The Washington herald., 1911-09-04
TRIBUTE TO THE PUBLIC
LIBRARY OF WASHINGTON

An ancient, veracious, and oft-quoted
maxim asserts that virtue is its own
reward but happily for weak human
nature II need and should not always
be its only reward. And II Is this re-
Election that promps the writer, partly
out Of gratitude for many favors and
benefits received, to pay his modest and
unsolicited tribute to the benefaction con-
ferred upon our community for many
years without money and without price"
primarily throug the munificence Of that
tireless "benefactor of humanity" An
drew Carnegie, and more directly by the
Gssiduous care and management OF the
Public Library. AS regards the giving
of the chaste and dignifed building, as
we'll as of its contents. it is opposite to
quote what the great DR.. Johnson
said, at a famous book auction, that 1t
was not a mere collection of unconsder-
ed trifles, but the possibility OF acquir-
ing wealth beyond the dreams Of
avarice."
Over the door Of the great Egyptian
Library Of Osymandyas was once in
scribed in Greek characters, The sana-
torium of the SOUL" and, II the des-
d
not strictly accurate, still what the
Christian church is to the soul. what the
hospital is to the body. that the library
Is to the hungry mind Of man. Now
1t has been we'll said that the best
books are written and published and
sold and read by men and women whose
intellectual confusion. The writing and
publishing Of such books have never been
occupations that men have pursued pri-
marily for profit. and there are authors
and publishers who do their high serv-
ice TO the public because they consider
it TO be a lofty service to humanity.
The time has long passed when a library
was properly thought OF merely as a
Cloistered retreat whose air was too
rare ed to breathe with comfort, and
whose priestesses were not in sympathy
with the life Of their time. Fiction has
as legitimate a place therein as fact
far more so. indeed, in point Of volume,
and its presence in large force is no
ground for a sneer.
What Is n Good BOokE
For what is a good book?-your stead
fast ally and friend. never out Of the
way. never in the way-the same face
in wealth and poverty, in sickness and
in health, abroad and at home-the
means OF accompanying ones plain liv-
ing (and there are plenty of worse con-
citions) with high thinking-a help TO
hitch your wagon to a star" instead
Of lettering It in the dull market place
an instructor in the art of making
ones conversation about things, and not
merely a chatter about persons.
The witty Sydney Smith quantity said:
Live always in the best company when
You read: for II you should live to be
seventy-two years you will ordinarily
have spent nine OF them in dressing,
nine at table, nine in walking or visit
ing, six in playing with children, six in
shopping, but only three in reading.
three in quarreling. and twenty-seven
years in Sleep
The horizon of science is constantly
widening. and, though at best we can
only hope to gather. as the sage. Sir
Isaac Newton, frequently said, "a few
pebbles on the shore OF the vast ocean
OF thought" We must fain supplement
our own ignorance by learning some
thing OF what the wisest men have had
to say in the past on the vital subjects
Of human interest II the wise Solomon
could affirm "ot making many books
there is no end (and remember that
books and even great libraries were no
rarity in the now effete and desolated
East centuries ere he drew breath), what
shall we say now?
the swollen cataract of literature has
oyerfowed into a veritable Niagara OF
books; their very titles are as numerous
as the desert sands, and, alas. many OF
them as barren! The sententious cOun-
sci of Sir Francis Bacon should be ever
borne in mind: Some books are to be
tasted, others 10 be swallowed. and some
few to be chewed and digested."
Well Selected Volumes.
But to come from generalities to par
ticulars, my own former experience for
many years in library management in
New England has led me long since to
the conclusion that few public libraries
of 900 volumes will bear a more rigid
inspection as regards their helpful char
acter over a wide range of topics than
this one at our doors. The extensive
fields of history, biography, poetry,
science, travel, art, and letters, and their
more or less intimately related subjects,
politics and statecraft, the drama, the
useful arts. education, miscellany, the
moralities, theology, the Bible, and these, !
by the way, in other languages than our
own, appear to be covered in a thorough
ly impartial, not TO say mastery, man |
ner that leaves little to be desired. And |
the same may be said Of the vast de- |
partment of fiction, always. and, let me |
hasten to add. praiseworthily, the re-
cipient of the great majority of the suf- |
frages that the insatiate public has to |
bestow. / have not thought II worth |
while to inquire just what percentage of |
its circulation is drawn from this sec |
ton. but presume from observation that |
1t does not much, If any, exceed the |
limit Of. say. 20 per cent |
and II 1t does. what mattere since the |
wise censorship in the purchase appears
to eliminate the almost inevitable trash |
to a commendable extent. Surely, Pope
the right note when he put |
forth his famous apophthegm, The |
proper study Of mankind is man." and |
this whether he be studied in human |
history or through its counterfeit pre- |
sentiment in fiction
And too high praise can hardly be |
given to the intelligent, painstaking, and