The record-union., 1896-01-09
TIE ACADEMIA SOCIETY MEETING.
Miss Hancock's Interesting and
thoughtful Paper.
The Relation of Public Libraries to
Public schooIs-A Fine Pro-
eramme Given.

There was a fair attendance at the
meeting of the Academia last evening
at Chickering Hall, although the pro
gramme offered deserved a much larger
audience.
The first number was difficult piano
solo, "a te' Ocara,'' "Puritani" (Thal-
berg, which was charmingly rem
dered by Miss Dunster in a manner
which drew hearty applause from hel
audience, and she had to respond to an
encore, playing Heller's Restless
Night, No. l."
Then followed an excellent and
thoughtful paper by Miss Hancock on
'sThe Relation Of Public Libraries to
Public Schools" Among other things,
she said:
A community possessed of a good
public library must be developed both
spiritually and mentally to a greater
degree than one without such a means
of education. One librarian says: "A
good and active public library raises
the value of every piece of real estate
in the city, because it enables the intel
ligent and studious to earn more" For
educational purposes its service is
measureless; for entertainment its re-
sources are unfailing.
The mechanic, the artist. the scientist,
the historian, the professional man, the
business man and the literary man all
find invaluable help in the library. The
reading and debating clubs visit its
rooms for needed help. In every IL
brary, however poorly equipped, we find
al these people seeking assistance in
their various lines of work and thought.
Books are every mans tools, and even
those who work with trowel in one
hand must work with a book in the
other The very presence of a library
in a community is a help to intellectual
growth. Those who do not patroniZe it
at first associate with those who do,
and eventually become Interested and
seek it's shelves for assistance or enter
tainment.
Good schools and good Libraries are
the best measures of the value of a
modern civilization.
It is for the public schools to teach
ifs pupils how to open these storehouses
of knowledge and how to appropriate
It. knowledge does not come to US by
heredity. neither can it be legally trans
like the gentle dew from Heaven upon
the place beneath" 1t is acquired only
by stern, persistent labor and it ever
will be, by systematic, uncompromising
effort, that the prize will be attained,
and the earlier in life that this fact is
realized the greater will be the prog
ress. Who can desire greater honor
than to be numbered among the noble
trusted the task of training the mind
and molding the character of the youth
of our country? a noble army of mar
tyrs'' you may deem yourselves, but re-
member and take courage in the
thought that it is to your influence more
than any other that we shall owe the
strength of intellect and the moral
courage that will rule our country for
the next half century. 1t has been truly
said that 'the public schools are the
bulwarks of our republican Govern
ment" Next to the public schools
stands the public library as the stu
dents storehouse, and he who discloses
its treasures to a mind however young
has opened to him vein of wealth far
more enduring than the richest gold
mine ever discovered, for from child
hood to youth, and on to middle life and
old age, the public library may be their
amusement, instructor, companion and
friend.
So the public library stands for the
wholesome truth that education is never
finished and should not stop when one
stops going to school. What the child
ren are reading is the most important
question that can be considered by
parents and teachers. How can the
public library do more for the intel
lectual culture Of the whole community
than by setting forward in their ca
reers those who will be teachers and
leaders of their generation? How can
this be better done than by co-opera-
ton between the public library and the
public school? The purpose of both is
to a great extent the same, to supply
desired information and instruction
and develop the intellectual powers of
mankind. While the school begins with
the earliest age the library continues to
the latest, and so they go hand in hand
and should work together in harmony
for the good of the~whole.
Were any of you occupying my posi-
tion and saw these young boys and
girls with eager minds spending most
of their time reading light stories-even
If there is nothing bad in them-I think
you would feel as I do, that something
ought to be done to stem this tide and
turn their minds in to other fields of
literature. To whom can I appeal to
help in this great work but to the teach
ers who come in contact with a large
number of the young people for many
hours each day? Many of the parents
do not know what their children read.
They go to the library and choose their
own books and read as many of them as
they please, sometimes three or four, or
even more in one week. As a child's
taste for reading is cultivated like any
other quality and because the parents
are often needless of what the child
reads we must look to the teachers in
the public schools to try to remedy the
mistake 50 far as they can by getting
the children interested in the right
kind of reading. The intellectual edu-
cation of child begins when he sits
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