The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-02-04
For the Journal.
Communication.
A LIBRARY.


brary in Evansville than we have at
present. We want one in more com
modious apartment, fitted up IN a
more attractive manner, and conduct
ed with more liberality and interest
And this we ought to have, and
may have, if our citizens, who possess
the adequate ability and influence Tor
such a result, will but put it into ef-
feet. There is nothing, next to the
church and the school house, that can
do so much for the improvement and
elevation of Society. If there is one
thing to which New England owes the
intelligence Of its people, more than
another, next to its religion and in
stitutions of learning, it is to its Ii
braries, so common even in its small
est towns, and the lecture system, and
the influences diffused from them.
Had | the power | would scatter IL
braries over the whole land, as the
sower sows his wheat field, " said Hor-
ace Mann, than whom no man Amerl-
ca has produced, has better under
stood the cause of education, or rem
dered it more important service.
A short time since, it was our privI
lege to listen to lecture on Temper
ance, delivered by one OF the most
esteemed of our city clergymen. The
lecture was full of earnestness, and
spoke, it was evident, from deep moral
convictions. The monster evil, it was
indicated. had infused its poison into
his own experience. All of us who
were present went away, if not with
an assent to his theofy of dealing with
it, at least impressed with a deeper
sense of the appalling effects of drunk
enness; "a stronger desire to use our
means and influence against it, And
yet, we could not but involuntarily ask
the question, as we have frequently be-
fore, in listening to such addresses,
particularly in our Western towns,
suppose you close up the saloons,
what then? What other provision
have you for these young men who
visit them? Is there any other resort
in this CITY so attractive as these,
where the Devil lies in wait to devour
men2 Suppose a young man is a
stranger here suppose he is in hum
BILE circumstances, and hardly up to
the popular standard in the arts of
fashionable accomplishment-can he
get access to those circles of society
in which bright-minded youth would
find the most congenial associations?
Is he not compelled to seek his pas
time in the streets2 to depend for his
and companionships to a
very large extent upon such chances as
may occur to him? Who, in all this
city, among those whose influence and
interest such young man most needs,
consider themselves responsible for
these. Alas, we fear, not many!
The great fault of much of our re-
form is that we begin at the wrong
end of our work. Expel from soci-
ETY. an eyil-or from individual char
acter habit, and you may expect a
reaction, unless you supply something
to take its place. This law of com
pensation runs all through human
life. $500
A Library, well conducted and sus-
tanned, and continually replenished
with fresh new books from the cur
rent. literature, with reading room
attached, conveniently situated, and
neatly furnished, and lighted up in
the evening, with, so far as practical
BILE, periodicals and newspapers from
the principal cities East and West,
would do a vast amount to meet the
want we have indicated. There is no
appropriation our city could make,
which in all respects, pecuniary, as
we'll as others, would be SO yielding
as that for such a purpose as this
There is none in which our citizens
of means, who have at heart the pub
lie good, could better exercise THEN
benefcence. There is nothing that
would do more to further the end
which our temperance people have il
view than such an agency, "Wheu
the people are properly educated,
says another, I'VE shall not need tC
repeal our laws. When the people
are properly enlightened we shall no