Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-13

by which it was founded, and the rules gov
erRing it. This library is not confined TO
school pupils but is free to the entire popu-
lation, subject only to such regulations as are
necessary for the security and preservation
of the books The first purchase Of books
was made from the school library fund in
1885, and was about 1900 volumes. In the
same year the library Of the Ohio Mechanics
Institute, amounting TO about 5000 volumes
was placed under the control Of the School
Board as a part Of the public library.
During the suspension. of the library tax
in that and the next year, the library was
increased by some private contributions,
the most important of which was that Of
Edward NJ. Shields which, up to the pres
ent time, has amounted to over 300 volumes,
many of them costly. These are catalogued
separately, and called the Shields collection.
The library of the Ohio Historical and Phi
losophicsl Society is also deposited in the
rooms of the public library, and Is open for
reference to all who are entitled to use the
public library. The library tax of 1858 and
1859 has added to the library, but the num-
Der of volumes is not stated. The final re-
peal of the taz by the Legislature last win.
ter win leave the future growth of this Ii
hrary to private generosity, and we judge by
the evidence already given, that it will not
be neglected, but will continue to increase
in value and usefulness. The public library
is in the Mechanics Institute Building, at
the corner of Sixth and Vine-streets.
The wisdom of a Legislature which could
cut off provision for instruction, which
was available to the whole people, and which
was so trifling burden of taxation, COM
pared with that for the higher grades of
schools, from which the necessity of labor
excludes the children of the majority of the
people, is certainly inscrutable and it is
rendered still more mysterious by the course
of the journals of this city which advocated
the suspension or repeal of the library tax;
but, like all mysteries it will undoubtedly
be made plain some day. A public library
is an available means of education to boy
or girl, who is obliged to labor through the
day, as well as TO the adult population; while
the schools are effectually closed to them.
And if boy has the energy in him which
every man has had, who has become eminent,
with the ability to read, and access to books,
he will acquire an education. 1t may not
have the stamp of the school routine, out
will probably answer his purpose far better.
And how large proportion Of the people
does any one suppose, are able to support
their children through the greater part of
their minority, while they go through the
. course of the public schools? And what is
going to become of the children ofpoor men,
laboring-men, mechanics, men in moderate
circumstances, whose children have got to
depend on manual labor and mechanical La
Dor, if they grow up without acquiring habits
Of labor2 A full public school;oourse to the
child Of a laboring-man, who, when
he left school, would have no friends
nor capital to help him into somet of
the delicate ways of getting a living,
would be the road to ruin. Destitute of
habits of labor, and with notions edu-
Gated above it, and without a particle of
knowledge of the least service in the great
necessity of life-the getting living, he has
received an excellent preparatory course for
the Penitentiary, to which the strife to live
by his wits naturally tends.
We have expanded somewhat on a notice
of the public library, led into it by the queer
notions of men who glorify our magnificent
system of public schools, that all the while
tends to the higher and most expensive
grades, which are entirely beyond the reach
of the mass of the people, while they pounce
savagely on a small item, hardly worth saw
ing, compared with the cost of the other, which
is provision for what are really schools for
the people, which the higher grades of
schools are not. The necessity of labor ex-
Guides no one from the use of the Libraries.
Whether this is the reason why journals go
for cutting off the library fund, while they
exalt our noble High-schools, from which in
dustry excludes majority of the children,
we know not. This is the effect. If itw6s
not the motive, it falls on them to explain.
A new institution must have time to be-
come identified with the people, before its
effects can be seen. Probably one or two
| generations wall have to grow mp with the
| public library before its value will be de-
veloped. The change which one or two gen.
erations will make in the foreign popula-
tion of Cincinnati will also greatly extend
the sphere of a library, In they year 1853, only
two years after the first library purchase the
number of enrolled readers was 5,453, and
the annualcirculation 81, 1877. 1t is estimated
that during the year 1859 about 1000 were
regular borrowers of books. Beside these,
the readers at the rooms are numerous. The
public library is an institution worthy the
fostering care and well-known generosity Of
the citizens of Cincinnati; and these, we
doubt not, will be found a safe reliance for
its future growth into dimensions which
shall be an enduring honor to the city.
ChiVnIry DevOuring its own Species.
The secession eructation has compelled the