The Cairo bulletin., 1912-04-12
DR.. BILLINGS, DEAN OF
LIBRARIES, is 70 TODAY

which, to be successful, one must
know something Of everything. In
most lines of human endeavor it is
the specialist who arrives, but the
librarian and the newspapermen
must be we'll grounded in every field
of knowledge Mr.. F. Bono Publicus
thirstng for information as to the
date of the Sulliyan-Kilrain fight
the distance of Mars from the earth
or the value of an 1851 dime, goes
or writes to the nearest editor, and
If that supposedly omniscient indi-
vidual is unable to tell him, i'm
mediately and "out of his own head
Mr.. p Bono is grieved and surprised,
but not hopeless. He knows where
he can obtain the desired data, and
hastens to the public library. A
librarian is court of last resort,
never-failing fount of wisdom, and
what a librarian does not know is
not printed in books.
Therefore it follows, as follows
A, that the greatest Librarian in any
country is of necessity that nation S
most learned man. Such being the
case Dr. John Shaw Billings, di-
rector of the largest municipal IL
brary in the world, that of New
York, may be said to be the wisest
man in America.
DR.. Billings was born in Switzer-
land county, Indiana, seventy-three
years ago today, and in the matter
Of age, as we'll as in the pre-emi-
nent position he holds, is the dean OF
Americas librarians. For sixteen
years he has been the head of the
New York Public Library, and all OF
| the multitudinous activities carried
on in the great 100000 edfice in
Fifth avenue are under his watchful
! eye. He had won wide fame as a
surgeon before he undertook his pres
ent work, and it was while he was
jengaged in indexing and arranging a
| catalogue of the books in the IT,
| brary of the Surgeon Generals Of
! fee at Washington that he becamf
interested in library work. A spec
ialist in surgery, medicine and by
giene as well as library methods, hi
has also the wide general knowledge
so necessary to the successful direc'
tor of a great public library.
The venerable librarian graduated
from Miami University, Ohio, il
1857, and a few years later received
the degree of NJ ID. from the Medi
cal college of Ohio. At the outbreal
of the war he entered the service o
| the government as an assistant sur
geon of the army, and continued I,
wear the uniform Of Uncle Sam unit
| 1895, when, after year as assistan
surgeon general of the United State
army, with the rank OF lieutenant
colonel, he retired from active ser
vice at his own request. He wa
professor of HYGIENE at the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania for some
time prior to becoming director o
the great library in 1895.
While the name of DR.. Billings i
perhaps not as familiar to the gen
eral public as Jack Johnson, T.
Cobb or Bertha M. Clay, he has at
tanned worldwide fame among tn
lsayants, and has been honored wit
degrees by the universities Of man
lands. Edinburgh, Buda-Pesth. Har
ward, Yale and Johns Hopkins hav
conferred upon him the degree o
Ill. D., Munich and Dublin the de
gree of M. D., and Oxford made hin
a d. C.. L., or director of Civil Laws
He is a member of the leading medi
cal societies of Ireland, England
lGermany Sweden, and France, a
we'll as of the United States, an
one-time president of the America
Congress of Physicians and Sur
geons.
In short, Dr. Billings il one of tn
few supremely wise men who kno,
80 much that they know they don
know very much. The wisest man /
America--and yet how little h
knows compared with what any col
lege freshman thinks he knows,
Charles Barfigar, Clayton, Ill