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

To those who visited the old Ii
brarv of Congress at the Capitol, Aims
worth Rand Spofford will always be
associated with it-a long, lean figure,
in scrupulOus frock, erect at stand
ing desk, and intent upon its Uttered
burden, while the masses of material
surged incoherently about him. From
time to time-au inquiry interruptlng
"a swift. decisive turn, an agile
stride. a nervous burrow in some APP
parently futile heap, and return
triumphant, yet staidly triumphant,
with the required volume. Then,
again, absorption; in other volumes al
ready subjugated, in auction cata-
logues, in copyright certificates, IN cor
respondence Invariably autograph,
in notes for editorial use, in the count
less minutiae of insistent, direct, I'M
delegated labor. A figure of absorb
ton and of labor, consonant with the
collections as they then existed; quaint
indeed in mode and expression, yet eff
fcient; immersed in the trivial, yet
himself by no means trivial, impart1ng
to it the dignity that comes of intense
seriousness and complete sincerity.
Grave in the task of infinite detail
upon a mass of infinite dimension;
grave. but never dour. Cheerful,
rather; even bOuyant. Disdaining the
frivolous as waste Of time, yet APP
preciating humor, and even responsive
to accredited jest, although the re-
Spouse might concede no more than an
q" 1t pleases you to be facetious!
lover of Nature, too, as booklovers
often are, and pursuing her on occa-
sions with deep breath and long stride.
Granting himself, nevertheless, few
vacations, and generally ignoring even
the "annual leave' so scrupulously
observed by most government en-
Few knew him in. all these phases
or fully understood him in any-yet
many saw him in the one hour of rec
reation that he allowed himself out of
the twenty four: on horseback, am
bling through the streets of Washing
ton or over neighboring roads, the
tails of the still tenacious frock flap
ping behind him, untethered trousers
rising toward the knee, an umbrella,
if the sun beat hot. in his rein hand,
and possibly an auction catalogue in
the other.
his lie WAS lOT lue luOoC Ec1I Cod
centrated upon single interest, vet
it touched many men and women haV-
ing varied interests. 1t was not, in
with some others, life
extensive in its own movement or ex-
perience. It's geographical compass
was, indeed, very limited--a boyhood
past. as other boyhoods pass, in small
New England town; brief period of
youth in the chief city of New Eng
land, a few years of early manhood ;
in a city of the Middle West, and the
entire remainder at the national cap
taI. Tt was deprived through i'll
health of the maturing influences and
The invigorating associations afforded
oy a college career. 1t was not, on
he other hand, in the ordinary sense
|, life of affairs. It's vocation, except
Tor brief trials in business and in jour
laiism, was a single one; the material
If this not men, but books; its con-
FERN not achievement, but the record
If achievement; its main purpose not
o produce or to express, but to aid
,thers in producing or expressing; for
such is the vocation of a librarian.
But such a life is not thus merely in
ensive. still less is it narrow or mere
V local. A life among books is life
# manifold and matchless experience,
hough they stop with yesterday. So
Or. Spofford, persistent resident OF