The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-03-08
a PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR RALEIGH

The movement recently inaugurated
in Raleigh to establish public library
ought to command the earnest interest
of every public spirited citizen, every
lover of good books, and all who desire
TO elevate the public taste, AMI we
might have added, the public morals,
also. The cultivation of taste for
reading. in boys is one of the best pre-
ventives of an unproductiye or vicious
youth. ''The devil still finds work for
idle hands to do is as true as it is old.
Raleigh's population is now large
enough to call for public library, and
the movement inaugurated by the
Chamber of Commerce is the best step
taken in many days. Is there not some
public spirited citizen, or citizens, who
viii enshrine the name Of a departed
loved one by erecting a memorial IL
brary, as has recently been done in New
Orleans?
THE riches of scholarship, the be-
nignities of literature, said Mr.. James
Russell Lowell, in his address at the
opening of Chelsea Library, defy for
tune and outlive calamity. They are
beyond the reach Of thief or moth or
rust. As they cannot be inherited, so
they cannot be alienated. But they
may be shared, they may he distrib-
uted; and it Is the object and Office Of
= free public library to perform these
flnctions.''
Referring to the fact that in the Latin
tongue tile word for book" and for
free was the same namely, 1iber,
the Mex York Tribune recently said:
1.-THE fact is silnply an chronological
coincidence; bat it may be taken, ney-
ertheless, to indicate a profound truth
Books do free Inen's minds from the
shackles OF ignorance, and, what is
quite as important, from bondage to
outworn ideals aud false conceptions of
life. and OF mans relation to the uni
verse in which he i'd placed"
In an essay that has been widely
read, President Julius ID. Dreher, of
Ronaoke college, has collected statictics
in relation to public libraries that are
: full OF valuable suggestions. In 1891
there were in this country 3,s03 public
libraries, numbering more than 1000
volumes each. the aggregate being
26,S2G, 537 volumes. The six New Eng
land States, New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania have more than one-half
Of all the books in the public Libraries
Of the country. Massachusetts leads all
the States. In 1910 Boston voted tax
foraa public library, the first instance
of the kind in the world, and now there
is hardly a village in Massachusetts
which is not supplied with a good public
library
Raleigh has outgrown village proper
tions in many respects, and yet it is
sad truth, that there is no agency ia
the city that encourages the youth to
read, or that helps those that are anx-
ious to have the best literature, but are
unable to buy the books as they come
out This ought not SO 10 be. The
capital OF the State, both as an exam
pie to other communities, and as the
best means of eleyating the tone of
the city in every way, ought to estab-
lish a public library. Speaking Of Ii
brary, John Bright said:
The young man who drinks at it
shall still thirst, and thirsting for
knowledge and still drinking, we may
hope that he viii grow to greater
mental and moral standard, more USE
ful as a citizen, and more noble as a
man"