E. The Coming World BOWERS, CLAUDE G. Chile through Embassy Civilization. Windows. JOHNSON, GERALD Wmrn. Peril and Promise. BUTTERFIELD, HERBERT. George III and the JONES, V. C. Eight Hours before Richmond. Historians. KIRK, RussELL. The American Cause. CHURCHILL, Sir WINSTON. A History of the KOROL, A. G. Soviet Education for Science English Speaking Peoples ( v. 4) . and Technology. DAVIDSON, RoBERT L. War Comes to Quaker LERNER, MAX. America As a Civilization. Pennsylvania, 1682-1756. MARITAIN, JACQUES. Reflections on America. DUMBAULD, EDWARD. The Bill of Rights and MATTINGLY, HAROLD. Roman Imperial What It Means Today. Civilisation. FISCHER, GEORGE. Russian Liberalism from l\tiOORHEAD, F. J. A History of Malaya and Gentry to Intelligentsia. her neighbours ( v. 1). FISHER, Sir GoDFREY. Barbary Legend. NICOLSON, Sir HARoLD. Journey to Java. FRIEDRICH, C. J. and BLITZER, CHARLES. ROPER, HUGH TREVOR-. Historical Essays. The Age of Power. SCHLESINGER, ARTHUR MEIER. Prelude to GREGORY, C. 0., ed. Labor and the Law. Independence. GRISWOLD, A. WHITNEY. In the University SHENFIELD, B. E. Social Policies for Old Age. Tradition. SYMONS, JULIAN. The General Strike. HAND, LEARNED. The Bill of Rights. TREND, JoHN BRANDE. Portugal. HAYS, DENYS. Europe; the Emergence of an WASHBURN, W. E. The Governor and the Idea. Rebel. HERIOT, ANGUs. The French in Italy, 1796-1799.