The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1881-12-06

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AT the meeting Of the city council to-
night, proposition submitted to that body
by the ladies of the library association
will probably be acted upon. The PROPOSE
ton is, that the association will donate to
the city all property Of the association with
the understanding that the city council will
treat it as the foundation for public IL
brary to be owned by the city, and that it
will establish the library in convenient
place in the city and keep it open every
day for the benefit Of the general public.
| The proposition of the ladies is certainly
generous one, and is no doubt prompted by
the noble purpose of giving Cairo an insti-
futon the intellectual and moral influence
of which shall be widespread among the
youth Of the city, and shall elevate the
literary taste of the reading public general
| ly. The library, as it now stands and as it
is proposed to be turned over to the city,
comprises about one thousand seven hun
dred and fifty volumes, nearly all Of them
standard works of fiction and fact, of sci
ence and religion, of history, biography and
general litersture-all by noted authors; it
also comprises a number Of elegant oil
paintings, one Of them being from the hand
of Prof. Saunders, who presented it to the
association, represents five literary gene
ouses of the past, with Shakespeare in the
centre; it contains further, some elegant
statuary, among which are the busts of
some of the most bril- liant writers and COM
posers known to history. Added to these
are the necessary fixtures, such as book
cases, shelving, counters and tables. The
library, as it now stands in the City Nation
al bank building, though comparatively
small, is certainly model in the way Of
beauty and cozness. 1t is room of about
fourteen by twenty feet in dimentions and
about eleven feet high, with walls hand
somely papered and hung with paintings,
windows shaded with elegant curtains, and
floor covered with heavy, bright colored
carpet. At one end is raised platform,
upon which is table and several chairs,
where the Librarian and other officers of
the association "hold forth" Saturday af-
ternoons. On either side of the room are
the bookcases in which arrayed with much
exactness as to kind and size, the many
books, and upon which the statuary re-
poses in calm dignity. All this has been &C.
cumulated by private enterprise since
February, 1877, when the association es-
tablished it with about twelve hundred
volumes. 1t received valuable additions
from time to time from members of the
association it was carefully nurtured and
brought to its present state by the disnter-
ested, gratuitous, but untiring efforts Of
the members of the associatirn, upon whom
it now reflects much credit The ladies
would gladly retain full control of the in.
stitution which has grown so well under
their management, but they see, as will
every one else, that in order to make the
library serve fully the purposes for which |
it was established, it must be made accssa-
bic to the general public every day and
evening OF the week. 1t must be made a |
"reading room" where young and old may
go to spend in a profitable way the idle hours
of the day or night. This the ladies feel
unable to do, and it is not to be asked of |
them; it was enough that they devoted
many hours during the week and all of
Saturday gratuitously to the service Of the
public But that this may be done in the
future is the principal object the
ladies have in view in making the PROPOSE
ton mentioned above. to the city council.
These few statements Of fact will show that
the proposition of the association is not on
ly entirely free from selfshness, but one
which, If accepted and properly carried out
by the city, would give the people of Cato
very desirable and, in time, very valuable,