The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1843-08-09
A LITERARY READING ASSOCI-
ALTON.

ALTON.
Our Community has long felt the wan,
of many OF these sources of intellectual i'm.
provement, of which many places better 10
Gated have never been deprived.
One Of the most important, and the one
to which we would now call the attention oil
our readers is the current Literature of the
day. The best of all these Periodicals, in
which this Literature is contained, and the
large amount of postage incurred by the
distance from which they are usually sent,
have been serious objections in the way Of
every individual, who would otherwise be
glad TO cultivate his literary tase, and store
his mind with useful knowledge, by useful
reading.
We have before us plan which we hope
our citizens will consider and carry into
effect. 1t is entitled "A plan for the uni.
versal diffusion of Religious and Literary
Knowledge" the substance of the plan is
the following.
The terms of Membership, one dollar per
quarter or dollars per year. Each mem.
Der is entitled 10 The reading ofall the Pub
locations taken, by the association, the
Number ofpublications taken would depend
upon the number of members II there were
20 members, each one would have access
TO 80 dollars worth of works. The list Of
Periodicals taken would be selected from
all the leading American & Foreign Publ.
cations, at the option Of the Association.
The works at The end Of the year are the
property Of tho association, and can be dis.
p osed OF as its members see fit. If a judi
cious selection is made the works ought to
be worth at least one half the original cost.
So If the works are sold the net cost if be-
longing to such an association will be only
two dollars. And again it will be seen in
an advertisement in another column of our
paper that Mr.. Locke a member of College
in this place has an arrangement by
which he proposes TO furnish all these works
free of postage. To obtain them Of him
would be matter of economy with US and
perhaps source ofsome advantage to him.
if YOU wish for useful and valuable reading
and CHEAP, how can we ask a more favor>
able opportunity than this :? Can those who
are DESTROYS of making Middlebury the seat
of Literature for Vermont promote the OBJ
Ject at this time in better way than by
enr ouraging and supporting such plan for
the diffusion of useful knowledge,as in rhisl
There are always enough in our commu'
nifty who have ever been ready to support
and encourage every light. fnvilous and
useless thing tina: comes along: will they
now let slip so favorable an opportunity of
lending their aid to something useful We
hope the reading portion Of our citizens will
take hold of this enterprise, and carry it
out. Perhaps some suggestions might be
worthy of consideration, relative to the
plan Of operation in this association, should
there be one formed. Hire some room in
as central place as may be, and get some
one to keep charge oft, have il open on
regular hours Let all the works as they
are received be kept in the Reading Room,
for fortnight, or a month, then LET them
be lent out to the members after the man
ner of circulating Library, to be returned
weekly and exchanged. We have some
other suggestions, we would like to make.
but we will defer them for the present, and
perhaps they will not be called for.