The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-15

| mortal, Cne owner OF Thousand good vol
umes looks upon them with his deepest de-
light. 1t is joy felt by no quadruped. 1t
is thing known not at all to that heavy
laden beast who goes under the phrase of
"a man who does not read For this book
owner stands now on the starlit plains of
Chaldea; sits with Plato and Critic about
Socrates, and covers a sheet over the dying
Stole; marches to Alesia with Julius Caesar;
feels both the pride and the insolence of
Napoleon BOnaparte; and lives at Month
cello with Thomas Jefferson or at Spring
field with Abraham Lincoln. Is not that a
noble animal-a noble vanity, too, like the
arch in the neck of the Arabian steed? Let
our book owner secretly boast, and hear
his friends openly boasting. He has a
thousand volumes-a thousand warehouses
of information Pity he must diel
But there are more than a thousand
books, and today went where there are
157, 000 | would for the readers sake, that
] had been worthy to stand in such a place,
or that l were able to throw the picture of
what | saw. 1t was not $4,000 good vol
uInes, but the good volumes of the world
were nearly all there How did it look?
What did | feel? What would you feel?
Perhaps l may not deal in vain with the
/
tons.
The only handsome and monumental
structure in Chicago, to my mind, is the
court house, an unfinished work On the
/ upper floor of a wing of this vast building,
and occupying many rooms, is the Public
library of Chicago, thing that seemed to
! come out of the great fire. The man of
1871 with thousand books, each marked
. . H.,
prairie and looked up at the seven stars,
whittier, in the persistence of force, his
marked books had that day scared. Pub
lie property seemed good enough just then,
and hence the Public library. The chart
table world gave books along with bread,
and some of our folks who could not live
by bread alone were saved from starvation.
guess the general idea of a public Ii
brary is to this effect: A thousand dollars
for brick walls and dollar for book to
plaster the walls with; inside the walls GER
tain tables at which old men whisper.
The book worn-I mean the worm itself
starts at one corner of the building and
goes through the books on four sides; then
it takes another shelf; some time off in the
ages the book dust will explode, so will
the humbug, and the library will be no
more.
am glad to say Chicago has a scheme
that does away with the fine old gentle
men and the massive walls and skylights.
A large square room, itself much like any
other large room, contains the real operat-
ing library, and over this collection OF
books hangs floor on which scientific
works and mere records are arranged. |
went today into the middle of this room.
Set across the Enclosure, in line after ine
were the book cases, about eight feet high
and four feet apart. Each case is double
that is, the back serves for two alleys. |
asked how many books were kept here
The librarian answered 10000. l asked
how many actually saw now. He said
that there were 1000 books on the shelves
and 10000 out" | said l wished | knew
the collection Us we'll as he, and the libra
rian was quick to say 'Ay" to that, for it
is his aim in life to have the people under
stand and use the marvellous privilege
which is here held freely forth to the citi-
zens.
You feel the expansive power Of this
room as you stand here Over there is
room twice as large as this, filed to over
flowing with readers of periodicals; nearer
is large reference room. where good books
may be studied. Here is a directors room,
stored with books worth 81, 600 each. Here
is the Office of the secretary, where your
msCnum opus, if you have written one, is
labeled, measured, dated, described and
sent into the great sea, 10 be discovered by