Evening star., 1896-11-13

ing for books, desire and thirst for knowl-
edge, may naturally be acquired. The IL
brary develops this liking and meets and
gratifies this desire. The school imparts
the ability to educate ones self by the in
telligent use of books. The library supple
ments this instruction by providing the
means and opportunity for such self-edu-
cation. AS Commissioner w. T. Harris of
the bureau of education has aptly said
1.-THE school teaches how to read-how to
use the printed page to get out of 1t all
that it contains. The library furnishes
what to read; it opens the storehouse of
all human learning. These two are COM
Elementary functions In the great work OF
education"
The library is. then, a true university,
both for the graduates Of the public schools
and for the whole people, without regard
to class, or sex, or age, or wealth, or pre-
vious condition Of servitude to ignorance
The people eagerly avail themselves Of the
educational opportunities offered by ;he
public library. 1t raises the whole COM
munity to a higher intellectual plane 1t
Is also not without it's beneficent influence
as a moral agent. In some Of the small
New England towns the record shows that
as many as one out Of every five tnhabi-
tapts, counting men, women and children,
is registered as a borrower of library books
More persons have there registered to read
than have registered to vote. The statistics
also show that at first fiction was most
largely drawn upon by such readers, but
that, as the taste for reading was devel-
oped, stronger food for the mind was de-
manded, and the ratio of serious reading
steadily increased. The reading room has
proved and will prove a strong rival to all
demoralizing resorts in claims upon the
evenings of many, especially the young,
and has served and will serve more AID
more as a satisfactory substitute for
nightly idleness in dreary lodgings or on
the streets.
No Free Peoples Library Here.
What Carlyle sought for each English
county town, and what many English and
American villages now enjoy, the national
capital lacks and seeks to obtain. 1t Is
fast becoming the republics educational
center. Universities are founded in rapid
succession within its limits. But the great
free library university, for those whom
Lincoln lovingly called the common peo-
pie, is yet to be created. According to the
statistics there are much more than a
million books in the semi-public libra
rfes of Washington-about twentieth OF
all in the republic; and when these have
been apportioned among the citizens after
the methods Of statisticians it appears that
the Distric. workingman has fourteen times
as many public books as the average
American. And the only difficulty Is that
he cannot possibly make any use of them
whatsoever.
The resident in the more elevated Sec
tions Of Washington who could get no wa
ter on the upper floors Of his house, and
very little On any floor, saw countless gal
Ions wasted in the departments, in foun-
tains and otherwise, and learned from sta
tistics that he and the other citizens were,
in per capita average of gallons daily
used. among the largest consumers of
water in the country. The population Of
the capital, credited with fourteen times
their due proportion Of books. and with