The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-10

from appropriations by the respective
legislatures. Subscription libraries date
well back into the eighteenth century,
and Benjamin Franklin was one of the
pioneers in this work, being responsible
| for the founding of the Philadelphia
| Library in I731 One hundred and six
| ty wears later free libraries were or
dered to be established throughout
Philadelphia at public expense and I'm,
der the direction of the board of edu,
cation. Now the free library alone
distributes something like 100000
volumes year.
The free public library as MUM
cipal building in the South owes its
beginning to Andrew Carnegie. "There
is no insurance of nations so cheap
as the enlightenment of the people, E"
he said once, and remembering the days
when he read in the 81. Anderson Lii
brary Institute of Allegheny City -
an institution established primarily for
mill men far back in 1S50-Carnegie
decided to insure the nation by put
ting books in easy reach. In 1899 he
gave his first library to the American
people, and since then has donated mil.
lions to this work, the benefactions
ranging from few thousand given
some small, struggling town to $35O,000
given Washington. The conditions at
tending such requests are that the city
which is the beneficiary furnish the
site and guarantee the library an an
nual income of at least ten per cent. of
the gift. The majority of the Carnegie
libraries go TO newly settled districts,
and many have found place in the
South.
In the North, where public schools
were almost eontemporaneous with set,
Element, public libraries soon became
a necessity. In the South the public
library came twenty-five years after the
public school, and the movement is
traceable to the influence of the press,
of women s clubs, the Southern Library
Association, and the Southern Educa,
tional Association. In olden days, when
a sort of feudal system was in vogue,
and the southern man the best read of
his times, each planter had his own
private provision of these. Colonel
William Byrd of Westover had, in the
early eighteenth century, the finest
American library, about 1000 volumes
in all. Jefferson s library of 600 vol |
umes became, when purchased by Con-
gress, the foundation for the famous
library of Congress. The southern
novelist, Simms, had a library of r. |
900 volumes, and in South Carolina |
alone there were thirtythree private
of books of considerable size |
before the Civil War
These and other southern libraries /
suffered from the vandalism that fol- |
lows on the heels of war. Rare books |
were burned, carried away or torn up
to furnish pictures for the decoration !
of negro cabins, many went as legiti-
mate spoils of war, and many were |
sold to Northern libraries by impov-
erished owners, so that the best |
Southern Americana is to be found !!
now in the British Museum or among
English state papers. The Southern
planter of colonial and postrevolution
airy days had his English factor set
aside ten dollars from every cargo of
tobacco to buy books for his private
library. Now the purchases that count
are made by the public libraries, the
past two years averaging about $500
year for North Carolina, $500 for
Massachusetts, $4,000 for California,
and $4,000 for New York
The aim of the libraries is to reach
and uplift all people. One-third of the
books issued are for children, so there
arises the need of placing before them
the right material, seeing that the
reading may supplement the school
work, that it may be elevating to
home life, that picture books capable
of awakening an interest in art are
given, that fairy tales keep alive the
WORTH, anu LudC Nature DOCKS
and nero tales are plentiful. The
modern library that has not its chill
dren s room is rare. Special work, as
recently done in various public libra
ries of the land, include the develop
ment of state archives in Connecticut,
Pennsylvania and Texas; state biblio-
graphical work in Connecticut; docu-
ment collecting in Maine, Oregon and
Vermont; travelling libraries in Ten
nessee, Washington and Wisconsin, and
books for the blind in Colorado Har-
ward library has long been noted for
it's folklore collection and the Public
Library of Boston for its Shake
sperean literature. Washington State
Library has several branches of work,
including a summer library school and
women s study clubs.
The libraries have been of untold
aid to the blind. They have not only
put books in their hands. but they
have taught them handicrafts, have
been directly and indirectly responsi-