The Dickinson press., 1888-06-16
LIFE IN LIBRARIES.
scMs OF THE QUEER FOLKS WHO
READ PUBLIC BOOKS.


Helps Young .irti>ts-visito,e at Cooper
Institute.
Libraries. especially the biz public ones Of
this town. somehow seem To have about them
something pathetic Take the A>'or. for in-
staIce--,Ea' magnificent stone ,liron home
of a quarter OF n million volumes. II isn't
the ,,ni,i,ntiir, books softly growing gray
under the gathering dust of Years that ;,I,-
peal to one. much rs the living delivers
who dig through this accommodating forget
fulneSS in search of an idea. There they sit,
day after day. generation after generation,
patiently. silently, h'ingril! hunting fact.
The marble siairWaNS hav" been Worn into
little bellows by their i,-t Some of these
footsteps have ION. Il .o host their way in the
enchanted region u Bohemia, aud >u,I,, .,f
,lem, youthful and >pringy. show their own
e,S I" be still seeing rainbow visions Of prom
i>e behind the soft swinging; doors Minister
aud mechanic. artist and ~ lti>n, physician
s!ui fiction writer iustie elbows une against
the other. and for c;''E one .h. shelves have
different story TO tell The Academy "f the
lmmortal>. III. hospital or the nioreue nre
the rewards of those " h" labor here.
sEExING arcnANIcAL LORI
Over against 1h, above wh'.r" patent re-
ports are kept sits ;n o, man. The table in
from, of him is >tH.'wn With drawings OH card
hoard and tracin-s ",l oiled paper. Nine vol
ul,i,.>. all inri,l,lin- looking. AZ, piled mp
about him, and b" tru,h lie has spread oymn
before hlm. For four Years lie has S,r the
>alne way. y, euic u> comes the l,">tman
and the sun, so surely come, this strange old
man. searching. probing. qi">'i"nin. the
SphynX pages that SAY 50 little or >u lnucn
pleading with the black volumes I" give mp
their secret lir >lvaks tn Ii" one and is
iiealou>lv careful that no alien eve -lall rest
upon his drawings. Ii he We're searching for
the secret OF perpetual motion he could not
be molc guarded III every action Now and
then the la"orll" works on mechanics are To-
placed hv some rare and all forgotten S,.rcc,i
teaching discoveries nla,lrhv til. old tlcll,nl-
ISIS in their experiments toward maxim.
gold. He j, only a typ Hi, clothes are
poor. 1lp spends barely ten minutes Il, uncl.
during the day. Sometimes he docs not gn
ont AT all. Md, af,+f alI, the academy may
not hold IL nichc for him.
For Pie artist tho library is mine, aud
the figured wall paper in .'or hallway has
probably come from some old scroll that
japanese works here show. just in TIL. same
way the Gclicat.ly hammered gril1ins that
ornament your silver service may be copies
from some forgotten volume. ~ if not copies
yet suggested ly something seen there The
beautiful III art is tenacious oil ltc. aud has Il
lucky way of surviving TIE tooth of time that
bids one hope. There is lp buster table than
this at which these WORKERS bend
When spring comes auyhing in, a new
order chang the routine Of the library
The very dust upon the books seem, to fccl
~.
not been touched for months are taken down
The number of feminine isitors increases,
There is color and perfume and lishtness TO
SCI OF the s!!;d.. that hangs over all The
far alcove to ti.c soutl! >ec> pretty leads
bending above colorcti plates i'll old books
whose type makes it difficult to toll an Slron
an j. And What are they looking for in
these old volulue-, You ask. Fur fashions
With the coming Of Ll,c skies there i an !r-
stinctivc turning 20 l!nW dc>i Gus in ,ir,.s
And wiieve rHu ole get better ideas thai,
from those old plates that tall of tea cup
times of hoop ana hood when cur grand
mothers drca.iit of moonlight and blue ewes.
So the pretty Easter bonnet that Your Philis
wears today Is only 81 murlilicaton Of one
that her grandmother found fair half "a cen-
turv ago. So. too. when fancy dress balls
are in vogue, the old library always secs an
influx Of feminine readers hanging over old
fashion plates. studying up new ways to he
beautiful, for the beautiful is rs old as wo.
man herself.
COOPER INSTITUTES VISITORS
Just around the corner the library of Cooper
institute has very different visitors. Like
the -Astor, it is reference library and nc
books are allowed to be taken away. New
York has no great public circulating libra.
ries like those OF Boston and Chicago. The
free circulating library of this town and
several smaller ones allow books to i. taken
out. but they are supported by private sub
scription and the city has 10 voice in their
management
There is no novel reading at TIL. .Asror be-
cause no novels nre kept and at the Cooper
library the percentage vi fiction is said to lie
smaller than at amy other library in the
world. Its reading room is the home of
workn9nen. and thov read to improve their
nnnds or for some specific purpose. not for
fun. Early in tic morning there is alwaysa
rush for the daily newspapers. The town is
never V hou, its contingent Of unemployed.
and thr>. haunt the files, pouring over adj
Sertisements in the hope Of finding n clcw tc
Il job. In the good old times when men
feared tod and honored the king, before the
struggle for existence became Il hand to han!
fight, things We're not 81. You can tell one
of these unemployed by the aimlcss way he
walks the moment he enters the room lust
as You can tell u polcenlun's drawing stcr
among the thousands that sound outside your
window.
OF course there are the usual lounce,s
among the 1000 people that come every day
into the reading room. During the winter
how INF, l,ar t,,
book in hand. forget themselves and are soo,,
asleep. These are soon gotten rid Of Fo.
the past four months one Anarchist looking
man has been taking a thorough course in
chemistry. Another middle aged man sits
every day by a post near the end of the hall.
For nearly six months he has not missed {,
day. He comes III early in the morning,
reads until noon, goes ont to lunch, and re-
turns and spends the afternoon in the same
chair. The ladies' have an alcove set apart
for their own use Many who do not have a
fire ut home drop i'll to read an afternoon
away i'll q coy nook. In the same way, q
number OF elderly men who have small in
comes come day after day to their favorite
corners and dream over tales of adventure.
The New York Historical library, Il few
blocks away, is saturated with intense and
almost painful respectability. 1t, too. is u
reference library, devoted almost wholly to
American history, to gcneaogy and to
heraldry. In this, our new country, the
study of gencalosy is not what the library
hopes to see it, and every assistance is given
to the author who complies IL volume on the
rise and progress of the Smith family or the
decline and fall of the Joneses. A. Dunek,
in New York World.
A Serious Sentiment,
Those who know him only superficially
would never suspect w. II. Foster. manager