Omaha daily bee., 1906-04-29

the fire that has swept the city. Great
collections Of invaluable records came to
the pitiful end of making food for the
flames.
No accurate estimate can be made of the
monetary worth Of the books destroyed.
but II is believed that their market value
was in excess OF 100000 The public IL
brary was the eighth largest institution Of
it's kind in the United States. Librarian
George w Clark said: I'm the main IL
brary in the eastern wing of the city hall
we had 10000 books. This was a total
loss. the structure housing the volume be-
ing shattered by earthquakes and swept
by fire"
when our branch collections are brought
together" he continued I'VE will have a
good working library of reference books
and a fine collection of standard literature.
We have $4,000 that Andrew Carnegie gave
us. which sum is still intact, and is, l be-
lieve, now available. We have the square
block of land bounded by Van Ness, Hayes,
Franklin and Fell streets which was
bought with bond issue money, and we have
N,0OOoOO OF money available for new IL
brary building.
'Our great disaster will result In hurry
ing this work of construction. and doubt
less the building OF the new home for San
Franclsco's books will begin in the near
future. Meanwhile the various branches
OF the library that escaped the fire are
open for the return and donation Of books.
Next week the trustees will meet to devise
method of circulation"
SutrO Library Gone.
The Mechanics Institute library and the
Mercantile library combined a few weeks
haA
brought together, but both library struc-
lures, the former on Post street below
Kearney, and the latter on Suffer street
above Kearney, were buried. In the two
collections were 10000 volumes, and all
were lost. The Sutro library of 100000
volumes collected by the late Adolph Sutro,
WAS destroyed These books were stored
in the Montgomery barracks and in a
was OF immense value as It contained some
of the rarest books In the United States.
building on Battery street The collection
The library of the Society of Pioneers, in
their building on Fourth street. is gone
One OF its priceless features was the type
written "reminiscences of pioneers bound
in twelve volumes. The Bohemian club lost
its library of 5000 volumes many Of them
autograph copies from noted authors The
French library of 1000 books. which was
In the Spring Valley building, Is no more
The B'Nai Birth library contributed 1900
volumes 20 the pyre. The flames took the
costly library in the Croker mansion
Nothing remains of the 5000 volumes OF
the San Francisco law library. The su-
preme court lost its library of 10000 vol
lunes and the fine collections of Appellate
Judge Harrison and of DR.. Taylor dean Of
the Hastings Law college, are in ashes
A few private law libraries escaped the
flames, notable among these being the col
lections OF former Judge Stack and Su
perior Judge Carroll Cook. which were II
their residences in the unburned district.
Only one Library Intact.
To sum up, OF all the big Libraries II
San Francisco one alone is intact, bu
luckily that one is Of great value. The
Bancroft library, containing an immens,
collection OF historical works. was stored
at Twenty-sixth and Valencia streets anC
Is unchanged. This collection was pur
chased some time ago by the University
OF California and doubtless will be takeI
to Berkeley for the use OF the students Al
soon as possible.
Mayor schmitz today received many ca