St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1873-07-25
From the Springfield Republican.
It. Johnsbury---Its Books and Work.
ST. JoHNsBURY, July ~.

81. JOnnSDury---lCS BOOKS ana WOrk.
ST. JoHNSBURI, July -.
AS the traveller climbs the steep hill
from the railroad station to "St.
Johnsbury Plain" the first building to
attract his gaze is the Fairbanks library
or, more properly, the st. Johnsbury
Atheneum, which stands on the main
street, looking down the hill. The Ii
brary was described in The Republican
a year ago, but since then an addition
has been made to the building-an art
gallery i'll the rear, about half as large
as the library proper, and now nearly
completed. Yesterday, the first of the
paintings designed for exhibition there
was placed in position-one can hardly
say hung, for it stands on the floor
rather than is suspended, so great is
its size. 1t is Bierstadt's celebrated
''Domes of the Yosemite" painted for
the New York banker, Legrand b.
Lockwood, and exhibited by him in
that city but which has lately become
the property of Mr.. Horace Fairbanks,
the founder of the atheneum. 1t is
painted on an immense canvas, perhaps
ten 10y fifteen feet, and is the best of
Bierstadt's great pictures that | have
seen. 1t nearly covers one end of the
gallery, facing the spectator as he
enters from the main hall of the library.
None of the other paintings designed
for the gallery are yet hung; they are
all to he the work of American artists.
and are to he representative of modern
American art OF the older American
painters, Copley, Trumbull, Allston,
etc, there are as yet no paintings here,
nor any of Churchs. The collection
will not he large one; it will contain
statudry and engravings as well as
paintings. and will open to the public
only on certain days, and perhaps not
in the evening at all The library is
open every day except Sunday, and
every evening except Wednesday and
Sunday. In summer it opens at ~ a.
m, the rest of the year mt o :; it is closed
for two hours at noon, from II to ,, and
opens for two hours in the evening.
Anybody may consult books here, and
any resident of st. Johnsbury may take
ont book, if above the age of IL.
The number of these takers in the first
full year of the library was 400, repre-
senting more than 1000 readers in a
population of less than 5000. About
half the volumes. say 1900 out of 5000,
are taken out in the course of n wear.
and 200 more may he people wish.
The books most frequently read are. of
course, books of fiction, and | was curl
Ous to see which novels were most
popular. Mrs. Stoves "Uncle Tom" is
one of those Oftenest taken out, Rob
inson Crusoe." The Scottish Chiefs"
Miss Alcott's Little Woman Oliver
Optics hooks, and some of Mayne
Rcid's are among the taking ones. But
| also noticed that two of Jane Austen's
novels were favOrites, while neither
Scott nor Cooper seem to he very much
read. The aim of the librarian is to
direct the attention of readers to the
better hooks. and in this he is success
ful beyond his expectation. Less trash
is read here than in most public IL
hraries.
The great scale manufactory of the
Fairhankses stands in the rear of the
athcncum, a quarter of a mile away,
and very much out of sight. They now
employ GOO hands. or twice as many as
in the wear before the war, when there
were hut 300. The business is extend
ing every year, and is now larger than
ever before its product. last year, sold
for nearly S2,0OO.OOO. The number of
scales sent ont WAS then 10000, of all
kinds and sizes. and the tonnage of
freight in and out on the PassumpsiC
railroad was 10000. They 60
to all parts of the wOrld-tO South At
Iica. India, China. and Japan, as well
us to all Europe, Egypt, Syria and
South America. Those intended foI
continental countries are graduated to
the weights of France, Germany, etc,
and the Chinese buy them with theil
own characters upon the beam. instead
of the Arabic figures. The Japanese
more sensibly, use the American weights
and numerals. The market for these
scales is constantly extending, and nc
tluctuatiOn in business prevents theil
ready sale. If there is a tight money
market in New York or London, there
may not he in Calcutta or Hong Kong
or Rio Janero or st. Petersburg
when the sale falls off in one country
it increases in some other. AS the Con
neticut chair-maker said, "Settin
down won't go out of fashion, not jest
yit," so the Fairbankses have reason
to believe that weighing will never fai
until seed-time and harvest do. They
have rivals, but none that can compete
with them, though it is by the excel
lence of their work, rather than by theil
patents, that they hold the market
The original patents have long since
expired-for the business began forty
years agO,-but there have been repeat
Il IN, nf 1Afo
many of these are still covered by pat
ents. This is the case with the inven.
tion for making scalebeams by a ma
chine-punch, set at uniform distances
and making many strokes at once
which secures absolute certainty ant
uniformity in graduating the scales
This devise, like many of the inven.
tiOns used here, was the work of Mr.
Thaddeus Fairbanks, the only one nov
living of the three brothers who found
ed the business. Erastus Fairbanks
who was the first ex-governor of Yer
mont, was one of the three; he has
been dead for some years, and his two
SONS, Horace and Franklin, succeed
him in the firm which still consists o.
only three members. All the Fair
banks scales in the world are now made
at their works in st. Johnsbury, though
there are repair-shOps at Boston, New
York, Cincinnati, etc. The family are
partners in the commission houses il
the different countries which sell theil
scales, and are also largely engaged il
railroad enterprise.
Judge Thomas or some other BOstoI
wit suggested as a suitable motto fo
the Fairbanks family, Monstrdnt uiam
''They show the weigh" but withou
n pun they have been justifying thi
| motto of late years by deyotinp thei