The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-21

Washington, visiting Europe only. once
and for a brief few weeks until his
seventy ffth year, was day by day
throughout his career busy and
ardent traveller in every quarter of the
globe, as he was also an enthusiastic
eomrade of the choice spirits of all
time. On occasions, as in his "Book
for All Readers, he would describe
these travels and these majestic init
macies in terms which in another
would have been pompous, but in him
represented an actual and experienced
exultation. To him the book was the
thing; Homer Dante, Milton and
Shakespeare active associates; the past
of infinite interest, the dicta of the
poets and sages enduringly fresh. That
to him they could never be trite. the
walls and ceilings of this building
library of Congress) bear ample
witness.
The press notices concerning him
have uniformly dwelt upon the marvels
of his memory. In re5.1ing them one
might be reading the record of a Mag
liabecchi 1t was indeed, of all libra
rians, Magliabecchi whom, in this re-
spect and some others, he perhaps most
nearly resembled, except that he would
not, / think, have been willing to claim
the learning that tradition ascribes to
the famous Italian. 1t was the books
that he knew, not, except in certain
fields, the subject matters. He was not,
for instance, a classical scholar nor
thorough linguist. He had not, on the
other hand, special knowledge of nor
Interest in any branch of science or
the arts He was indeed reader rather
than scholar. But he was a notable
proof of what may be accomplished by
the mere reader, intent, absorbed, with
a definite purpose and an indefinite
capacity Genius may, as claimed, be
the habit of infinite pains; with him,
IN reading, it was the habit of absolute
attention. The memory of the thing
read followed as of course. So he him
self explained it. The extent and pre-
cision of his own were unexampled
among American librarians. They were
impressive. brilliant.
But to US, his associates, it was not
his memory, but certain traits, which
signified; the former was phenomenon
of curious interest, the latter were
qualities personally affecting. I need
only name them: his ardor, his devo- |
ton, his patience, his steady fortltude, |
his essential sweetness, his fundamen- |
tai simplicity. The severe trial of
these in his latter years left them I'M
diminished. They continued even /
through the closing months, when ac- |
tivity must have meant effort, and I
effort pain. 1t will be sad !
day for any profession when such
nature is referred to as merely |
QUAINT as if an anachronism. Par
ticularly will it be sad day for our
profession, with its present stress upon
system and mechanism. The age, IN
deed-our calculating age-requires
these: the masses of material to be
dealt with, the number and variety OF
needs to be met, the demand that they
he met. with promptness and precision.
system and mechanism are now neoes-
sary auxiliaries, but they cannot be
And I. associated with
them, under duty to promote them,
shall not cease to be grateful for the
nine years which have given me near
contact with one who signifed so much
md so deeply without regard to them.
To me. indeed, Ainsworth Spoford was
more than an individual; he was an
Institution. And with him the contin-
lity has been boken, an order has
last, for which no "new order how
,ver efficient, can compensate.