The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-26
WILL OBSERVE 50TH ANNIVERSARY
 OF BIG FIRE

this falI observes the 5Oth anniver- sary of the great fire that destroyed this city, it will recall that it's public library, now the second largest in the world, was born in that conf1ag- ration The library owes its start to British sympathy for the stricken city which found its expression in books.
 The prime mover in England was Thomas Hughes. author of Tom Browne's School Days" His pro- posal resulted in 12.00o volumes be- from Great Britain. The children's room in the library is called the Thomas Hughes Room
 The chief prize of the Chicago | of '"The Early Years of the Prince Consort' that Queen Victoria sent It was volume of memoirs of-her hus- band that she had compiled. The Queen inscribed 1t for Chicago on | Nov. IS, 1871, five weeks after the i fire of Oct g, and long before a city library. had taken shape there. | Hughes had visited Chicago sev- | eral years before the fire and made
 a number of friends. On hearing
 of the disaster he enlisted Queen Vic
 toria, Gladstone. then premier, oth-
 CTS high in the government, authors
 such Carlyle and Disraeli, and
 leading publishers. They joined their | names to a circular of appeal to the l peoplo Ol 1TedI
 | Support was urged on the ground | that the new library of Chicago is | to be a mark of sympathy now and | a token of that sentiment of kinship
 ces and independently of every other | consideration, must ever powerfully
 affect the different branches of the English race"
 by the British press. A noted pub-
 fisher at Leipsic began the collection
 of books in Germany. A thousand
 volumes were sent by the Germans.
 This activity abroad led the cit.
 ems of Chicago to bestir themselves
 Hughes and his associates took 1,
 for granted that Chicago had a, pub
 lie library and that it had been des- helping to replace 1t. There had , however. been none of this sort be ) fore.
 Chicago began to take the necse
 sary steps to start a. library. Or 3 April 3, 1872. six months after th' fire. the city council passed an or dinance for free city library. Th'
 city then got a law through the leg islature authorizing library tax. After it's fearful experience. Chi cago felt no place would be proper t, ? receive the precious books iron
 abroad except one that was thor \ oughIy fireproof. The only fireproo l thing left in the city was an aban doned ice water tank that had serve
 as reservoir from the south side It was 60 feet in diameter and 3 \ feet high. It was roofed over, N hole cut in the side for a door, shelve H built around its curving sides, am t turned into a library. There durin H 1872 and 1873. 12,000 volumes receIv |l ed from English contributors an |I elsewhere were stored, and in May III 1874, the library proper was opened II The British contributions include II autographed works of Gladstone, Her N bert Spencer. John Stuart Mill, Dis II raeH, Carlyle. Kingsley, Huxley, Joh II Bright, Lyell, Freeman and Rosett H Lady Trevelyan, sister of Macaula. II autographed a set of works she ha II edited. The British government ser II 4,0o0 volumes, including a calenda N of state papers with a copy of tn " "Domesday Book Oxford univel ' sity bound several thousand vo umes with its best binding, an | Cambridge university and great Br
 tish publishers contributed liberal! | The British patent office put u | Chicago library on its mailing Ii
 and is still sending it's publication A number of the autographed vo
 umes have been preserved in a m moria1 collection
 Out of this start the Chicago
 brary has grown to collection
 100000 volumes. Its anual ci
 culaHon is S,oo0,0 900, which places
 ahead of any library in England.