On June 15, 2008, I bought what was described as a "Victorian" scrapbook on eBay. 

On the front end paper it appears to say, "Charles G Mills 5 May 1958 Florence".

The first section of the book has newspaper clippings concerning a famous gambling scandal of the 1890's involving British royalty.  "The Baccarat Case" as it was known.  On the back of one of these pages is a drawing in pencil which looks to be similar to an engraving in one of the newspaper articles.  The engraving is of Sir William Gordon-Cumming. 

After that section are some newspaper articles from 1857.  They come from papers such as the, "New York Herald", "Evening Mirror", "Evening Express", and the "Evening Post".  They tend to be articles about business and finance.  These articles were pasted in another book and the whole pages were cut out and pasted in this book.  The water mark of the paper that these articles were pasted to, is very interesting looking.  I tried to get a "picture" or scan of it, but don't know how to capture the image of a water mark from old paper.

The next section seems to be very modern.  First off there seems to be some pages cut out right at this point.  Don't have any idea what was on those pages.  The next thing you find is an article from the February 20, 1960 edition of The New Yorker.  "Profiles Conversation with Max: III - On The Terrace!".  On the first page is an inscription written in blue ink.  Below that in black ink, it says, "Lewis Beck, the Kant scholar, to his old friend, Charles Mills".  There is a black line drawn from the black text to the blue text.  The article is a profile of Max Beerbohm by his biographer, S. N. Behrman.  It is about Queen Victoria.  (sort of)  I have no idea if the whole of the article is pasted in here.  I haven't tried to read it all, as I don't find Queen Victoria very interesting.

After this article are some pages of handwritten text.  We aren't sure what it says exactly.  It is difficult to read every word.  I almost thought it was written by someone whose first language was French.  Some of the words seemed like French.  The more "we" got to looking at it, the more the text was decipherable.  Although, some of it is still a puzzle.

I had no idea what I had bought.  I thought it was just an old scrapbook.  The seller didn't say in the description that it was anything spectacular.  I was putting this page together in order to get help in reading the handwritten text. 

In doing the research for this page, I found out who Lewis Beck was.  I can't seem to find anything about Charles G. Mills via Google.  I may have to look way beyond the first page that comes up though.  Didn't find him in Wikipedia either.  I could always look in the biographical dictionary type books I have.

I have been in contact with the seller this evening.  She says that Charles G. Mills was a novelist.  Wow!  She found the scrapbook in Vermont.  Wikipedia says that Lewis Beck was born in Georgia.  

I'll let you know if I learn any more.

July 7, 2008  I am going to stick images of the hand written text on here.  I am doing this in a hurry as a storm is coming this way, and I want to get the computer turned off before the storm hits.

The description on eBay of this item said, it was a, "BIG VICTORIAN SCRAPBOOK FILLED WITH CUTTINGS ABOUT AN ENGLISH ROYAL COURT CASE INVOLVING CHEATING AT GAMBLING. TOWARDS THE END OF THE SCRAPBOOK THERE ARE MORE MODERN CUTTINGS FROM THE 1930'S. PERFECT CONDITION. QUITE HEAVY. SOME ORIGINAL DIARY WRITING TOO TOWARDS THE VERY END DATED 1950.". 

This description said nothing about it having text by a famous author in it.  I thought I was buying a scrapbook with Victorian newspaper clippings, 1930's stuff and then some journaling from the 50's.  My husband and I went and scanned all the hand written text into the computer on Saturday July 5th.  I was more interested in the Victorian gambling scandal than I was with the text at the back.  I can't make out the handwriting very well anyway.  I had forgotten that the description said something about their being 1930's stuff in there.  I'm "in love" with the 1930's and that would have been a selling point for me.  The item I have bought is not the item I thought I was buying.

I was going to stick the handwritten text on here in case someone might help me decipher it.  While I was doing that, I ended up in a conversation via E-mail with the seller.  She informed me that Charles G. Mills was a "famous" author.  He was born in Georgia too.  She had been able to read the handwritten text.  She indicated that Charles G. Mills had said some negative things about someone.  I became unsure whether this text is a "Biblically correct" thing to have on this website.  I haven't read the text enough to know for sure. Then we discussed the issues of "intellectual property rights". In the first place, I may not have the legal right to stick these images on here.  

The seller gave me the E-mail address to a university. I am going to write them and see if they want this scrapbook.  I am putting the images on here so that the person at the other end of the E-mail, can look at them and decide for themselves if they want this or not.

If this is something of "historical value", I don't want it.  I believe such things should be available to the "wider world".  I don't have means or space to properly care for "historical" items. (In other words, despite my best efforts, "it might get wrecked" if I kept it.)

If you want this item, let me know.  Thanks!

The background to this page is a blank page from the scrapbook.  If it doesn't show up, click on the "refresh" button of your browser.  I am heavily indebted to my husband Douglas for his help with this page.  He was the page turner and "book layer on-er" as I worked the scanner controls.

Front Cover of Scrapbook.

1a. Text inside front cover on the end paper.

1b. Pencil drawing suspected to be of Sir William Gordon-Cumming. 

2.  Text found at the very end and bottom of the last page of hand written text. 

18.  Top of the New Yorker article with the inscription by Lewis Beck.

3.  The very first of the hand written text.  It is only a partial page of text.

4. First full text of the scrapbook.  I have taken the last line from the obverse of the page, and stuck it on here. The last line is scan number 5.

6. Next page

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16. I have stuck the last line on here twice to show that we did indeed get it all.

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