The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-03-23
NEW

conquer the multitude but that which
gains love as well as admiration-the
authors power to move the heart tc
the depths. Truly such work is eflica-
cious in making men wiser, better and
happier" 1T is pleasant to know that
we are to have more of his work
another volume of Drumtochty ske ches
and story dealing with phases Of
English life, of quite a different nature
A CURIOUS LIBRARY.
A curious circulating library, the
only one of its kind in the United
States, is one that is located in Brook
Ign, in the care of the Church OF the
Messiah.
Its volumes, about 800 in number, are
very bulky and very expensive. The
Bible, for instance, is in eleven volumes,
and weighs nearly seventy pounds In
the plainest of binding it costs twenty
dollars. Ben Hur" cost fourteen dol
lars, and Robinson Crusoe" ten. The
leaves of these books are OF
very thick paper, and are not
black with type but are Curl
ously embossed with raised lines and
dots that to hasty glance might seem
to have but little meaning. And even
when 1t is seen that these are letters
and words the process of reading them
is slow and tiresome. They are not
meant for seeing eyes but for the ex-
quisitely sensitive finger tips OF the
blind, who read by touch, and find in
the development of one sense a partial
Pc, Of hn a
caused by the deprivation Of another
A few years ago the Mizpah Circle
of blind men started this library with
q valuable collection of books which
they owned They hoped to find a
library in New York city that would
take the books In charge and attend
to their circulation but were unsuc-
cessful, owing perhaps to the large
amount Of space required for such a
collection. At last the Church of the
Messiah took them in charge. The lib
rary has now about three hundred
subscribers, blind people coming from
all over New York state and New Jer-
sey to borrow the expensive books that
otherwise would be out of their reach
The management OF the library is on
a liberal scale. Those who can do so
pay small yearly subscription, those
who cannot pay enjoy its privileges free.
Nor does their place of residence make
any difference, the principal requisites
being blindness and the desire to read.
AT least three systems Of printing
are used in these books. The Boston
line" letters are similar in form to or
binary letters but are raised above the
surface Of the paper. The New York
point" system, invented by Mr. Will
liam B. Wait, superintendent Of the
New York institution for the blind
forms the letters by means of sharply
raised dots, and is the most condensed
and practical method. It is also easiest
of all to read DR.. Morris system, all
most exclusively used in England, is a
sort of short hand without abbrevia-
lions. I4
The librarian says that "a noticeable
feature in the circulation is the great
of poetry among the sub
scribers. 1t is more in demand than
else. Next on the list come
woks OF a religious nature, fiction being
least in demand, Many of the subscrib-
ers are great readers, one woman in
particular having read the library
through several times, Women con-
stitute the majority of the readers,
which possibly. accounts for the popu-
larity of poetry among the subscribers"
Or may 1t not be that as the environ
ment of the blind, active and self-reliant
as many Of them are, is still Swallowed
with the melancholy of their darkness, !
that in poetry, especially If it be of q
devotional nature they find a lasting
solace and cheer with which the tenn
porary enthraflment of fiction is not
TO be compared?
HILARY.