Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-01-01
THE STATE LIBRARY
SOME OF THE LEADING WORKS
OF INTEREST.
Its Organization, Development and
Management-A Glance at its
Various Departments.

Written for the New Years RECORD UNION, by
c. E. Gum, Deputy State Librarian.l
To the lovers of books or art there is no
more interesting place in Sacramento than
the California State Library. There, free
to everybody, is an almost boundless fund
though the State is young, its library, in
both the number and quality of its works,
compares most favorably with similar
institutions eff sister States, and far sur
passes the great majority of them.
The first active step toward the collection
of State Library was taken by the Legis-
lature of 1850, in directing that the scat
tered books belonging to the State be col
lected and placed in the custody of the
Secretary of State, who should also serve
as State Librarian.
No very considerable additions were
made to the library until 1856, when a col
lection of $500 standard law books was
purchased at a cost of about ST. 900. This
formed the nucleus of the present library
and it has since steadily increased. In 1860
it contained about 10000 Volumes in 1870
$4,000 volumes; in ISSQ, 10000 volumes,
and at the present time nearly 10000 are
on the register.
THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS.
The library has two departments, one de-
voted to law, and the other to miscellane-
GUS works, and the two rooms are con-
nected by short hallway. The law library
room is not targets far from being large
enough. 1t is a bOXy sort of place, about
thirty by thirty-ive feet and twenty feet
I'll, ~ l., n
are books-nothing but books. In this
small room are piled, tier on tier, thousands
of law books lining the walls till hardly
an inch of white plaster appears to relieve
the monOtony of their dull leather bind
indgs. Complete sets of law reports, and
almost complete sets of statutes of England
Ireland, Scotland and nearly all the colonial
possessions of Great Britain, and also of the
States and Territories of our own country,
are to be found here covering period
from the celebrated Year Books and even
more celebrated Doomsday Book of medi-
eval England, to the present time. and
spanning thus lapse of six full centuries.
Textbooks, numbering thousands, from
Fleta and Bracton and Grotius and Puff
fendorf, TO the latest authors, are on the
shelves The briefs of attorneys filed in
reported cases III this State are kept on
file, bound and indexed, and now
number nearly q thousand volumes
TO which reference may readily be made
The law works at present number about
10000 volumes and are increasing with
great rapidity. a century ago there was
not single American report published
Now there are more than 5000, and the
rate of increase is in an accelerated ratio
In these books are found the law of the
land to day, for the roots of the common
law which we have adopted run back into
the dark night of English history and Eng
lish jurisprudence, and the decisions of
those days are precedents still. 1t is a
grave question whether it would not be
better to abolish all this immense and ex-
pensive literary legal lumber and start anew
tomake laws, with the full light of our learn
ing and civilization upon us, unhampered
by the customs of feudalism, the spirit of
VaSSalage. the distinction of class the doc
trine of divine right of Kings, and the
thousand barbarisms and crudities and
tictiOns beqUeathed to us by the common
law and which have infused themselves
into our Judicial system.
MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTION.
But we turn away from these grim old
Chancellors, frowning down on us from
their leather bindings at these sacrilegiou.
suggestions and seek the more congenial
atmosphere of the miscellaneous library
The room is circular in form, and is about
sixty feet in diameter An open space
about thirty feet across is left in the center
of the room, and from the edge of this
space to the outside wall run number of
partitions, shelved on both sides and filed
with books dividing the outer portion into
nine alcoves. The inner end Of each parti-
ton abuts upon a massive Corinthian col
Umn, which supports the floor above, and
gives a most excellent architectural finish
TO the place. The room has two sto-
ries, INTELLECTUALLY alike, each about
eighteen feet. high, and divided by
a light gallery half way up.
This gives easy access to the books, though
there is a good deal OF climbing up stairs
to reach certain classes of works. How
ever this is largely avoided by the arrange
ment of the books, those most frequently
used being on the lower floor or first gal
lery, and those less frequently called for up
stairs. And this tells US what people most
read of. On the lower floor we find art,
history, voyages and travels, letters,
speeches, biography, fiction and miscela-
neous works; on the upper architecture,
mechanics, physics, engineering, geology,
astronomy, mathematics, medicine, sur
gerry. botany, zoology, anthropology, and
periodical literature.
THB ART DEPARTMENT
Is especially rich in valuable works, and
certainly has no equal on the coast. We
refer not TO paintings or sculpture, for of
these il does not boast but to its steel and
wood engrayngs, its Autographs, etchings.
retouched prints, photographs and photo
gravures. \ week would not be sufficient
ame 10 note all the wonders and beauties
of this little alcove In the wilderness of
Interesting things one hardly knows where
] orr ar nt q ri :
great works, pictures Of the whole world S
grand scenery, and portraits of its great
men and women. Turner, with his Won
dertul skies and waters and mountains-he
whom Ruskin with his gorgeous and in
imitable painting, made famous
Raphael, with his spirimalle faces and
perfection of form and primitive Bible
learning; Musee Francois, with its
beautiful figures representing the master
pieces of ancient sculpture and ornament
I.audSeer. with his dogs and stays and
focks that look like life; Reynolds,
with his scrupulous fidelity to nature
Dore. complete with his wonderful imagi-
nation for the groteSque and the horrible
Hoearth, with his almost too tue lessons
and warnings; and Gilray, with his fearful
caricatures ON English politics All these
are here, with hundreds Of others of equal
or lesser importa ice. Gerome and Master
pieces of French art will alone well repay
one a visit to the Library. In them. with
remarkable fidelity, may he seen pictures
(photogravures) of the best paintings of the
famous galleries of the Old World.
THE WORLD ILLUSTRATED.
To those who would see the old and new
world. without the burden of the travel
this department Will furnish an unceasing
delight. We can only name some of the