10 



servile adherence of Mr. Jones by recommending him to 

 the Trustees as his successor, was eager to discern a 

 quick worker. Mr. Warren was indeed but thirty-eight 

 years old when he died, but he had spent twenty years 

 of his life in the service of the public in the British 

 Museum. For some years before his death the atmosphere 

 in which he worked had begun to affect his constitution. 

 He often complained of the state of the den in which he 

 sat, and he was not alone in his complaints. For a long 

 time all complaints met with the same answer either from 

 Mr. Jones or from his friend, Mr. Rye, (the keeper of 

 printed books). That answer was "that the room was 

 quite healthy, that all ideas to the contrary were a delu- 

 sion." At length Mr. Warren's doctor, who was puzzled 

 by his case, visited the Museum, saw the room, and pro- 

 nounced it unfit to live in. Mr. Warren then, brim full of 

 hope, at once went off to Mr. Jones and told him the 

 doctor's opinion. Now, how did the polished, considerate, 

 and gentlemanly Mr. Jones receive him ? Why, thus. He 

 heard him to the end, and then exclaimed with a burst of 

 rage : " How dare you bring a medical man into the 

 Museum without the leave of the Trustees ! " For this 

 brutal piece of ill-breeding Mr. Jones never uttered a word 

 of apology. However, a man fights hard who fights for life, 

 and by dint of infinite importunity Mr. Jones was prevailed 

 upon to allow a window to be cut in Mr. Warren's den. 

 It may here be stated as an illustration of the Chief 

 Librarian's intelligent zeal for high art, that he long resis- 

 ted this step on the ground that " it would interfere with 

 the architecture." The wall in question was a dead brick 

 wall. Fancy this squeamishness in a building the whole 

 facade of which is disfigured by wooden penthouses tarred 

 to keep out the wet. At last the window was cut. The foul 

 air was got rid of, but the cold down-draughts became 



