The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1900-08-17

! waukee, that prince of gentlemen who
has dedicated wealth. leisure and So
! cial connection to the lettering OF mu-
! nicipal conditions, and in the past de-
! cade rallied the best forces of AIilwau-
: kee to practical municipal betterment.
! A few of the papers will suggest the
order of exercises. The Essential
Elements in Good City Government
by Charles J. Bonaparte of Baltimore;
the Representation Of Different City
Interests in the Council, by Hon. Will
! liam Dudley Foulke of Richmond
! Ind; the Influence of Public Service
! Companies on City Government, by
+ Rev. Washington GLADDEN., D. D., Of
Columbus, O., who was recently elecr-
cd an alderman Of that city; the Gov
!: eminent of the City of Glasgow, by
Rev Albert Lazenby, recently of the
city of Glasgow. the Model Charter
and Wisconsin Cities, by Joshua Stark,
president of the Wisconsin Bar asSo-
citation; the Model Charter and Small
Cities, by Professor S. e. Sparkling of
the University Of Wisconsin, who is
also an alderman of Madison.
Money in Small Fruits.
There must be money in small
fruits according to frequent articles in
the state papers. With one acre of
Well-cared-fOr strawberries in SUI
perior, a man can make d very good
income. SO says w. Fl. Webb of that
city. According to the yield which he
got from small patch an acre would
have produced 81 900 worth of berries
this year.
Mr. Webb has berry batch 2Ox3O
feet in dimensions at the East End,
and from that patch he picked sixty
five quarts of berries. At 10 cents
per quart the result would be 500.
One man with cultivator could han
die nicely five acres of strawberries
if he devoted his time to it, he says,
and he would always be sure of crop.
However, the great American "hen
still holds her ground. Three wealthy
farmers of Lacrosse county will or
ganize $4,000 stock company for the
! establishing of a ''hen farm" where
the eggs will be cultivated on scientific
principles 1t is said the poultry and
egg crop exceeds in value the iron out
put of the country.
Travelling Libraries.
Melville Dewey, the New York IL
brary expert, is credited with original
ing the travelling library" in 1892.
At first but forty-siX libraries were
sent out, but by the fifth year these
had. increased to nearly five hundred
separate book collections, comprising
in all some fifty thousand volumes.
Of these travelling libraries, 20 per
cent is devoted to fiction, and from
10 to 20 per cent. to travel, biography
and the special Environment Libra
ries," consisting of books relating to
some particular section Of the country.
There are Picture Libraries" contain
inc ctures to be framed and hung Oh
the wall, lantern-Slides and the neceS-
sary apparatus.
| find in Every Month, a magazine,
the following which buries a good deal
of truth among some amusing, even
libelous rubbish:
"By far the most interesting of these
experiments, because of the fact that it
has been carried on without a penny
of state aid, and because of the gener-
al support which has been given to it
from the first is the travelling library
system of Wisconsin. The population
of western Wisconsin is largely Scan
dinavian, and nearly all of foreign eX-
traction. The people are miserably
poor in material things, and this is a
measure of their intellectual poverty.
An incOnceivable small percentage of
the pOulation are communicates OF any
church. To these people, so sOrely in
need of the sweetness and light
which books bring with them, go these
libraries on wheels. The first station
may be at the crossroads, and the vol
unteer librarian may be the postmas-
ter, the country stOrekeeper, or the Sec
ton boss. The books are kept in cir
culation until the next consignment
arrives, when they are called in,
packed up, and sent along to the next
town. In this way 10000 volumes are
kept moving through the state of Wis
conSin Special arrangements were
made in 1898 to supply books through
this method to the camps where Wis
cOnsin soldiers were stationed"
Libraries Help These Towns.
The NOrWegians are not the whole
thing in the western counties, but let
that pass. One may reasonably object,
however, to the miserable poverty
of thrifty farmers whom every city
man envies for content and abundance.
And, too. isn't it rather rough to be
held UP to the world as an object les
son in the multiplication of churches
and at the same time a people IAN in
conceivably small percentage of
whose population are church members.
The rest of the comment of the Ev-
cry Month is good:
There is no system of popular edu-
cation that yields such large results
for so small an outlay. The abandon
ment of old habits of lOunging and dis
sipation at the country saloon has
marked the advent of the travelling
library. The young men who former
ly spent their evenings there have de-
serted these quarters, and prefer to re-
main at home with some book which
has suddenly opened to them a new
source of pleasure. So marked has
this detection become that salOOnkeep-
ers often volunteer to act as librarians
in order that their former patrons
may not absent themselves altogether.
Among the books which lead in the
! Wisconsin travelling libraries are Miss
Alcott's Fashioned Girl Aldrich's
Story of Bad Boy some of w. 0.
Stoddard's books, 'Helen's Babies
| Mrs. Catherwoods Story of TOnty.'
The Hoosier Schoolmaster,' and the
earlier novels of Captain King are