The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-22
NEW WALLINGFORD LIBRARY
CORNERSTONE OF THE S25 1000 EDI-
 FICE LAID YESTERDAY.


 Wallingford,, Sept. 21.-The corner stone of Wallingford's new library building. the gift of the late Hon. sam uel Simpson, was laid this afternoon with appropriate ceremonies. Miss Margaret Tibbits, q great-granddauSh- ter of the donor, Wielded the troWel III connection with placing the stone III po- sition, and addresses were maae oy United States Senator o. Il. Platt anu President Arthur T. Hadley of 1ale uli- versity. The new building will cost $25, 900 and MT. Simpson also left an eh- dowment fund of S2O,OO0.
 President Hadley spoke as follows: If we judge things not by their pupnc prominence at the moment put py tneil permanent effect in influencing the ues- tinies of ourselves and our children, IL is hard to conceive of more important occasion than that which to-day brings us together. The founding of a public library in community marks an ad- vance in it's conception of public educa- ton. The use which Is made Of such library is training for the people whose importance it is impossible 10 er-estimate.
 In tlneS past we nave lllOu5ut oA M ucation chiefly as connected With schools and school work. For genera tions we have been proud, and justly proud, of our Connecticut public schooi system. Far be it from me to say one word which might seem to detract from the importance of this part of our train ing for citizenship. As representing university whose relations with the
 are close that it may fairly claim to be part of that school system, there is no dan- ger that I should undervalue it. l hope that it may grow and develop Ill the future as it has done in the past; and I believe that the establishment of each nublic library will assist in this growth and development. The library IS not competitor with the school or the col Iege. which substitutes new kind or education for the old; it is rather sup plement to them which increases the usefulness of school education and widens the intelligent demand for 1t.
 The habit of reading, and of reading the kind of books which the public H. brary can furnish, has in the first place the effect of prolongng the time of ed ucation. The old idea was that the boy
  or fifteen or twenty as the case might he and was then more or less fully edu- cated. The period of growth and traln- ing in this old conception was sharply distinguished from the period of work +hat followed Education ended when nractical life began. This is not the modern idea. We now understand that well developed men and women should
 ac A education ceases only when his best life ceases We no longer attempt to sepa- rate his wears into two periods, one ot education and the other of work. We hold rather that work should begin in +be neriod of education, and that edu- cation should continue throughout the continuance of active work. The edu- cation which the grown man receives IT the library is more independent ano more directed than that which the boy has received in school but it ls none the less training, means ol mental and moral growth without Which life tends constantly towards stagna tion
 But besides prolongng the time we have widened the conception. Past gen erations 100 often regarded education as a disagreeable work to be gotten over The introduction of play into school llt' was looked upon with disfavor by race SD inbued with the serious purposes O life as our Puritan ancestors. The Pur itans. said Macaulay, objected to bea batting, not because it gave pain to tn hear. but because it gave pleasure to tn spectators. By such men the comblna tion of play with work, if not regarded as an actual sin, was at least viewed with suspicion. This stern idea O school life has passed away. We nov recognize that play has large functlol in every department of life, and that l if can be introduced into education l makes the training better and no worse. Of course it is possible to carr, this idea to excess and to have so muc! nIav as to interfere with the habit o strenuous work; but so far as the Tor Y,er can be obtained without sacrllcln +he latter we have learned to see that Is a gain We see this combinatlo where our boys train for those athletl sports which are at once a Joy ana means of education. We see it in youn men's efforts at professional advance n,ent where ambition furnishes stimu lls that lightens the hardest tasks an makes them a pleasure. But noWhef perhaps is there so broad an opporlo nitv for the combination of pleasur and training as in the intelligent use well equipped library.
 Let us see what are in detail some +ha uses of such library.
 Tn the first place, it furnishes mear of technical instruction. Each one us in our lfe's business, whether III U office or the store, in the factory or IT household. cannot help feeling a certal narrowing effect from his daily routin That same experience which make him more skilful in what he does ma render his vision of the possibilities bis busness less broad. But the nap of reading books that deal with the su feet which he pursues counteracts LII tendency. Such books give him con mand of data a hundred times Wld +ben his own. Science clearly deVe oned and presented is but summary the worlds experience in it's sever nnes of observation. TIe who dea with the worlds experience instead his own broadens his work and his nacity for observation instead Of ma rowing it.
 Ru+ annlied science is far from co