The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-08-20
A FACT MACHINE.
Passing Of Librarian Observation-Disclosures
full Memory, Held Thru q Very Long

oil A FACT MACHINE.
= full Memory, Held Thru q Very Long
Life.
Ainsworth Rand Spofford Is dead
That does not mean much to this gener.
y alton, but 1t means much to the three
e generations preceding this, for he ha,
$ been in the worlds eye thru at leas
;, three generations and fourth, includ.
I ing this one.
Mr.. Spofford was for AZ years con
e nected with the Library of Congress
three years from 1851 to 1854, as Firs,
Assistant Librarian; 33 years. from 1861
: to 1897, as Librarian. and from 1897 &c
L 1908 as Chief Assistant Librarian, and
by his work during that period had won
an international reputation. On his
4 original appointment as Librarian oil
D Congress he succeeded DIR. John c. Ste
phenson, of Indiana, an appointee OF
r President Lincoln, and in 1897 resigned
on account of advancing years and was
e succeeded by John Russell Young.
Mr.. Spofford was famous for his
: wonderfully retentive memory, which
| apparently defied the wear and tear
of effacing years and the crowding OF
: multitudinous detail.
Ainsworth Rand Spofford was born at
Gilmanton, n. H, Sept. IL, 1885. He
was son of Rev. L. A. Spofford, a New
Hampshire Clergyman, who later be-
came a missionary In several Western
Statef and founder of a number OF
churches, and a lineal descendant OF
the John Spofford of Yorkshire, Eng
land, who settled at Georgetown, Mass,
} in-1 1898.
In his early youth, after an excellent
English and classical education under
a private tutor, Mr.. Spofford developed
the innate love for literature and alb
sorbing passion for books which gave
bent to his later career. In 1874 he
} went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he be-
J came q bookseller and publisher,
the modern languages and in literary
! pursuits and in 1850 became one of
the founders of the Literary Club, a
vigorous intellectual organization of
that city. In 1859 he became an az
sistant editor of the Cincinnati Daily
Commercial.
i Mr.. Spofford's life in Washington
dated from 1861, when he was appoint
ed First Assistant In the Library of
Congress. His exceptional fitness for
the work soon marked him for pro-
motion, and in 1864 he was made Lii
brarian in Chief, which position he held
until 1897.
In this position he made his infiu-
ence felt in many ways upon the world
makes the Congressional Library the
1 office for all records of copyright pub
! LEGATIONS was enacted largely thru his
efforts.
When Mr. Spofford entered the Con-
gressional Library it contained about
| 10000 volumes. Now the library con-
tains more than 100000 volumes and
pamphlets, and many thousands of
volumes are being added each year.
IT. was Mr.. Suofford. too, who in his
annual report first called attention to
| the pressing needs of a new library
| building to house the growing National
collection of literature, and when the
great building which now faces the
| Capitol was finally erected Mr.. Spot
| ford's counsel was largely followed in
| its planning.
Mr.. Spofford early won wide reputa
ton not only for his executive and adj
ministrative ability in the judicious
management of the library, but also
Tor his vast and comprehensive knowl-
edge of books and their contents and
his wonderful capacity to give direc-
ton to legislators and others desiring
to obtain Information from the volumes
in tn library. His long experience,
extensive reading, excellent scholarship,
retentive memory and fine literary
judgment aided him in successfully
performing for so many years the oner-
Gus and exacting duties of his most re-
sponsible office.
Mr. Spofford achieved enviable dis
tinction in his chosen field of work,
both as a scholar and as a librarian, |
and he wrote extensively for the Pc
riodical press on historical, economic |
and literary topics. He published cata-
logues of the library, the American AL
manac and Treasury of Facts, an an
nuaI compiled from official sources from
rtN,-a,~ 90 ut aI
Literature (10 volumes, 1SS1-1SSS); |
Library of Historic Characters and Fa-
nous Events; Library of Wit and HUI
NOR (1SS4); Manual of Parliamentary
Rules GSS); A Book for All Readers,
and other works and papers, and also
contributed articles TIA number of
standard cyclopedias, also being an as
sociate editor of several of these refer
ence works.
He was a member of many learned
societies. Amherst College gave him
the degree of LID. in 1884.
1t might be said that Mr.. Spofford
was a library of facts, and he could
turn them out just as a monograph
does. He had read nearly everything
at least by title, but this ended in lit
erary indigestion, or you might call 1t
literary govt He could name you a
dozen books worth reading, and that
was about all. For newspapers he had
the utmost contemplate newspaper
of the present day. l have heard him
say that newspaper should be read
by headlines only, and only half of
those, and that ten minutes was as
much time per day as was necessary to
devote to incidents of daily life. Hell
was caustic in the extreme about the
literature of the present day, and look
ed with great depression upon the wat
erfall of bad literature" that was pre-
every year. If he had had his
way nine-tenths of the stuff that is
printed would have been put behind
barred doors, and maybe he was right
about it.
Mr. Spoford was tall and slender,
with keen black eyes, quick, jerkyl
way of walking, and the same way of
speaking, added to a kind of abstrac-
ton that made you think that he was
examining you on the point of a PIN ,
and that your mental caliber was
mighty narrow in his estimation. In
fact, you felt yourself shrivel rs you !,
asked for book that did not meet his
approval and he proceeded to give you
his opinion of it. Yet Mr.. Spofford was
one of the kindliest and courtliest of
gentlemen, always obliging, suavits~it-
self, but then you felt after the first in
terview with him concerning your de-
sire to read some pleasant little ro-
that the next time you asked
him for a book you would name josef
phus, or DIR. johnson. or HerodOtus. or
thousand or so years ago.
AoIx /