The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-06-12
PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

The fable Of the fox and the st0rk
dinner is Renaissance Of our school
days that some of us have not forgotten.
In fit of sudden friendliness, the stork
invited the fox to stretch his legs under
the stork's mahogany, meet his charm
ing wife and children and enjoy the deli
cacies Of the season. The invitation
was accepted in the same spirit as it
was given, pot-luck the fox avowed he
would be delighted to take, and the two
friends set off for the stork residence
mutually well pleased. What little do
nestle scene occurred when the stork
reached home and, leaving his guest in
the drawing room, proceeded to inter
view his wife in domestic privacy, we
are left to infer. 1t would be manifest
ly unfair to the stork's reputation to
jump to the conclusion that he was a
henpecked husband and equally unjust
to set down Madame Stork as mig
gardly housewife, even though events
turned out as they did. No doubt she
had good deal to put up with. Her
lord and master was very possibly in the
habit Of asking his club friends to din
ner without giving her due warning,
when he ought to have remembered
only men never do remember such
things-that the flag end of yesterday
joint was all they had in the larder.
What a trial that ie, every housewife
knows. 1t may have been wash day, or
the whole house may have been topsy-
'turvy in the mysteries of spring clean
ing. Or, true to her reputation as a
"a careful mother, Madam Stork, enter
tanning grave doubts as to the standing
of the fox in society circles and dubious
as to his moral reputation, may have re-
fused to allow her children to associate
with her unexpected guest. Whatever
the cause, the dinner, as we all know,
was one-sided, dismal failure. Neither
mother nor children did the fox lay eyes
on, unless he caught glimpse Of them
whisking up the staircase as he passec
through the hall on his way to the din
ing room. The dinner-a shabby, sin
gle-course affair-was served up in I
long, narrow-necked dish, that the 70,
could make nothing of. The stork, afte
expressing his regrets for his wife's un
precedented behavior, behaved like ,
philosopher in yielding to circumstances
and finished the whole. Scurvy and in
hospitable were the mildest terms tn
fox could find for his treatment az b.
wendell his sad and hungry way home
and the general verdict will be tn
same
And yet it is almost similar treatmen
that patrons have to submit to in man
OF our public Libraries. We are con
stantly reading in our newspaper col
umns that free public library has bee
opened in this city or that village. Ho,
many Of them are free in the full sens
OF the word? The presumable object 6
such an institution is to instil and en-
courage love OF reading and informs
ton IN every class of society, and nota
bly, IN that class which cannot afford t
have libraries of its own. But go muc
are We the slaves of habit that we cor
tlnue to throw all manner Of barriers i
the way OF the free and unstinted use I
the treasures on the shelves, we hedg
their acquisition with SO many restri'
tons and obsolete safeguards, We pc
init our readers in their choice of bool
70 oe so "cribbed, cabined and confined
y that 1t Is safe to say that some OF thel
give up in despair. We invite the pul
lie to literary feast and to convers
with the great intellectual minds of a
ages, and when they accept our invit,
ton we chill Them and drive them aw,
by our manner of reception. We ope
nee Libraries and We refuse the publ
the privilege of handling the books a,
making their own personal selection.
IN this respect the public library
Helena y not free from blame. It is
feult q the librarian. Every patr,