The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-13
FREE TRAVELLING LIBRARIES.
Mrs. Nelden, Chairman of Commit
tee. States What is Being Done.

Mrs. Nelden, Chairman of Commit
tee, States What is Being Done.
The free travelling library system,
originating in New York, had been es-
tablished and was in successful opera
ton from Maine to Florida, north by
the great lakes, throughout the Mis-
souri, river valley, had already crossed
| the limitless prairies at the bidding of
I that glorious band Of workers, the
( WOmans club of Denver, before it
came to be recognized as an important
/ factor in the federation work Of the
club women of Utah, and to take its
| permanent place beside the great salt
! sea. We have so far evolved nothing
! original IN the work, but have initiated
much the same excellent methods pur-
sued by other and older free travelling
| library OrganiZa lions, modified natu-
rally by the conditions existing in a
newer. more SparSely settled commune
ty. The suggestions most graciously
furnished by Mrs. Frank Hutchings,
/ secretary Of the Wisconsin Free Tray
cling Library association, have been
thoroughly appreciated and faithfully
followed. The Utah cases are in exact
imitation of those used in southern
Wisconsin. and by the close of our
/ present federation year, eighteen
months after the first library was
started upon it's benificent mission,
there will be eighteen in the field, ap-
prOximating !, 400 volumes. These books
have sbee donated. purchased from
small ana gular contributions by the
Federated sIdbs of the state, from gen.
erOuS gifts from an outside friend and
the proceeds Of field day." when Utah
club women go basket picnicking. The
work viii continue to be supported in
this way until the state legislature
shall decide to grant a regular appro-
priation an render the free travelling
library undertaking Of solid. practical
benefit, in ratifying it by law.
One library, carefully and lovingly
selected from the best and latest fic-
ton, is the perpetual delight of a lit
tie mission conducted for seven years
by Dr. Sarah ]. Elliott, and called st
George -in-the-Desert." Others have
been instrumental in increasing that
most important and difficult of fedora
ton work. the formation Of clubs, for
only to the uninitiated is the organiza-
ton of club an easy matter.
The free travelling library work in
Utah was first entrusted to Mrs
Charles D. Moore of the Reviewers
club, Salt Lake City. Notwithstanding
discouraging conditions that would
have dismayed any one whose whole
heart was not devoted to the accom-
plishment Of this great work, her en-
thusiasm and patient perseverance
were crowned with such success that in
little more than a year she had col
lected and placed eleven cases in diff
ferent parts of the state. With the
advent of the new year in state fed
GRAFTON history, a new committee is ap-
pointed for the work, with Mrs. Will
liam A. Nelden, also member of the
Reviewers, as chairman.
The free travelling library in the cor
ner grocery or the pOstoffice is certain
~ the most Open-handed, compensat-
ing, satisfactory arrangement ever con-
trived for communities W here there are
no public and but few good private IL
braries, and it is the earnest endeavor
Of Utah club women to extend the ed
ucating, refining influence of good
reading just as soon as may be. to
every man, woman and little child
within her borders.
S. 0. S. NELDEN,
Chairman F. T. Library Com.