Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-05-10
The Puhlic Lfhrarx.

activity displayed by the new directors
and officers Of the Public Library. All
tie present incumbents are working in
unison to enhance the usefulness of the
institution, and vying with one another
t. promote the ends for which it was
founded. Important improvements
lave already been made in every
! department. This suspicious be-
ginning, we are assured, marks the
dawn of new era in the history OF the
esta blishment, redolent OF good things
to come, and calls forth congratulations
on the part of the community at large.
Society is based upon solidity OF
interests and responsibilities. Is not a
public library a public benefit? As
bread and meat are food for the body,
80 q wholesome literature, the treasured
productions of the good and the wise,
are pabulum for the mind, 1t is written
that man does not live by bread alone.
| Large collections of books for reference
and consultation are coeval with the art
of writing. They date from the earliest
records of civilized society. Three thou
sand years ago, others say long before
that. there was in Memphis, Egypt, an
extensive library, on the frontispiece of
| WblOh o6 ihoCllDCo "a ICE p1OtSN
to mean "The Healing of the Soul"
Valuable manuscripts of an unknown
antiquity were piled in the recesses Of
that primitive repository. There it was,
said Naucrates of old, that Homer, the
poor, blind rhapsodist, purloined and sp-
propriated certain epic compost
tons, which he afterward retailed
as the Had and the Odyssey. There is
a story running through the pages OF
some ancient authors, that the Queen of
Sheba, aided by Solomon, set up on
Mount Amara, wherever it was, in
Ethiopia, library which, in the
course of time, increased to
100000 works written on parch-
ment and strips OF bark, each volume
being enclosed in silk envelope neatly
indorsed Pliny relates that Antony,
dallying one evening with the naughty
Cleopatra, made over to that Princess
200 900 books, small section taken
from the far famed library in Pergamus.
We have reason to believe, however that
the magnificent bibliotheke, the vast
store-house of human knowledge, in
Alexandra, the capital of the Ptolemies,
numbered upwards of 100000 volumes
or papyri, when it was destroyed by the
Saracens.
Coming down to our own time, and to
safer ground, We may remark that the
National Library in Paris, the most
numerous aggregation Of books in the
world, contained, at the close of 1888,
exactly 1,765 AGO printed and bound
volumes in all languages and dialects,
dead and living. The Royal Library in
Munich has nearly 1000 900. The Brit
ish Museum, in London, includes not
more than 100000. The Congressional
Library, in Washington, the largest col
lection of books in the United States,
founded only forty years since, already
boasts 425 900, exclusive of countless
documents published by authority of
Congress.
e In Santa Clara, Berkeley, and Sacra-
mento, to say nothing of San Francisco,
may now be seen libraries embracing
each from 10000 to 1000 volumes, while
Los Angeles, the metropolis of the better
half of the State, flourishing city of
nearly LOG, 900 inhabitants, as enlightened
and enterprising as any under the sun,
exhibits in its Public Library grand
total of barely 5000 books And very
many Of them, it must be confessed, are
tourelets and spuscules of the trashy,
wiehy-washy sort which Addison, in his
discussion with Steele at the Kit-Cat
Club, abiding to the abortive paintings
of that period, was wont to style ''meat-
less and insipid stuff"
In this favored country the church and
the press, as we'll as the common school.
are very efficient factors in the work of
popular instruction. Through these Wig
orous agencies the blessings OF education
are offered to each and all. Los Angeles
maintains excellent seats OF learning,
live and ably-edited journals, together
with literary, scientific, musical and
art circles = all the characteristics
of the highest type of civilization and
social refnement-bu the resources of
the present City Library are obviously
inadequate to the wants and demands of
the public. We are pre-eminently ma
ton of readers. Witness the multitude
of our newspapers and various
periodicals, greater in number
than that of all the rest of the
globe combined. In America, says
Washington Irving, literature and the
elegant arts must go on side by side with
tho coarser plants of daily necessity. On
the other hand, Montespan writes that
the diffusion of knowledge among all
the people is the best safeguard of soci-
ETY. and the commonwealth. A shining
illustration of this political truism may
be found in the stability of our National
fabric, and in the high moral sense
which distinguishes our National chaIac-
ter. No educational system is complete
without good free library.
Whereas, the fees ACQUIRING from the
membership, after defraying the current
lexpenses, are not sufficient to replenish
the shelves of the Public Library, and
the City Council, we are told, has not
enough funds available for that purpose !;
it is respectfully suggested that special
tax, or contribution. might perhaps be
levied upon our citizens for the enlarge
ment and furtherance of the institution.
| A P DIETZ