Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/71

 PROCEEDINGS OF THE N. H. ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.

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��in correcting the proofs. The manu- script of some writers can never be for- gotten for its illegible and slovenly char- acter, and that of others will be long re- membered for its excellence. John Farmer, Esq.. one of the founders and many years the right arm of the New Hampshire Historical Society, wrote a hand that a child could read, and his pen, too, moved with much rapidity. Much of his manuscript is deposited in the rooms of that institution at Concoid. His patient researches were mainly of genealogical and historical character, and appeared in the Historical Collections of the Society, and caused him to be well known throughout New England, al- though he was most of life an invalid, and rarely went abroad. Several manu- script volumes treating of graduates of Harvard College, deposited in the rooms of the Historical Society, bear testimony to his careful toil in a department of lit- erature that has few attractions to most people of literary taste. The manuscript of Hon. John J. Gilchrist, a Justice, and subsequently Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this State, was abso- lutely perfect. In a long experience we have never had to do with better "copy."

��He prepared a Digest of all the Reports of Cases decided up to the time he was Chief Justice, and it was printed by McFarland & Jenks for Gardner P. Lyon, bookseller. It is a volume of more than six hundred octavo pages, and rarely or never has an equal amount of work moved along more pleasantly. Other Justices and Chief Justices of that Court made excellent manuscript, but that of Judge Gilchrist was perfection itself.

Every author desirous of ascertaining how much space his manuscript will fill in page and type of prescribed size, and would count the cost before he com- mences to build, should write upon pa- per of uniform size and place the same number of lines upon a page. The printer can then determine the number of printed pages the manuscript will fill and the cost of the work. This is, of course, upon the presumption that the author makes no additions while the work is in press, and no material altera- tions from the copy. We printed a small work many years ago which the writer thought would fill about twenty- four pages, but he made such copious additions that it exceeded seventy-five.

��PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.

CONTOOCOOK, JULY 17, 1878.

��The day was auspicious, and the at- tendance larger than on any former oc- casion. The Society's rooms were found too small to accommodate those present, and to transact business with comfort.

The meeting was called to order at 10 A. M., the President, Rev. Silas Ketchum of Windsor, Conn., in the chair. After the reading of the minutes of the last Quarterly Meeting, the President read his annual address, setting forth the con- dition of the Society's affairs, a general review of its transactions for the past year, and making several recommenda- tions, to wit: The weeding out of the duplicates and undesirable articles in the

��museum and library; the donation and exchange of articles to and with certain societies ; the careful husbanding of the Society's resources ; the vigorous prose- cution of the work of the Historical Com- mittee, particularly in the collection of the perishing materials for history. and in gathering lists of sepulchral inscriptions from the various towns.

George H. Ketchum, Curator, reported the donation of about 3000 articles to the library and museum during the year, making the whole number to the present time a little over 33,000. Among the re- cent additions was a collection of about 150 manuscripts formerly belonging to

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