The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-03

NE or the July magazines con-
tains an interesting sketch Of
~ Herbert Putnam, librarian Of
the magnificent library Of congress In
Washington. a position which is the
very apex of a librarians ambition.
Mr.. Putnam was born in New York in
1851, was graduated from Harvard,
took a partial law course at Columbia
and began his career in Minneapolis,
where he became librarian Of our sis
ter city's fine library shortly after it
was. opened. Mr.. Putnam developed real
originality in library work and went
from Minneapolis to Boston's great Ii
brary and then received the appoint
ment in 1899, which he still holds.
When he went to Washington he found
a great task awaiting him, as modern
methods had not, up to this time, OBJ
tanned, and the different departments
of the tremendous work were all in
need of reform. Within year Mr..
Putnam had brought order out of chaos
and revolutionized the methods of the
entire institution. His clear head and
fine system so appealed to congress
that he had no difficulty in obtaining
appropriations TO carry on the work,
and today there is no better arranged
library or better managed than the
national one and 1t is all owing to Mr..
Putnam Of course 1t must be taken
into account that with the government
at his back, Mr.. Putnam is not ham,
pered for lack of means as so many
librarians are, and having obtained the
confidence of those in power, his work
is made comparatively easy for him.
Library work has now become pro-
fession and cannot be done by anybody
and everybody as was formerly the
case. Perhaps no one in this country
has contributed SO much toward rails
ing it 10 a Ilne art as Mr.. Putnam and
he deserves the great success that has
come to him.
Halle Erminie Rives' book, 1.-THE
Castaway," is stirring UP a good deal
of discussion and is the cause Of many
persons looking UP their volumes Of
Byron's poems and also biographies of
the man himself. Miss Rfves has taken
the bare outlines Of his career and fill
ed them in most cleverly, often fantaS-
tically, but with a sympathy that even
at this late day will win him friends
and will serve to convince many who
formerly condemned him that he was
more sinned against than SHINING. Al
though the story as the writer tells it
is pure fiction, the fact that the charac-
tiers once lived during the most inter-
esting periods of modern times gives
the tale an added charm. 1t would
seem that it was Gertrude Atherton's
book on Alexander Hamilton, 1.-The
Conqueror," which served as an in
spiration TO Miss Rives, and gave her
the idea of resuscitating and rehabili-
tating a man whose life, however one
looks at ii, was full OF romance AMI
contrast. Whether one is convinced
by the booker not, it cannot be denied
that 1t is the most noteworthy literary
performance of the year.
We are in the habit Of thinking that
in this country everyone writes and
We deplore not only the quality but
the quantity of our literature, but lit
erary magazine tells us that, consider
ing the extent of our population, our
writer's are few and far between. The
man who makes this statement says
he was in a city of the Middle West
of no mean size and yet upon inquiry
he discovered that only two persons
there were known to be writers. One
of these was maiden lady, who wrote
irnccuous tales for juvenile maya
zine, and the other was a maiden who
had bravsd obloquy by translating a
particularly nasty story from a for
eign tongue. The writer seemed to
think that only two out of hundreds Of
thousands showed that writing books
is not so common as we are disposed
to think. He also claims that there is
q literary belt somewhere resembling
the pie belt of New England which
JZpling made famous. He said thai
Montana, instead of being so shocked
at Mary McLane and her startling
books, should have devoutly thanked
its stars that a CLEAN of creative art
had hghtened its heavy gloom of mate
rialism and political autocracy." Going
on TO speak of other states the writer
finds that after all we are not as much
given to writing too many books as we
are prone to believe. He says, too, a
very true thing, and that is, that while
man may say without apology st
am a doctor" or L am lawyer" If he
says Il am a writer he expects people
to smile and he cannot keep the apol-
ogetic note out of his voce. The lit
erary person bushes for his calling as
much as the burglar should, for some
reason or other. and it takes consider
able courage to state the fact calmly,
that ones lives by writing. 1t viii take
some wise man to find out why the
American people do not take literature
seriously as a career and why the voic-
ing of ones devotion to it most al
ways raises smile.
BY Snare of Lovely Arthur w March
mont. Frederick A. Stokes Co For sale
by St Paul Book and Stationery COM
pany.
Given handsome and rich Aneri-
can in a foreign land, beautiful wom-
an in distress and the center of polit-