The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-01
THE GAPS THAT ARE
IN STATE LIBRARY
Continued from first page.)

Hawthorne Is present in a good edition,
but there Is no trace of Thomas Hardy.
Holmes and Hugo, but not a single vol
ume of Henry James. Kipling, Lever,
LyttOn tive styles, Mcdonald. Capt.
Mayne Reid is present in Is volumes
and E. L. Roe in Peach uniform edi-
tion-while Scott gets 10 varieties of
binding, mostly poor, and Ihackeray y.
What hope is there for a library that has
+. =. Roe in a good, uniform edition
while the best it can do for the greatest
English novelist is to get him i'll diff
ferent varieties running all the way from
IS mo. sheep to a lop-sided folio in
cheap red cloth, and then leave part of
him out? And on top of it there is
Mayne Reid Is times multiplied but not
volume of George Sand, not a volume
Of Tolstoi.. OF course as | ann not writ
ing a garbage heap much of the trash III
the fiction shelves is omitted as well as
the mention of some excellent books
that are there and many that ought to
be but are not The data sup
Piled above is sufficient basis for an
estimate of the whole. | am told that
the library trustees think of buying no
more fiction--and truly the contemplation
of results is trife discouraging to
further activity in this line.
Passing on to Biography you find a toll
cradle array of books, though many val
unble ones are absent.
The near neighbor, on the shelves, of
Biography is Philology. There are less
than dozen books, though the library
has aspirations to serve for reference
30, Sotn of / a 90 -
Modern Philology, and rubbish.
Philosophy comes in for two tolerable
shelves.
Sociology worries along almost entirely
without Herbert Spencer and with prac-
tically none of the important German
works.
The collection of books on Religion
does pretty well, though Ibelieve the
Bible is omitted, and there is no stand
ard work of Mythology embodying the
views of the naturalistic school.
That section of the library of most
interest after fiction to the general
public to whom it belongs, is perhaps
that marked Literature-the term en-
bracing poetry, the drama, essays, let
ters speeches, criticism, etc. Here we
are little better off than in Fiction.
Longfellow has one sorry volume, Swim,
burne two, having only his poems that
are out of copyright Tennyson one vol
ume and paper bound copy of the
Princess, neither having his latest poems;
Shelley, one dilapidated copy-and no
Keats visible, no Lowell that / could
find. Wycherly, Congreve, Beaumont and
Fletcher. are present only mixed with
others in Modern English Drama"
Very few of the poets are in even pass
able editions.
History and Travel have volumes
enough as has Education, though the lat
ter is made up mainly of reports of one
sort or another, valuable enough i'll their
way In purely reference books, die
tionaries, encyclopaedia. etc, the lib
rary is better equipped chan III anything
else.
.1'he actual number of books III the Ii
brary is 22,617. The number of PAM
phlets is about 5000.
Altogether, it must be owned, that the
library does not seem to have done as
We'll with it's $500 a year since So as it
should, though the sum is meagre enough
to be sure. The buying for the library
is done by the trustees, not by the l.b-
r;rian.-the trustees under the law being
the Governor, Secretary Of State and
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The library Isl very little used by the
general public since the rule allowing
books to be taken out was abolished and
the night opening was stopped. Teachers
and students and those engaged in liter
airy work of one sort or another are now
its main frequenters. The laboring
classes Of the city never darken its doors.
In fact it has already become purely a
reference library and one that is very
limited in its scope of usefulness.
So far as the reading room is concern
ed it has county papers. some OF the dai-
lies, and gets the leading periodicals
but they are rarely to be found in the
reading room until they return, dog-ear
ed and dirty at the months end. Either
the magazines should be taken i'll dupli-
cate copies or no one should be allowed
to take them from the reading room.
As it is the average man gets to see
them only when they are out of date
and usually he gets tired of going in
to look for them and never sees
them at all-and the reading room is not
run for the exclusive benefit of State Of
ficials either
CHARLES z. SApP.