The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-10-23
THE HACKLEY LIBRARY.
Muskegon Gains a Public library
from One of itsf Public g.
Spirited Citizens.
The Hackley Public Library. .

t.@s4~ from &On0-sQf ItST PUBLIC
Spirited Citizens.
The Hackley Public Library. Of
Muskegon, Mich, a gift to the city
by one of its most public spirited
citizens, the Hon. Charles II Hack
ley, was formally dedicated during
the afternoon of the 5th inst, at the
/ Opera House. The auditorium was
/ crowded, and hundreds could not
gain admttance
The library is magnificent build
ing that will cost, when completed,
SIPS 600, and will contain at the
opening $4,000 volumes The chief
feature of the occasion was the adj
dress of the Hon. Thomas w Pal
mer, broad and scholarly effort.
The closing remarks Of the honor
able gentleman were as follows
The refinement Of peoples may be
measured by the interest they dis
play and the care they exercise in.the
accumulation and custody Of books.
An incident showing the humaniz-
ing effect of books occurred during
the first French Revolution. M.
Bartolome, an assistant librarian I'M
der the Due de Choiseul, and high
ly educated man. had written a work
called the "Travels of Anarcharsis, F"
a Scythian. who journeyed through
Greece 1000 years ago. The trav
els were suppoSitious. Bartolome,
having all the classics at command,
created Anarcharsis and visited, in
fancy, all the famous places in, and
talked with all the famous men of the
golden age of Greece, or with friends
who knew and described their char
acter and traits. He fortified all he
said by citations from works Of I'm,
doubted authority. 1t reads like a
veritable book of travels, and its
tendencies, like all good books, are
humane. Bartolome was al his post,
the client and protege of the Due,
when the revolution broke out The
Due fed from France to save his
life. Instead Of beheading Bartol
ONE, however, during the reign Of
terror, when anyone suspected of at
tachment to Ducal house was hur
ried to the guilIotine, a committee Of
those sangulnary men in charge of
his section waited upon him, com
plimented his erudition, euIogized
the high humanity allowed to SO
much learning, and begged his &C
ceptance of the high office Of nation
al librarian, which he held for many
years thereafter.
It seems to me an evidence of
mans immortal destiny and to estab-
lish the distinction between and the
pre- eminence of spiritual over mate
rial things, that men will labor for
life. time, suffer contumely, neglect
and penury, being fed and sustained
by a hope that mankind will read
and cherish some idea which they
have developed, some Pigment of the
brain which they have outlined, some
prophecy they have penned. Unlike
the man who works for and boards
his wealth, and who tries to surround
it with every safe guard, the man
who makes lasting literature only ask
that men will read without price what
has cost him so much labor, and pos
sibly what has given him. in turn, so
much anguish and delight When
superadded to this, men who have,
through toll, worry and anxiety,
made money, who have capacity with
that moneyto make more money,
cheerfully and largely give, from
generous hearts or from sense of
duty, that their fellows-their kind to
untold generations = shall enjoy
more, live better, have-a wider hori-
zon and higher hope for this world
and the next, we have two object
lessons to enHghten and bless man
kind-the store Of mental food to
educate the mind, and the act Of
generous soul to educate the emo
tons.
The act of giving wealth is just as
educational as the tones which that
wealth may purchase. The story of
a boy, denied the resources which IN
after years he was able to tender to
others, coming to manhood through
adverse surroundings, unconscious
himself, possibly, that the germ of
great benefaction lay dormant in his
soul, the working of his way, friend
less, to town where the surround
ings then we're not propitious to the
development Of that germ-how the
growth of his fortune did not sup
press, curb or confne its exfoliation,
how it grew and expanded in sum-
mer's heat and winters cold like the
signing pines under which its bearer
had slept and whose whispering he
had heard-how, finally, the ripe
fruit of a great purpose fell unher-
aided and unexpected into the laps
of . : OoO men women and children