733 B658655 Boston Public Library South Boston Branch Proceedings at the Dedication THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES City Document.- -No. 70. ~~ PKOCEEDINGS AT THE DEDICATION SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON, MAY 16, 1872. z 733 CITY OF BOSTON" IN BOARD or ALDERMEN, June 4, 1872. Ordered, That the Trustees of the Public Library cause to be printed an account of the proceedings at the recent dedi- cation of the South Boston Branch Library ; the expense to be charged to the appropriation for Printing. Read twice and passed. Sent down for concurrence. June 6. Came up concurred. Approved by the Mayor, June 7, 1872. A true copy. Attest: S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk. PEOCEEDINGS. The SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH LIBRARY had been opened with 4,350 volumes on its shelves on the 1st of May, 1872, in the rooms provided in the second story of the new Savings- Bank Building on the corner of Broadway and E stree.t ; when, on the petition of various residents of that section of the city, the Special Committee of the Trustees upon that Branch, consisting of the PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD, WES- TON LEWIS, ESQ., AND DR. SAMUEL A. GREEN, were in- structed to arrange for a formal dedication of the new insti- tution ; and, as the Library building contained no suitable apartment for the ceremonies, it was determined to have them in WAIT'S HALL. 1169647 4 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. The hall was promptly filled at the time designated, May 16th, at a quarter of eight o'clock, in response to a public notice, while the invited guests of the Trustees assembled in an ante-room. Previously, one hundred and sixty girls had been arranged on the platform, under the direction of MR. SHARLAND, who had selected this choir from the public school children of South Boston. His Honor, WM. GASTON, Mayor of the city, took the chair, and introduced the REV. E. K. ALDEN, D.D., who offered prayer. The hymn " Father of Mercies " was then sung by the children. The Mayor then said : "I congratulate the people of South Boston upon the establishment of a Branch of the Public Library within their limits. The rapid growth and increasing prosperity of this section of the city have at- tracted the attention of the Trustees of the Public Library and the City Council, and they have, therefore, recognized the increased importance of placing, within your immediate reach, the books of this prosperous and flourishing institu- tion. The event has been deemed of sufficient public im- portance to be worthy of public notice. You have, there- fore, been invited to meet here to-night to celebrate the opening of this new Branch .of the Public Library. I think that my duty will be well performed by introducing to you the chosen gentlemen, who have consented to address you. I have now the pleasure" of introducing to you MR. WIL- LIAM W. GREENOUGH, the President of the Trustees of the Public Library." SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. MR. GREEHOUGH'S ADDRESS. MR. MAYOR, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Through the liberal pro- visions of the City Government, the Trustees of the Public Library have been enabled to open, in convenient apartments, for the use of the inhabitants of South Boston, another Branch of the Library. From the marked popularity enjoyed by the Branch already established at East Boston , there came abundant encouragement for a second experi- ment here. Indeed, the circulation of books in the " Island Ward " not only surpassed expectation, but gave results not shown even in the sta- tistics of the popular library in Boston proper, and in one respect unpar- alleled in any circulation of which the details have been published. During the year just closed, every book in the Lower Hall in Boylston street was issued, on the average, a little over seven times and a half; and for the same period every book in the East Boston Branch was issued on the average, a little more than eleven times. Still more surprising is the fact, that, while the losses at the end of the year for the Central Library were at the rate of one volume for every eight thousand vol- umes loaned, at [East Boston seventy-five thousand eight hundred and forty-six volumes were loaned still with no guaranty without a single loss. Such an exemption from the ordinary experience of lending libraries, either indicates great vigilance on the part of the officers of the institution, or remarkable conscientiousness and fidelity on the part of borrowers. As the best motives ought naturally to be attributed, one may hope that this perfect result was mainly dependent upon the latter cause. The history of the Library now formally opened this evening may be related in few words. By the action of the City Government, in Decem- ber last, the Trustees were permitted to anticipate the appropriation available on the 1st of May, 1872, so far as to make, before that date, the necessary arrangements for the purchase and preparation of books, and for the shelving and furniture of the rooms leased by the city for the uses of the Library and Reading-room. The first and only considerable donation of books yet received was due to the public spirit of the Mat- tapan Literary Association. This well-selected collection was placed in the hands of the Trustees in January, and consisted of one thousand four hundred and seventy volumes, of a miscellaneous character, forming an excellent foundation upon which to build. Purchases were then made to enlarge its various departments, to fill gaps, to extend classifications ; new books were added enough to make the Library fresh and modern, and sufficient for 6 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. the present needs of the population, so far as generally known to the Trustees. There will be further additions from time to time as the tastes and wants of your community become apparent. New books of popular interest will take their place on the shelves as fast as published. By this gradual and systematic enlargement, the collection will, in time, round itself to fill its full sphere of usefulness. The books now upon the shelves were removed to South Boston on the 10th of April. The Reading-room was opened to the public on the 22d of the same month, and on the first of May the Library was ready to afford such circulation of its volumes as was practicable with the help of the Libi'arian and her assistants, and without the specific guiding direction of a completed printed catalogue. This needed key to its con- tents is now rapidly passing through the press, and it will probably be ready for distribution in June. Since the registration records were prepared for signature on the 22d of April, more than six hundred residents, not previously enrolled at the Centi'al Library, have indicated a desire to avail themselves of its privi- leges by complying with its simple and liberal regulations identical with those which have grown with the growth of the Boylston street Library, and which have made it the freest and most accessible of the larger collections of books in this country and in Europe ; a freedom which every friend of civilization must- hope maybe continued in the future, dependent as it is upon the moral sense and due appreciation of the community, which realizes that its extensive stores, as rich as exten- sive, are within the ready reach of all its members. There is no mis- giving on the part of the Trustees that the residents of this district will not as heartily and faithfully respond to the trust reposed in them as appears in evidence in other portions of the city. And now, having shown how your Libi'ary has been formed, and what the nature of its increase may be hereafter, permit me to add a few ob- servations upon the relations of a public library to its readers ; to show what classes of books one should expect to find upon its shelves, and to point out also the descriptions of works properly omitted now, but pos- sibly to be obtained hereafter through the helpful generosity of the benevolent among your own citizens. The considerations which natur- ally occur must necessarily be of the most general character, growin g out of the experience and observation of wants already made manifest in kindred populations, and now applicable to the undeveloped necessi- ties which a further knowledge of the tendencies, tastes and desires of any special precinct may modify and correct. Public libraries, although centuries old in idea and general principle, have received their principal impulse and developement during the past twenty-five years. With the great changes of the body politic produced SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 7 during that period by scientific invention, and its practical application to the useful arts, as manifested in greater convenience of the domestic economies, in more rapid and easier locomotion, in earlier diffusion of information by means of newspaper and telegraph, and by closer in- tercourse between communities and nations, the life of every individual within reach of civilization has been quickened and altered. New necessities have been created, as the new ministrations for the ser- vice of the human race have gradually been unfolded. It became obvious that new methods should be provided to afford the ready knowledge sufficient to comprehend the history, politics, commerce,- manufactures, resources, geography and climatic peculiarities, not only of our own country, but also of other countries, more or less remote. It must be admitted that this form of current knowledge would be, to a great extent, superficial ; but enough of it was needed to understand the details of the newspaper, the daily companion of almost every artisan, as well as every merchant or professional man in this country, and fast becoming the same general necessity in Europe. These ends and aims the free library was the first public provision to meet. The establishment of these libraries in England and in the United States at once brought to light the avidity with which all classes were prepared to take advantage of the privileges now first fully placed within their reach. Every collection of books for this purpose, being presumably made upon the basis, so far as could be known beforehand, of furnishing to each community the works most needed by it in the various departments of learning and letters, soon gave evidence of suit- able appreciation, and, at the same time, through the statistics of its use, indicated the intellectual and moral cravings of its visitors. That those desires were not, on the average, of a more elevated character, at first produced some disappointment in the friends of education, but when it was remembered that people would only read the books which they wished to read, and not those expressly provided, as it were, with- out their consent, for their intellectual advancement, the disappoint- ment gave way to the reasonable expectation that, in forming a taste for books, the average understanding would raise itself, step by step, from the perusal of innocuous works of fiction, or from inconsequential and sporadic reading, to a better and higher and more useful class of liter- ary productions. Experience has shown that this expectation has proved measurably correct. Though, throughout this country and in England, three-fourths of the whole amount of average circulation is made up of fiction and juveniles, it is yet found that the demand for better books is .steadily and regularly making progress. In this view, one can understand the objections that have been made to the system of popular libraries. In the " London Quarterly^Review," a scholar of the day thus utters his complaint : k " The object of a library is not so much to make books or readers of books, as to make students. CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. Never is any reat benefit produced by reading for mere amusement. Tin- tempting facilities offered by public libraries, like machinery in manufactures, increases production at the expense of the strength of the staple. The article is not made for wear, but for the shop- window." In answer to this, it may be said that these objections do not meet the case, except upon a single point of view. Whether desirably or not, you cannot make, from natural and social causes, a whole community of scholars. The people must be taken as they exist. In providing the text-books for the student and scholar alone, one only continues the sort of institution with which Europe is filled everywhere, libraries little used, stored with musty books, of no great importance when printed, and of less service in this generation ; frequented only by the few people of the neighborhood whose tastes are satisfied, and whose perceptions are filled by the traditions of the past, rather than by the realities of the present. These collections entirely ignore the class of readers for whom the public libraries of this day are gathered, people who need the books of their time, whether in science, art, or literature. Among the works thus collected, will be found, not only those required by the student and general scholar, but also those (and this is the main point) important to the largest number of people. In the use of books, though one might wish that a higher motive could always be uettbtradi than " reading for mere amusement," it may also be said, in mitigation, that one has yet to learn of any serious injury accruing from a settled taste for reading, even from the low motive ascribed as almost oppro- brious. The enthusiast who cries for "one dear book," thumbed and dog's- eared ; cracked in the back, and broken in the corners ; noted on the fly-leaf, and scrawled on the margins ; sullied and scorched, torn and worn ; its leaves crumbly with much overuse, and perhaps unfriendly abuse, will not, I am afraid, find this volume so readily on the shelves of the British Museum, as among the cheap and accessible stores of some local popular library. If the real cultivation, so much desired by the conservative critic, is thus obtained, it will proceed more from the attractive character of the work, than from the weight of its contents. Fortunate will the reader be when the solidity equals the fascination. But with regard to the short-lived books of the day, which form a necessary part of every library of any extent or variety, there is always this consolatory reflection, which may be 'stated in the words of the learned Scaliger : " There is no book so worthless that I cannot collect something from it." Every reader may not, however, have this ability, or may not bear in mind his own power to extract the -essence, such, as it may be, of the wee'd. But, on the other hand, the most popular books are often the most commonplace, for the simple reason that people of moderate intellects " are pleased to see their own thoughts, as SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 9 it were, reflected back from the pages of a book," and are thus doubly gratified by the delineations or truisms of the writer, and by the direct compliment thus conveyed to their own intelligence and culture. But it is not of such books or for such readers that a public library should be mainly collected. The activity of temperament which marks both sexes in New England seeks expression and refreshment in the writings of the authors who appeal most strongly to their sympathies and tastes. The new books marking the movement of the time ; the classics of the past associated with the progress of the human mind in all ages and countries ; the favorite authors who have assisted in the formation of character, and in the development of the imagination ; the hand-books of fact, the multiform shapes of fiction, each and all of these may enter not only into the pleasures, but also into the improve- ment of a life, of which the larger portion is devoted to the pressing needs of subsistence, or to the daily drudgery of some engrossing occu- pation. One of the most important and most gratifying results yet attained from the formation of our libraries is to be seen in the fact that year by year, it is found that the circulation extends more and more among the poorer classes, who have the fewest comforts and pleasures within their reach. Thus seed is sown which grows and bears fruit, where the sun but seldom shines and the cheering breezes of heaven most rarely blow. lu the miscellaneous collection now gathered here for the uses os your people, the City Government has laid the basis of a populart library. It is not composed of costly books of reference, of worsf, illustrated to express the highest triumphs of art, or of the rare ke - ures so eagerly sought by the antiquarian or the bibliomaniac ; but it comprises substantially the volumes which experience has shown to be most attractive and necessary in the other popular libraries. Within the scope of the collection will be found books for old and young, and for both sexes, for various tastes and occupations. But, in the rela- tive importance of the selections, works for the young must occupy the first place, because, whatever their character and interest, they all are necessarily educational. By this expression, one does not mean that they are directly written for the purpose of Instruction, but whatever their nature may be, as read by the young, and with the vivid atten- tion inseparable from the spring-time of life, they enter into its future and leave their mark for good or evil upon the male or female develop- ment, which is to make the adult useful and happy in his or her day and generation. This is 'mainly the responsibility in the formation of a free library. It must provide books suitable to the needs of the community which it serves, ft furnishes strong meat for the strong, and tender support for the feeble. What mental physician shall properly judge 10 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70: how these are to be administered ? Shall you or will you leave the decision to the unformed character, the wayward susceptibilities, the undefined longings, the impossible futurities, the dormant tastes, the irrepressible activity, no less than the implicit trust of the young? For their especial use is gathered here a carefully selected collection of books expressly written for them; but each book with varying aims, dependent upon the point of view of the author, and the ends which were intended to be promoted whether of instructive narrative, exciting adventure, or sensational extravagance ; or it may be that an ideal picture of work and its appropriate results in the future may be presented for the information of those who have only known the tender care of home, without one single experience of the hardships of real life. They may consist of the confused depictments of fancy, or of the moral teachings or of the religious or sectarian instruction, proper and sufficient for the selected child over whose future the book is to act either as sympathetic adviser or amusing friend. These are among the conditions of reading for the young, much advanced over the advantages offered to our parents and to our own childhood, and more than suffi- cient for the needs of to-day. This brings one to the practical point the responsibility of the education of youth the supervision and elec- tion of that which is deemed beneficial for the moral and intellectual training of each child. So far as reading is concerned, no less than in other important impulses of early life, the responsibility belongs to parents and guardians, and not to those who provide the intellectual nutriment which may strengthen and fortify one temperament while it depresses or injures another, like the simples of the physician's pre- scriptions, which may build up one physical system while they destroy another. To those who are answerable for the care of youth there are few trusts more important than the oversight and direction of its reading. These are the dangers of the young in its impetuous pursuit of the gratification of its tastes in its favorite books. Our adult growth is naturally supposed to know what it wants or needs. But there are wants which the system of supply for the branch libraries is not pro- posed or intended to meet. It is not within its scope to gather other than collections of popular books, that is, books intended for general reading, and satisfactory or sufficient for the average reader. It should contain, l>r-ide, the works of reference needed by the inquirer upon some special point of interest, and the hand-books required by the me- chanical trades; indeed, one may say that all is comprised in the phrase, the books useful to the largest number of people. The costly productions which constitute the permanent value of the Bates Hall Library must necessarily be excluded from the economy of the branch, SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 11 so far as public funds may provide. These works have come to the parent institution from private benefaction, from the generous gifts of Joshua Bates, Jonathan Phillips, Abbott Lawrence, John P. Bigelow, George Ticknor, Theodore Parker, the Bowditch brothers, from the Old South Church, and from numerous other helpers, whose names one would gratefully mention. If you wish to build up a library which shall not only comprise the books important to the great majority of your popula- tion, but also to the students of specialties, to writers and authors, to your clergy, your lawyers, your physicians, your architects and your engineers ; if you wish to create and foster a taste for the arts ; if you wishto see on the shelves of yowr library works of such intrinsic value that they are better suited to remain within its walls than to be loaned for home perusal, then those more scientific, costly and rare volumes must be placed there by the public spirit 'of your own citizens. In establishing this branch upon the same principles, and upon the same basis by which the city has erected the popular libraries in Boylston street and East Boston, it has done its whole duty; but above and be- yond these suggestions, other attractions may properly be added to in- crease the general interest, and to draw to it classes of larger culture and more refined tastes. If a direction can be given to this institution by which it may meet the necessities of your people beyond the point which any general provision can reach, whether it shall become the handmaid of art, the promoter of science, the assistant of technical skill, or the silent instructor of abstruse knowledge, must depend, in a large degree, upon the perception of your own wants, and a sympa- thetic assistance of those of your own body who recognize the existence of these needs, and are prepared to help those whose hands are extended for aid. Any intellectual attraction that can be added will tend to make the institution not only a proper subject of local pride, but of continuous interest in the future. It is an object worthy of the highest ambition to form such a library as every person in the community capable of read- ing should willingly and eagerly seek. It has been most cheering to the Trustees of the Public Library to witness the abundant success of its first Branch, and to perceive the lively interest awakened in the prospective formation of similar institu- tions in other districts of our city. That you, my friends, the inhabitants of South Boston, will find in your new magazine of instruction and en- tertainment a fulfilment of your expectations ; that you will care for it as a sacred trust, and that you will develop it into the form most useful to -yourselves both for to-day and for coming years, are points upon which no question can now be entertained. The City of Boston, and the Trustees of the Public Library, confidently, unreservedly and hopefully now commit it to your fostering care. 12 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. Mr. GREENOUGH'S address was followed by the singing to music composed for the occasion by JULIUS EICHBERG, of the following DEDICATION HYMN. Bringing what praise we can Of all we hope for here, Man's largest help to 111:111, Youth's courage, trust, and cheer, Yet swept on the choral swell, Sprung from the grateful heart, Song can but feebly tell What help, O God, thou art ! Humbly before the scope Of mind's supremest power, We plant this seed in hope, Trusting to pluck the flower, Yet swept on the choral swell, Sprung from the grateful heart, Song can but feebly tell What sower, God, thou art ! Labor we not in vain, Dowering what's here enshrined, If the people's heart and brain, Responsive seek and find, But yet in the choral swell, Sprung from the grateful heart, Song can but feebly tell What giver, God, thou art ! The HON. BENJ. DEAN, was then introduced by the Mayor, and spoke as follows : MR. MAYOR, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF SOUTH BOSTON, When the President of the Board of Trustees whose able address you luu just, listened to with so much interest asked me- to say something on this important event in the history of our section of the city, I, of course, cast about me to see what I should say. In doing so, I thought of the time when I first learned how the Pub- lic Library, of which this is a Branch, cauie to take a sudden start, and SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 13 became, from a small affair, almost by magic, one of the foremost in the country. It is true that I knew, as you knew at the time, that our Public Library was growing rapidly. We all knew when the elegant building in Boylston Street was erected. But although I knew all this as you did, and felt as much interest in it as most of you, I did not know until quite recently, or, if I did, it made no impression on my mind what an interesting and romantic story was connected with it. I know it will interest you as it did me, and it will teach us all the most fitting lesson for this occasion. There was a poor Boston boy, I call him a Boston boy, because, though born close by in the town of Weymouth, he came here early, and formed here those habits and tastes in his growth to manhood, to which he owed his wondei'ful prosperity. Well, this poor boy used to go evenings to a bookstore, and was permitted to read the books there, and he afterwards became the head of the great English house of Bar- ring & Brothers, amassing an enormous fortune, and exerting a great influence even in national affairs. Now when he had risen to this great eminence he didn't forget, nor despise, the humble means by which he had prepared himself for so successful a career. And when he learned that the library was progressing but slowly, in order to give other poor boys the same kind of privileges he had enjoyed, he gave to it, first, the princely sum of $50,000 in money, and then another $50,000 in books. But his own simple way of telling his story is best, and I will read it in one of his letters to Mr. Thomas W. Ward. " MY DEAR WARD : I enclose a letter addrssed to the Mayor, which please to peruse, and then go to Mr. Everett and Mr. Ticknor, and ex- plain to them my ideas, which are, that my own experience as a poor boy convinced me of the great advantage of such a library. Having no money to spend and no place to go to, not being able to pay for a fire or light in my own room, I could not pay for books, and the best way I could pass my evenings was to sit in Hastings, Etheridge, & Bliss's bookstore, and read what they kindly permitted me to ; and I am confi- dent that had there been good, warm, and well-lighted rooms to which we could have resorted, with proper books, nearly all the youth of my acquaintance would have spent their evenings there, to the improve- ment of their minds and morals. ' ' Now it strikes me , that it will not do to have the rooms in the proposed library much inferior to the rooms occupied for the same object by the upper class. Let the virtuous and industrious of the middle and mechanic class feel that there is not so much difference between them. Few but worthy young men will frequent the Library at first ; they may draw others from vice to tread in the same paths; and with large, well-lighted 14 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. rooms, well-warmed in winter, I feel sure the moral effect will keep pace with mental improvement, and it will be carrying out the school system of Boston, as it ought to be earned out. " My friends may think differently, or that my proposal is improper, or in the wrong form ; but if you all agree that it is right and proper, the Trustees may go to work and provide such books as they line! cheapest in the United States, drawing on me for the cost, sending me a list of such as can best be procured here or in France, and I will have them purchased without delay. If this conclusion is come to, then my letter to the Mayor may be delivered,- if it is thought a proper one. I rely on you, Mr. Everett and Mr Ticknor, to put the matter right, and remain, " Ever truly yours, " JOSHUA BATES. " This letter requires no comment. I am sure the poor boys of South Boston who shall avail themselves of these wonderful opportunities brought to their own houses, and who will be sure to prosper if they do so, will remember, with gratitude, the name of Joshua Bates. But in addition to the inspiration of the story, I want to call your attention to this language in the letter: "It will be carrying out the school system of Boston as it ought to be earned out." I will read extracts from a few more of Mr. Bates 1 letters, they are so interesting, and I want you to note, not only his lofty philanthropy, but also how he reiterates the idea that a library is essential to, and a proper part of, our common-school system. He says, " The building should contain lofty apartments to serve for placing the books, and also for reading-tables, as the holding of books in the hand damages them very soon. The architecture should be such that the student, on entering it, will be impressed and elevated, and feel a pride that such a place is free to him. There should be niches and places for a few marble statues. By these means the reading-rooms will be made more attractive, and the rising generation will be able to contemplate familiarly the best works of the celebrated masters." Again: "As set forth in your report, it is chiefly to enable the young men, who have passed the schools in Boston or elsewhere, to complete their education. For that reason, I suggested that the rooms should be such as would be resorted to with pride and pleasure, warm and well lighted in winter, my own experience convincing me that rooms so organized will be filled." Again : " Only see that the building is such that, when filled with books, every Bostonian will feel proud of; besides, to make it successful, it must be worth seeing." He further says : " Mr. Twistleton has lately published an admirable pamphlet on public schools, which I am distributing where I think it can hare any effect, SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 15 and I have no doubt in time, that the religious question must be thrown aside, and the Massachusetts system adopted ; but free libraries will be wanted to Complete the system" In another letter he says: " I have, on former occasions, taken the liberty to express the deep interest which I feel in the establishment of this institution, as the completion of that sys- tem of education at the free public schools by which Boston is so honorably distinguished.''' 1 I have quoted so largely from these letters, not only because they were written by one who was entitled to speak to us with some author- ity, but because they are the views of a man who, from his_great ex- perience and habit of dealing with large affairs, took a broad view of things ; and you see he considered a public library as a part of our common-school system. Now you noticed that the President of the Board of Trustees of the Public Library told us, that in these popular branches we could only have books suitable for ordinary circulation ; that the city could not undertake to go farther, and that, if we desired scientific works and expensive books of reference, we must ourselves supply them. Many of you know that there is a fund left by Mr. Hawes, a former resident of South Boston, for the benefit of public schools in this part of the city. The trustees of that fund are among our most respected citizens. They have full discretion over the fund, limited only by the general purpose for which it was given ; and I know from recent conversation with some of them that they are earnestly desirous of using it in such way as will be most for our benefit. If they feel justified in taking the same broad and comprehensive * views which have been expressed in the letters which I have read, they could supply .those scientific and other works which Mr. Greenough informs us we cannot expect to obtain from the Board of Trustees. And thus they can do for us what is to be done for the Roxbury Branch, by a fund which is fortunately to become available. If they do not feel authorized thus to use the Hawes Fund, they can take another course, which they have already in contemplation, of establishing an Art or Industrial School ; and I feel sure those public- spirited gentlemen will excuse the liberty I have taken on this auspi- cious occasion of alluding to the flattering prospect before us. In establishing such school, they can, in connection with this Branch Library and in the same building, have a collection of statuary and drawings and models which will educate the taste and habits of our people as well as give the most useful technical instruction. Let us suppose this system carried out, and what facilities the young men of South Boston will have ! Let the two institutions go on side by 16 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. side, and we shall have in one building, in contiguous rooms, library, reading-rooms, statuary, paintings, models, and, all the apparatus required for education in the industrial arts. And, Mr. Mayor, and Mr. President, we have got to do this or something like it all over the Com- monwealth. All over the world technical education is receiving a new impetus, and if we intend that Massachusetts shall maintain her stand, or rather shall take the stand she should in this great contest, she must be awake and at work. One more thought, and I have done. I read the other day the follow- ing in one of our newspapers : " A REAL PHILAMITROPIST. "There is something almost touching in the news which has just reached me of the determination expressed by Sir Richard Wallace (so well known for his princely charities in Paris both during and since the siege) to devote the collection of paintings left him by the late Lord Sey- mour to the improvement and cultivation of the lower classes in London. A gallery is to be built at Bethnal Green, which, in spite of its rural name, is perhaps the most squalid and miserable quarter in all London, one that has been pronounced by clergymen and district visitors as so completely hopeless that although it is inundated with religious tracts, overcome by open-air preachers, and suffering a permanent threat of the wrath to come, not a step towards purification has been accomplished as yet. ' Let us try a little amusement,' says Sir Richard Wallace, ' with the refinement of art, and see what that will do.' The collection which is to be sent over is one which has lain for years concealed from the public, useless and unemployed, nailed up in packing-cases or lean- ing against the wall in the Marquis of Hertford's house in Paris. Some of the greatest clief-d'ccuvres of modern art have been thus hidden from fame, whilst the artist himself, as in the case of the famous Parisian sculptor, Clesinger, indignant at the sacrifice of his reputation, has been known to offer double the purchase money in order to have his work re- stored to him, so that his success might be acknowledged by the world. Every true philanthropist is on the tiptoe of anxiety lest Sir Richard should be diverted from his good intent, and consent to give to the National Gallery and other institutions at the West End, already rich to repletion, this collection of great works. Will he suffer himself to be cajoled and persuaded into tin 1 belief that they are beyond the compre- hension of the lower orders, or will he boldly declare his opinion, as he did once before, that there may be as much real appreciation of art undeveloped by reason of ignorance, as exhibited to the world through education and training ? " There is another man who has discerned what Joshua Bates so well SOUTH BOSTON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 17 knew, that mankind is to be led, coaxed by opportunity and the insensible magnetism of attractive surroundings, into the paths of virtue and edu- cation, and is not to be driven by whips, and goads, and tracts. " Let us try a little amusement with the refinement of art, and see what that will do." It must be a great satisfaction to you, Mr. President [turning to Mr. Greenough], to find yourself so identified with this great and good work, the bringing of libraries to the homes of our people all over the city. The tendencies of those having control of libraries is to look upon the library as too sacred for use. They pile up books, keep them under lock and key, and almost forbid their use to ensure their safety. You meas- ure the library's value by its use. You do not tell us how many volumes you have lost, but how many people use the volumes. The present management does not seek to crowd all the books it is possible to collect into one great building, placed as ornaments where they are not needed, but to scatter them among the people, to send them where they will do the greatest good. This is carrying out your com- mon-school system beyond the anticipations of even Joshua Bates him- self. It is all in the right direction, and I am glad to see so many who are connected with the city government here to-night. Let us go on as we are now going, and all will be well. At any rate, I assure you that the people of South Boston will so sec- ond your efforts that you will recur with pride and pleasure to the part you have taken in the establishment of this Branch Library. The next speaker was the REV. GEORGE A. THAYER, who said : Dr. Johnson's famous recipe for educating a boy was to turn him loose into a library. We have good reason for congratulating this community that it is now in our power to carry out this prescription for the large class whom it js important for our highest well being to have educated. And, indeed, who among us are not to be reckoned in that class ? What the school cannot do, this Library can do. The school, for those who are so fortu- nate as to enjoy its privileges, but introduces the child into the way of education. t lt gives him a glimpse of the immense field of wisdom. Not only a glimpse he stands, as it were, on the threshold of the world's thought, as one might stand at the entrance of some world's fair or any museum of treasures, knowing there was something excellent and grand within, but capable of realizing its wonders' only by ranging through the several apartments, and inspecting the various marvels. 18 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. In the school one is told that famous persons have lived, that great discoveries have been made, that great thoughts and institutions have been wrought out ; but it is only through the larger reading of books that great men, great institutions, and great thoughts become substantial realities. And such is the character of our people and of our government, that this finishing process of intelligence appears to me as much a necessity as is the common school. There are, and must be, large classes whose early schooling is limited. There are many whom poverty has stopped from the high school and the college, who are still anxious to go farther, and who would be glad to spend their leisure hours in self-improvement. It is from these needy classes that we draw many of our sturdiest citi- zens, our ablest leaders in every department of thought and activity. Thank Heaven there is no limit to men's power and influence in this land, save that of honesty and intelligence, and there are multitudes who have taken advantage of the facilities extended to them on every side, to fit themselves for the 'highest fields of usefulness. But every man and woman has a field. Every one is a power for good or ill. This is a democracy, every one a sovereign, and it is of the highest impor- tance that all should be intelligent sovereigns. More than ever, do we, to-day, want intelligent, thoughtful citizens. The great problems of civil and religious liberty, which we are endeav- oring to solve in this country, are becoming more complex as we receive large immigrations. We cannot trust for their satisfactory solution to the leaders ; we must have the minds of the masses, trained by thought, capable of manly, independent judgment. If there hangs over any city or state of America an ominous cloud foreboding mischief to our insti- tutions, its source and nourishment are among the ignorant classes. And therefore do we need to put before every person the free invitation to know more, to think more, to uplift and develop the nobler faculties of the soul. As I have said, there are multitudes who only want the opportunities. Give them the chance, and they will gladly show their appreciation. Give them a chance, and they will show that within them were precious seeds of character, which might otherwise have been left undeveloped. Seeing how much we have been blessed by the self-educated men, by those who have trusted for the cultivation of their powers to the casual facility of some stray book, none of us can fail to feel deeply the im- portance, the sacred duty, of making the avenues of knowledge as free as the access to water. Experience shows that there is no lack of readers in our libraries. The American people are peculiarly a reading people. Nowhere else in the world, I may safely say, do books and papers have so wide a dis- SOUTH BOSLON BRANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 19 semination. Even the foreign authors obtain their greatest popularity with us. Dickens has a larger audience in America than in England. I know that some of the most thoughtful works of the distinguished men of the old world have ^obtained their strongest reputation with us, and have reaped their greatest pecuniary profit from our purchases. Look at the magazines, the daily and weekly papers, and the circu- lating books at every street corner ! Grant that much of this reading is almost worse than none. Grant that too many people care only to stimulate a false imagination ; still there is the disposition which awaits to be controlled. Mr. Beecher, when asked at Yale, the other day, about the propriety of making people laugh in church, said, in substance, " When I can move an audience to a right sort of laughter, I ask no man for the next move. I can soon have them in the higher moods." So it is with the reading of inferior literature ; there is the taste for something. We have got hold of people with the reading desire, and the possibility is easier of turning that disposition into better channels. The Trustees of this Library have worldly wisdom. They do not ex- pect to accomplish miracles , They do not expect to make those who resort here take only the higher class of literature. They do mean that the poorest books they offer shall be far above the rubbish that people resort to, because they know of nothing else, or can get nothing else. The books most used here will be the novels and the juvenile literature. But from that class all absolutely pernicious and vile stuff is to be excluded so far as is within the power of the collectors. The habit of reading something is to be cultivated, and in due time it is to be hoped that the boys and girls may come to desire something more profitable than Mayne Reid and Oliver Optic ; that they shall be tempted to go among the histories, the poems, and the sciences. This Library is to be au. auxiliary of virtue'; a co-worker with the churches and the reform societies. I know of no more efficacious way of stimulating virtuous thought in people than by putting them in vir- tuous company ; and that is nowhere more surely found than in a library of good books, which are the expression of the ripe and pure thought of the best men and women who have lived. It is a somewhat common reflection, and yet always worth recalling, that from yonder shelves speak a multitude of sweet and solemn voices of all the centuries. How eagerly we rush to see the great authors who > visit us ! What crowds followed Dickens and Thackeray ! What honor was it to speak with Scott and Irving, to have some relic of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, or any of the long list who have been the inspiration of the race ! And yet, in the contact with their books, we arc in the presence of the very best part of them, the quintessence of their souls. Many of them put their 20 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. complete lives into their works, iand as we tread a library their spirits are ready for immediate communion with us. Old Greeks, Romans and Egyptians are with us; our early English ancestors converse with us; the poets, the sweet singers who make the hymns on which our Sunday devotion rises, and who compose the songs that inspirit the nations, like drum-beats, in their hours of peril, these, and their like, arc all at hand, ready to make our acquaintance ; and if we will but know them our estimate of life is immeasurably raised. Emerson has said that men's faith in immortality depends upon the company they keep. Go with mean people, and life seems mean. Read some of the masters of thought, and the world becomes peopled with men of positive quality, with heroes and demi-gods. Let us keep the company of the saints and scholars in our Library, and learn to appre- . ciate and enjoy them, and life will be grander and more beneficent than it could be in the common ruts of daily duty. But there is a more practical consideration than this. Good books fur- nish materials for feeding minds, and driving out mischievous thoughts. A large part of the crime that infests our community springs out of brains that have no profitable resources. See what an utter absence of means of enjoyment a large proportion of homes display. Mere feeding and sleeping places they are, and not of the most attractive sort, either; and their occupants have no resort for leisure, except at the street corner and the grog shop, where they are ripe for the evil that keeps our police so busy. k We all k know who patronize our groggeries, who make our streets unsafe, who fill our jails. They are the people whose heads are empty, and who, instead, fill their stomachs, and get hands and feet into trouble. There is no sure remedy for crime save the putting something better into the heads. Dr. Holmes has wittily said that nature leaves no vacuums, but has some patent live time-keeper for even every crack and joint of a tavern bedstead. There are no vacuums in people's minds ; either good is there, or evil. In farming.Jin the country, I used to be annoyed by the sorrel, which, like the evil tendencies of which I am speaking, has an antipathy against allowing anything useful to grow. Hoeing it up didn't do any good ; there were little rootlets left which would bring forth again a double harvest. The soil must be cultivated by a free use of manure, giving the good sturdy seeds a chance to start, and then the sorrel would disappear. Our books are the fertilizers, which, in connection with other moral persuasives are to do the work which no laws or strong arm of police can ever effect. Why, the mere ability to read a daily newspaper is often a man's salvation against criminal thoughts. If the newspapers deal too largely in accounts of criminal proceedings, they also deal with SOUTH BOSTON BEANCH, PUBLIC LIBRARY. 21 politics, with the great industrial questions, and with the questions of religion and reform ; and for every acquaintance a man makes with a more dignified and important subject than is found in the lower routine of life, he may be able to remove one evil companion. If too poor to travel, he may, with the help of history, biography, and romance, range through the world, and obtain something of that culture and breadth of view which intelligent travel [always imparts. He sees through the eyes, and with the experience of keen observers and profound scholars, and therefore may derive more profit in this way than do scores who travel to Europe without the faculties of right discrimination and intel- ligent observation. I welcome with great joy all such adjuncts to education and reform as this institution. I hope that we who understand its utility will show by our patronage that it is appreciated. Practically, the whole City Library is in our reach, and the special student, as well as the general reader, is thus enabled to satisfy every literary need. I am happy, also, to endorse the statement of Mr. Dean with regard to the intentions o'f the Hawes trustees, and to say that it seems entirely probable that, at no distant time, another institution of education, m the art direction, will be established among us, of which this Library will be a valuable auxiliary. After further singing by the choir, the Mayor introduced Colonel ALBERT J. WEIGHT, who in an address of a few minutes' length, mingled sound sense^with much good humor, and closed by pledging the continued interest of the citizens of South Boston in the institution which had been committed to their fostering care. He was followed by the Rev. L. H. ANGIER, who dwelt upon the salutary influence of such institutions upon the man- ners and morals of youth. He closed with inviting the citi- zens of South Boston to join him in making a monthly contri- bution for one half year to the stores of the library. Before separating, the entire assemblage joined in singing " Old Hundred." 22 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 70. A P P.E N D I X . JOHN HAWES, Esq., of South Boston, died in 1829, and by his will, made in 1813, he provided that the trustees under it should devote of the income from certain pieces of real estate situated in South Boston, and on the Neck, near the Roxbury line, " one half or moiety . . . to establishing and supporting public schools in said South Boston, in such way and manner, as, in the opinion of the said trustees, their said associates and successors, shall most tend to the benefit and advantage of the inhabitants of said South Boston." Under this authority the trustees have, in occasional winters, opened and maintained evening schools for males ; and for the last two winters an evening school for women and girls, their wants not being provided for by the city. The annual income at present available for the purposes of the trustees is between two and three thousand dollars. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-75m-7,'61 (Cl437s4)444 *