Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-02-10
people, we submit that the occasion furnish.
es A good many very bopeful Indications



In brief local item we stated last week
that a meeting of the Brattleboro Library As
ISOLATION is to be held at Crosby hall on Mon
day evening next, to consider what measures,
if any, may be taken to render the library Of
more general use to the people of the town.
If we are rightly informed, one feature of the
discussion on the occasion will be with refer
ence to placing the library in the hands of
the town, to be converted into free public
library for the use of all its people, provided
the town will accept the gift and agree to
maintain the library by means of an annual
appropriation of a very moderate sum Of
money for that purpose. We need not say
that we believe such consummaton, on the
part of the library association and of the town,
is one which all good citizens would like to
see brought about. As regards the assoca-
ton, it is fact that the library is now to a
considerable extent inaccessible, the funds for
its proper support limited, and the institution
gradually but surely going TO decay. On the
part of the town it is equally true that one of
our greatest needs is that of q good library,
free to our people of every name and class
and such action as we have suggested on the
part of the library association would furnish
golden opportunity for the town to supply
this lack. To begin at the foundation and es-
tablish a library with all the necessary works
of history, science, reference, etc. etc, would
be an undertaking which our people might
properly feel too burdensome to be entered
upon but with the foundation already laid in
the shape of the very excellent library in
question, it would be a small matter to pro.
vide for its accommodation, care, and gradual
extension, by means of the very moderate an
nual appropriation which the laws of the state
provide for. In the matter of the accommo-
dation of the library, the town already has a
place in the shape of the lower town hall,
which could hardly be improved upon. That
room now pays little or no rent to the town,
it is admirably adapted for library purposes,
and, aside from the intellectual advantages
conferred by the library, it would be posi-
tive moral benefit to the town to have library
located there.
The matter is one which we hope all the
people of the town will take into careful and
intelligent consideration. Residents in the
remotest farm house are as vitality interested
in ESPECIALLY if there be young people un-
der its roof-as are those whose lot in life
brings them within village limits. 1t seems,
oftentimes, that all movements like this come
upon the country in waves; and it may be
fairly said that such wave is now in prog
ress. The people of Montpelier are moving
vigorously in behalf of public library Bal
timore, Md. is wide awake with magnificent
fund of million dollars for library purposes,
New York city is seriously proposing to make
branch libraries for the use of the people as
numerous as its station houses, and other sim
liar movements might be noted. Let us trust
that Brattleboro will catch the spirit of the
times, and act promptly in worthy cause.