Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1861-09-07
THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

The FREE tUOAlS LADohRA'
The new building on Elm street has been
internally The scene of very active labors dur
ing the last few weeks and although the prin
cipal hall is not yet ready to admit the public,
(being neither finished nor furnished,) it may
be well to give some account Of its arrange.
ment, and some hint of what it ceulains,
This is the more desirable, as the Green Lii
brary has never yet been seen to any adyan-
tage in the crowded quarters OF the Bank
Block,-nor indeed has it ever been united IN
one room before,-nearly two thousand books
having Just been brought for the first time
from DIR. Green's dwelling house. Several
hundred volumes from the Lyceum and LII
brary Association are now also transferred to
the Green library, greatly increasing its value
in some important departments.
From these and other circumstances there
yet prevails among us great ignorance OF the
actual value OF this public benefaction. Many
have no more definite or correct idea than that
this is miscellaneous collection Of old books,
which have incOnveniently accumulated in the
lifetime OF an elderly gentleman, mere literary
lumber, of no real value, troublesome to him
self or his heirs either to keep or get rid of.
The fact is, on the contrary, that the city Of
Worcester has become the possessor Of an ex-
ceedngly valuable collection of books, num-
bering some nine thousand, nearly all bought
expressly for this purpose, within the last ten
years, by a most able collector, at very
large expense. If know anything of books,
there is no probability that any collection Of
the size could have been made by any one
which would on the whole have been more adj
mirably fitted for the purpose in view. By
this purpose | do not mean the training of the
profoundest scholars, on the one side, nor on
the other the supply of the current literature
of the day, (which must be sought rather in
the Circulating Department Of the library, J
but mean the supply of the more substan-
tial and varied wants of an intelligent com.
munity like Worcester.
This xalsf6 ta,heSt. ha aru5tafes re-
Gently given to public Institutions,
Dowse library and that of Theodore Parker.
Mr.. Parker's library, as finally presented to
the Boston Public Library, comprised some
eleven thousand volumes, in some forty Ian
guages, less than quarter of the books being
in English. 1t is essentially scholars libra,
ry, and as such of immense value, but would
have been far less desirable than the Green Ii.
brary for our ordinary local use.
The Dowse library was in my boyhood one
of the wonders of my native town all stran-
gers in Cambridge visited it as sort of minor
college. When transferred to the Historical
Society it was deemed fit occasion for pub
lie celebration and an grafton by Mr.. Everett.
Yet it contained but five thousand volumes,
and though these were of good editions, almos
all elegantly bound, $50 that they were sup
posed to have cost s40,0OO.l consider til,
collection far inferior in working value to til,
Green library.
1t may be well to give some sketch of til,
plan of arrangement adopted for the large
hall
The visitor, on entering the inner door ant
turning to the left sees before him the only
division of books to which the public will have
immediate access-all others being delivered
through the hands of the librarian. This di
vision, occupying the north side of the lower
floor, comprises encyclopedias, dictionaries
gazettears, and similar books of general refer
ence, such as are constantly needed for con.
sultation. Dictionaries of arts and sciences
geography, Biography, chemistry, religious
sects, music, military science, literature, syno
nyms, quotations, and even rhymes lexicons
of various languages eoncordances the great
Encyclopedia Britannica, in twenty one vol
umes Uust completed, and presented by Hon
G. F. Hoar to the Young Mems Library thC
Penny Cyclopedia, the National, the Ameri
cana, Appleton's New American, and Other
minor ones nor must The French Dictionairt
unyerselle be forgotten. This collection O
works of reference alone, were there nothing
else, would be an honor and a treasure to the
clty-an inestimable tool chest, which tht
poorest boy or girl may handle at will, anC
which no private library in our communt,
can rival.
Passing round the hail, we find tile Who'll,
east side devoted to the department of history
First, general history, then American. the
French, then that OF other European nations
then British. This last is the largest sinpl
SUP DIVISION, as III SHOULD be, ana is really
noble collection. There are the great nation.
works-the folio Hume, in six mighty vo
umes, perhaps the most superb work of type
graphy which England has produced Sir /
Nicolas great history of British Knighthood
Playiair's Family Antiquities Hargrave
State Trials; Crosses Antiquities; the Stat
Tracts; each work being in many folio vo
umes. There are the English histories Z
Henry, Ralph Clarendon, Mortimer, Kennett
ward, Mahon, Brolie, Vaughan, Martineau
the Pictorial and the Parliamentary. Froude
the most novel and striking, is not there. bu
is being imported for the circulating depart
ment OF the library Add multitude n,
smaller works, bearing on the histories Of Ira
land and Scotland, as well as Enuland-,
in particular, large collection of works rel,,.
ing to Mary, Queen of Scots, one of the stand.
ing historical dishes, never to be exhausted.
Passing on, we come on the south side TO