The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-09-08
THE STATE LIBRARY.

AOA sa'O C"usO Va tuO pCliudI
education of its people since tn
war than Mississippi. Few of il
means have provided so liberall
for those wishing to educate them
selves further than the publ
school curriculum provides. N
young man or woman need go be
yOnd the borders of the state t,
become excellently equipped 70
the realities of life, and all to tn
rich and poor alike. without mon
ey and without price, further thai
that payable by citizenship alone
One of the most vitality impor
tant educational adjuncts to thu
school is the library, and, ever
here, Mississippi has done well
several of her higher institutions
being excellently equipped In this
respect.
But she has stopped, and APP
parently it is a dead stop.-far toe
short of the mark. To render
possible the completion of the
work begun in the school, the
state should provide its citizens
with the tools of the student. :
books, and this it has done only
in a very small measure.
It has satisfied the wants of one
class OF its citizens only, and that
but a vely small class. The state
library. at jackson, as a law Ii
brary, ranks among the first half
dozen in America 1--WE remember
to have heard the late Judge Wi
ley P. Harris once say that it stood
third or fourth, at that time), but
as library of general literature
it is a shadow without the sub
stance, a rank farce, a miserable
makeshift, disgracing its desig-
nation. We would not Rave the
provision for lawyers one iota
less than 1t is, on the contrary, we
take the greatest,pride in knowing
what has been done along this
line, but, in all conscience, we say
lot the removal to the pew capitol
mark the beginning of better
things for the larger and equally
deserving class of our citizens,
who pay our lawyers, and furnish
these books to them to boot.
Our National library, unfortu-
nately called the Congressional
Library, once stood in the same
relation to the great collections of
Europe that our state library oc-
cupies to the magnificent public
institutions of New England.
Speaking to Senate resolution to
devoted portion of the Smithson
bequest to the establishing of
great public library, Rufus Choate
stated that Of all the printed books
in the world we did not then pos
sess in America more than fifty
thousand different works. He
said s'Gibbon's History could not
have been written here tor want
Of books. = Hallam's Middle
Ages = could not. Irving's
Columbus was written in Spain.
See how this inadequate supply
operates. An American mind
kindles with subject,-lt enters
on an investigation with a spirit
and with an ability worthy Of the
most splendid achievement; goesa
little way, finds that &. books
are indispensable which cannot be
found this side of Gottlngen or
Oxford; it tires of the pursuit, or
abandons it altogether, or substi-
tutes some shallow conjecture for
a..deep and accurate research. And
that is the end. !" We have but
to substitute names, and this de-
scription Of American conditions |
then, fifty ,characterlzes our own
today.
We do not mean to ask for a IL |
brary equipped for the accomplish
ment Of every work of human re-
search, but only for the Collec-
ton, from year to year, through |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT expenditures, of
such a library as shall be ccmmen-
surate with the means and needs Of
the state: one to which those of
her people who work IN books ,
may repair for help and inspira- {
ton: one 10 which her own history
may be fully written and the life
Of her people be accurately Ia
nl5e which. under com. a