Memorial Library Dedication EXERCISES AT THE DEDICATION OF THB ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY AND SOCIAL HALL THE GIFT OF GEORGE O. AND CORNELIA M. ALLEN SCITUATE, MASS., JULY 15, 1911 GEORGE OTIS ALLEN At the request of the donors of the building, I have pre- pared an introduction or preface to this interesting volume, as follows : The Satuit Library Association held its first meeting Feb- ruary 11,1 882 ; George Webb, its President, and Charles Manson, its Secretary, have passed away; GEORGE O. ALLEN was its Treasurer, a position held continuously by him till the recent change of name to the ALLEN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. His sister CORNELIA M. and his cousin Mrs. Amy Allen Frye, the latter for many years past Secretary of the Association, were members at that first meeting, and all were earnestly and actively interested in library work, as in all other influences for good in the town of Scituate. The library flourished, doing its good work for the people of the town, and on June 16, 1883, its Trustees, GEORGE O. ALLEN, Samuel P. Barker and Frank T. Vinal, purchased in behalf of the Association the land and building on the site of the present ALLEN MEMORIAL at Central and Union streets. The grantors were two dozen or more descendants of Nehemiah Manson of the family of that name which sent forth so many famous captains from Scituate to " go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters." On the fifteenth day of September, 1910, the ALLEN LIBRARY THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION was incorporated, the real estate thus acquired, together with the books and other personal property of the former library, being transferred to the new corporation. This was in accordance with the proposal of GEORGE O. ALLEN and CORNELIA M. ALLEN that they would build and present to the Association, for the benefit of the people of the town, a library building and social hall that should take the form of a memorial to their father and mother. As a result, the beautiful concrete building with its red-tiled roof, a perfect gem of architectural construction, has been erected, and on July 15, 1911, was formally dedicated, with most interesting and appropriate ceremonies, in accordance with the programme announced. It was the desire of the donors that a full account of the proceedings be kept ; so at their request the full and accurate verbatim report of all that was said and done on the occasion, as transcribed by a stenog- rapher, is extended in full on these pages, with portraits and illustrations, that the spirit of the occasion, as well as a narra- tive of the event, may be preserved of what took place up to the time when the Library Association took possession. News items announcing the dedication appeared in the " South Shore Herald " and other papers ; invitations were sent to former residents and those interested in the town, and these, with the people of the town who attended, formed a gathering filling the building, its halls, doorways and windows, while all available space for standing room around the walls and back of the stage was taken by interested listeners. 4 CORNELIA M. ALLEN THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY The weather was delightfully clear and pleasant ; the con- tinued torrid wave, extending so largely and for so long a time over the country, was tempered by a gentle east wind that cooled the air and made the interior of the building comfort- able for the audience. The remarks of the architect and other speakers so well define the construction and purposes of the building that a similar attempt here would be a repetition. The whole is a noble memorial to the father and mother and the ancestors of these two public-spirited residents, from their birth, of the town of Scituate. While the inscription over the fireplace in the main hall of the library says " This Building is erected as a Memorial to their Parents and to the Allen Family by George O. Allen and Cornelia M. Allen," it is not inappropriate to name the mother of the givers, among whose ancestors was one of the early settlers of Scituate and another one of the original Koni- hassett partners with Hatherly and others. Without going back to Barnstable or Glastonbery, Eng., we find John Otis recorded as removing to Scituate under Cole- man's Hill in 1661 ; in 1678 he went to Barnstable, Mass., where he left his son John to found the line which brought forth the patriot James Otis, orator of the Revolution, and re- turned to Scituate. He died January 1 6, 1 683, being buried in the cemetery on Meeting-house Lane, one mile south of the harbor. By the marriage of Stephen Otis, his son, with one Ensign, the latter name was given to a son and grandson, of 5 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY whom the latter, bom August 13, 1777, married Lucy Little September 17, 1 80 1 . He died in 1 822, but she survived till 1 84 1 . Of this marriage was born HANNAH ENSIGN OTIS, March 7, 1807, who in 1828 married GEORGE MlNOT ALLEN. GEORGE MlNOT ALLEN had come to Scituate from Pembroke, Mass., with his younger brother William Paley Allen. The latter afterwards married Abigail Brooks Otis, born January 2, 1816, another daughter of Ensign and Lucy Otis ; so we have the two brothers marrying two sisters. All have passed to their reward, after lives of usefulness and in the fulness of years. The father of the Allen sons was the Rev. MORRILL ALLEN of Pembroke, a strong personality, one of the best known and most highly respected and beloved men in Plym- outh County in his day. His ancestry was from James Allen, who settled in Dedham in 1 639, while others of the family settled in various parts of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, and whose descendants are so numerous. MORRILL ALLEN was born in 1 776, and grew up after the revolutionary war with all the fire of patriotism and strength of character that naturally belonged to a youth of his strict training during the formative period of life. He graduated from Brown University at Providence in 1 798, and after years of teaching became a minister of the gospel, being settled in Pembroke, where for many years he ministered to his beloved people. He was a man of strong principle, refusing to dis- 6 GEORGE MINOT ALLEN THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY cuss public or political questions on the ground that his influ- ence as a clergyman might have undue weight with his parish- ioners ; but when he gave up his pastorate to attend to his large and well-stocked farm, he was promptly elected to the Massachusetts Senate for two succeeding terms, without effort on his own part. He was known as " the pattern farmer of Plymouth County," and was honored by membership and office in all sorts of agri- cultural societies. On the day he was ninety years of age he preached a sermon at Pembroke, in the old pulpit he had for- merly adorned, which being read to-day is a marvel of strength of mind and clearness of thought ; while those who heard it say it was delivered with equal force and vigor of statement. He died at the age of ninety-four years, mourned by genera- tions of children and children's children and friends, who had risen up " to call him blessed." It is as a memorial to these ancestors, ALLEN-OTIS, whose names stand out so conspicuously to the passer-by on the joint family monument in the near-by cemetery, that GEORGE OTIS ALLEN and CORNELIA M. ALLEN have erected the building which bears the name of the ALLEN MEMORIAL. All honor to them ; and to them the people of Scituate and all who enjoy the benefits of their bounty will ever render appreciative thanks, and hold their names in tender and affec- tionate memory. Since the dedication and before the publication of this 7 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY volume, Hannah Dean Miller, a sister of the donors, has placed in the reading room of the library crayon portraits of her father and mother, George M. and Hannah O. Allen. They hang on either side of the fireplace, and the likenesses evidence the personal nature and qualities of their children who thus per- petuate their memory. C. T. G. BOSTON. MASS., July 15. 1911. HANNAH OTIS ALLEN THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY PROGRAM .L/edication of the ./xllen IViemonal JL/ibrary 15, 1311 at 3 n'rlnrh JJ.fH. OFFICERS OF THE ALLEN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION President ....... Thomas E. S. Cotton Vice-President ....... Henry R. Prouty Secretary ........ Amy Allen Frye Treasurer ........ George O. Allen TRUSTEES George O. Allen Tkomas E. S. Cotton Howard O. Frye at tit? $>J Slilirary mail ft in 9 Central and Union Streets, Scltuate, Mass. ORDER OF EXERCISES ........ '. Orchestra (OjmttUl} flraiJW . . . .by Rev. Milton J. Miller of Geneseo, 111. Of tlj* Sullitng by Willard D. Brown. Architect, to George O. Allen and Cornelia M. Allen, Donors Of ICtga to the Library Association by Hon. Chas. T. Gallagher, on behalf of Donors by Thomas E. S. Cotton. President, and Amy Allen Frye. Secre- tary, on behalf of the Association Prrantlatintt of (Clock and (EanMrsltrka on behalf of Mrs. Nellie Allen Gal- lagher, by Hon. Samuel J . Elder of \nr inchester. tO BiHttorfl au& <&W0t0 by Hon. Robert O. Harris. M.C.. of East Bridgewater HJnair ..... by Hon. John D. Long of Hingham (Drrhcatra &?l?rtUma ...... by Rev. Nathaniel Seaver of Scituate Refreshments THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Promptly at 3 o'clock the speakers entered the social hall and with the donors of the building took seats on the stage. From their number, Hon. Charles T. Gallagher of Boston came forward and said : I have been requested by the donors to preside over these exercises ; the duty of presiding presupposes the necessity of maintaining order ; so orderly a town meeting as this does not need a moderator. It has been suggested that I conduct the services. This would be appropriate were it a solemn reli- gious observance rather than one of gaiety and pleasure. I suppose my Yale and Harvard friends, Brother Elder and Brother Harris, with memories of their college athletic contests, would suggest that I call myself a " starter " or an " announcer." Whichever it may be, I am pleased to perform what little service I can in connection with this most interesting event, and will " start " by " announcing " that the music will be furnished by the Schubert Orchestra, who will now delight our ears by adding to the harmonies of the occasion. The orchestra rendered " Mercadentes Solitude (Original Caprice)," after which Mr. Gallagher spoke as follows : 10 REV. MILTON J. MILLER THE, ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Near that historic rock (the cornerstone of the nation) from which this county takes its name, the great statesman whose remains lie at rest in Marshfield, in his masterly oration of 1820, said: Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political or literary. Let us cherish these sentiments, and extend this influence still more widely, in the full conviction that that is the happiest society which partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceable spirit of Christianity. I will ask the Rev. Milton J. Miller of Geneseo, III, like myself "an Allen by marriage," Hannah Dean Miller, his wife, being a sister of the donors, to invoke the divine bless- ing on this undertaking. iltltmt 21. flilbr Let us unite in prayer ! Our Heavenly Father, we lift our hearts in gratitude to Thee, beseeching Thy blessing on the services of this hour. We thank Thee for the gracious spirit that has moved Thy children thus to build this Memorial Hall for human welfare. We come rejoicing to dedicate their work as a house sacred to learning and to culture, a treasure house of wisdom old and new, garnered from the ages past and from the multiplicity of 11 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY minds in ages present. We would thank Thee for the his- tory, the words and deeds of kindred nations long past, still our inheritance, as a gift from Thee our Father, to inspire and comfort the living souls of men. Father divine, we thank Thee for this modern time in which we live, a time of increasing knowledge, with new voices and new visions for truth and right. Here may the readers come with fearless courage to seek the truth and live it in the love of God and man. May the cheerful donors of this home and the happy receivers rejoice together in the noble service of peace and goodwill to all people. Father, wherever we may fare on our various journeys, may we love Thy leading hand and may we hear Thy inspiring spirit voice and may we follow the light of endless joy and living. Amen ! Mr. GALLAGHER. The gentleman responsible for this building up to the present time is the architect. The builder would naturally be here with him to share the responsibility of criticism or blame, if there were any, and to receive the encomiums that should come to so good work as they have pro- duced. Mr. Willard D. Brown, the architect, is present, and I am pleased to present him to you now. 12 HANNAH DEAN MILLER THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Mr. Mtllarii i Irottm Ladies and Gentlemen: It was just about a year ago that Mr. Allen first informed me of the proposed gift by him- self and his sister of a library building for the people of Scit- uate, and requested my services as architect in that connection. It is needless to say I accepted the proposition with alacrity, for not only is the library movement one in which I am deeply interested, but also the charms of Scituate are so well known that I foresaw the dreaded visits of inspection transformed into veritable holidays. So much time, however, was consumed in the preparation of plans, in the securing of estimates, in the selection of a contractor to do the work, in the removal of the old building that occupied the site, that it was fall before the contracts were finally placed and the work actually begun. So that in consequence my anticipated summer outings became dreary winter pilgrimages ; but in the light of the weather of the last few weeks I can now look back upon them as most delightful and altogether enjoyable. [Laughter.] I have been asked to say a few words in regard to the building itself, its design, its structure, etc. In the ordinary competition the architect has prescribed for his guidance a program, more or less rigid, which he is supposed to follow. With this competitive element lacking, however, the architect must in a great measure supply his own program, at the same time following out the wishes of his clients so far as these are defi- nite and vital. He must have an ideal, too, to live up to, if 13 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY he can, and a distinct aim and purpose in everything he does. The scheme for the present building seemed to be to design a building that would belong to the place, not one of the type so often seen, apparently dropped from the skies and totally foreign to its environment, but rather a library having the char- acteristics of the village, one which would appeal to the people as their own, which the children would love to frequent, and in which the casual visitor would love to linger. In fact, I feel strongly that a village library should have these characteristics if it is to successfully fulfill the purpose for which it is in- tended. Furthermore, the plan should be such as to admit of an easy oversight of the entire building by a single attendant, a point necessary for an economical administration. This I think has been carried out, inasmuch as the librarian at her desk can command the reading and reference rooms, and is conveniently situated as regards the stack room, to which she must con- stantly go, while at the same time she has oversight of those who have the privilege of withdrawing books for themselves. As to the stack room, it might be well to say that provisions are there made for housing some 4,000 volumes ; while the reference room and delivery room will take care of some 1,200 more. Beyond this point it is unlikely that the library will grow, inasmuch as the value of an institution of this sort depends on having a well-selected working stock rather than a large total capacity of volumes made up of dead wood and 14 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY agricultural reports which are never read, which take up room, and are a constant care to the librarian. The assembly hall has added a feature not common to the usual library, but one very valuable, inasmuch as it furnishes room for lecture courses, which will serve greatly to broaden the range of the library's influence. It is also available for entertainments of other sorts, and for this purpose has an entrance entirely distinct from the library proper ; and with its coat rooms, toilet rooms, anterooms and kitchen, can be used without interfering in the least with the use of the library itself. As to the construction of the building, it was one of Mr. Allen's wishes to have the building as fireproof as practicable, and with this end in view a construction of hollow terra cotta blocks has been employed, even the supporting floors being of this material, while the stack room is further safeguarded by a fire door, so that if a fire should by chance break out within the building the books themselves will not be harmed. In speaking of the construction I want here to express my own thanks, and I feel sure those of Mr. Allen, to the con- tracting builder, Mr. Otis C. Thayer of Lancaster, who I am happy to say is present with us to help with me to bear what blame there may be ; and I want to thank Mr. Thayer for his great interest in this building from the very start, for his readi- ness to remedy all defects and errors that may have happened, for his willingness at all times to co-operate with the architect, even at times giving us more than he was called upon to do, and for his never-failing courtesy. 15 Indeed, this spirit has seemed to animate all connected with the work, from Mr. Jost, the foreman in charge, down all along the line. In fact, I think I can safely say the building is a very well-built building, and I hope and trust it may meet all the demands it may be called upon to fill. My thanks are also due you, Mr. Allen, for the trust and confidence you have placed in me from the start, and I con- gratulate you and your sister for the joy and pleasure that are yours in being living witnesses to the happiness your munifi- cence is giving to others. And it is my pleasure to deliver to you these keys as an emblem of a completed building and a gift very much worth while. [Applause.] Mr. Gallagher, handing the keys to Miss Cornelia M. Allen, said: Miss Allen, you are entitled equally with your brother to the custody of these keys, and whatever views we may have on the equal rights of the sexes, it is naturally appropriate you should share with your brother all the glory of this occasion. [Applause.] And now, Mr. Brown, in behalf of Mr. George O. Allen and Miss Cornelia M. Allen, who hold the keys of this build- ing, I desire to express their thanks to you for the successful work you and the builder have brought to completion. The building is certainly artistically beautiful, and is practical and useful for all purposes for which a library and social hall are needed. It is a credit to the town and a monument to the 16 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Allen family. It is one of those beautiful structures that fulfill the desire of givers when the family name is to be perpetuated and parents honored. The givers are Scituate born and bred ; a town not only literary in taste but patriotic and historic in its past. In their behalf and at their expressed wish I thank you publicly for the good work you have done in assisting them to carry out a long-cherished desire, on their part, in this manner. Turning to the officers of the Association Mr. Gallagher then said : I now desire, in behalf of the donors, to extend to the Allen Library Association, of which Mr. Thomas E. S. Cotton is the President, their congratulations on its success, and to present to you in their behalf this building that they have had constructed. It is to be used by your Association for library and social purposes ; you are the President and Mrs. Amy Allen Frye is the Secretary ; she has been connected with the organization from the beginning of the Satuit Library, nearly thirty years ago, to the present time, the name being changed recently to Allen, to fit into the new building. Your interest and her zeal, with your officers, have made it a success under the old name ; you will continue to do so in the future under the new. You are to take this building in charge ; you receive these keys from the Aliens, and they place them, with the building, in your hands as President ; you and your associates will watch 17 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY over this charge that is thus given you. It is needless for me or any one to suggest what the duties of a President or Board of Trustees, or even of a librarian should be, in these days when every town and city in our Commonwealth has a library open to the public and free, and the duties of each are known to all interested. Here, youth will not only be entertained, but will be directed in the paths leading to the best literature ; those of more mature years may acquire that which will teach them "to give to opinion a loftier seat;" men and women will learn " the psalm of labor and the song of love ; " middle life and old age will enjoy from the books that will be selected by you and your associates such good as will solace and com- fort their years ; and all will be inspired to direct their thoughts and endeavors to " land the ark that bears our country's good, safe to some peaceful Ararat at last." The whole scope and scheme of the building as a temple of literature and social meeting place for the advancement of the mind as well as the body are in your keeping and in that of your Association. I present these keys to you in behalf of the donors, symbolical of the delivery into your hands of the absolute and entire possession of the whole building. [Applause. Mr. THOMAS E. S. COTTON, President of the Library Association, replied as follows : I can only say that I thank you and througn you the Aliens for their kindness. I accept this great gift, and I thank them 18 HON. CriAS. T. GALLAGHER THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY in behalf of the Association ; I thank them in behalf of the whole citizenship of this town, and I thank them again in behalf of generations yet to come who will receive the benefit of this good work that Mr. Allen and his sister Cornelia have done for us. [Applause.] Mr. GALLAGHER. It was about such an afternoon as this, when I was a law student, thirty-seven years ago, that I went on an errand to an office in Pemberton Square. The firm was absent, but a student, he who is now United States commissioner, was there, bowing out a gentleman and lady of middle-age, both courteous and gentle. I stood aside to let them pass and could not help hearing the lady say : " The vacant office will do for the ' Woman's Journal ; ' we will take it; I am Mrs. Livermore; this [indicating Mr. Blackwell] is Lucy Stone's husband." By the same token I am to-day only Nellie Allen's husband [laughter] ; she is a cousin of George and Cornelia, and although my name is on the program with a large title, I shine only by reflection from the Allen name to-day. She does not even trust me to perform the simple and unimportant task allotted to my good friend, whom I have known from student days ; she enlisted him to assist in em- bellishing in a small way this beautiful building ; he can tell his own story about his retainer and employment as counsel for the undertaking; she knew Brother Elder would do it much better than her husband, and, naturally, she wanted it done the best possible ; so she got not only the best fellow but 19 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY the best lawyer she knew (or perhaps the lawyer she knew best) in Boston to do it. She knew I would not take offence at it, because Brother Elder and I have been such old and dear friends from our law school days. Our acquaintance was there formed, and has ripened into a friendship that has been crystallized year by year by association at the bar, socially, travelling together at home and abroad, on the ocean, in the tropics, into a mutual confidence and relationship that are last- ing. Knowing my nature she knew Mr. Elder must be a kind and peaceful man to stand me all those years [laughter] ; she knew he must be essentially " a man of peace," otherwise he never would have stood my irritating and vexatious spirit during our travels ; and he is " a man of peace," because he has been proclaimed so internationally. You know he represented the United States government before the Hague Tribunal in that great peaceful dispute with England over the fisheries, a case that a few years ago would have been settled by a foreign war ; he was one of the senior counsel for the United States, and he acquitted himself nobly and well, returning with well- earned laurels for the peaceful victory ; he is " a man of law," and the poet says " the man of law loves peace, and is a peace- ful man." I do not know how extensively Mr. Elder will speak to-day on the subject of " peace," but he will speak for Mrs. Galla- gher of the time " piece " that is to go on the mantel " piece." [Laughter and applause.] 20 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Mr. Samuel 3. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : Mr. Gallagher says I may tell the circumstances of my retainer in this case. I suspect that when he first asked me to come to Scituate for this occasion he did not think he could get Governor Long or Congressman Harris, and as a desperate remedy asked me, because when he finally did tell me that Governor Long had agreed to come and that Congressman Harris was also to be here, there was that sort of calm, smooth, well-oiled sluiceway [laughter] in his voice that would easily toboggan a man out altogether. But I told him that I was under engagement ; that I was not going to be put off ; that I would come in his auto- mobile, and that he " could not lose me." [Applause.] I confess in Plymouth County and in this presence, which is before as well as behind me, I feel somewhat as Mr. Bouci- cault, in his play " The Jilt," said of the Irish jockey who had entered his horse in an English race, that he was an " out- sider entered by mistake." Nevertheless, I am more delighted than I can tell you to have been entered. Mr. Gallagher on the way down you see I am making an absolute, soul-free confession dared me to tell a certain story. He said that with both Governor Long, and the great dignity of his high offices (I will not say age because he will always be young), and Congressman Harris here, there ought to be one story which would come to my mind as appropriate to my position. It was the story of a Gloucester schooner off 2\ THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Boston Light. Well, on the whole, I think the story is appro- priate. You see the schooner was in a heavy fog, trying to find the main ship channel, tacking off and on, trying to get her soundings, every little while getting the scream ol a whistle on some great steamer, or the music of a tin horn on some smack, or the clang of a bell on some Atlantic liner. Finally the skipper gave it up, put down his helm and ran out to sea. As he did so the fog lifted, and right ahead of him was a great East Indiaman. Putting his helm up he ran under the stem of the big ship and called out in a high squeaky voice : " Ship ahoy! What ship's that?" The captain took his speaking trumpet and called back: "Ship 'Reindeer,' Calcutta for Boston." " How long have you been out ? " " One hundred and fourteen days. What schooner is that?" "Schooner 'Dart* of Gloucester." "How long you been out?" " A-a-1-1-1 night." [Laughter and applause.] They do say the worst thing a man can undertake when he has told a story is to make an application. Apparently that story requires none to be made. We are very often told that the world is small. We have been told so for generations, and it has been growing smaller. The great ocean liners make bridges across the seas, and the cables draw the countries together so that we talk with the man in Berlin or Paris or Rome almost as if he were in the next town. Even the air itself is vocal with human thought and human messages, and quivers with the cry for help of men in peril on the deep. The invention of man has sought out many 22 HON. SAMUEL J. ELDER THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY devices, but they all draw mankind together, and teach us anew who our neighbor is. The world is very small. I remember an old soldier who told me of the place where he was standing at the second battle of Bull Run, just by the side of the color guard when he was hit. A moment before a shell from one of Stonewall Jackson's batteries had burst near by and the color guard was wiped out. Years afterwards, having grown rich and being retired from business, he was travelling in Egypt, and there one night was smoking his cigarette after dinner in the court- yard of a great hotel. A tall man came across the courtyard and said " I guess you're a Yankee," and he replied, " I don't need to guess that you are." And they sat down and talked, and one finally asked : " Were you in the war ? " and the other said " Yes," and they talked of the war until it turned out that they were in the same brigade. " Did you get hit?" "Yes, I was hit in the second battle of Bull Run/' The other said : " So was I." " Where were you ? " "I was with McDowell's brigade over on the left flank." So inside of a few moments these strangers found they had been sta- tioned on the opposite side of that same color guard, had seen it wiped out and had been shot within fifteen minutes of each other. After forty years they had met across the sea, and were brethren as soldiers are brethren. So we have constant illustrations of the smallness of the world, and of the way we are tied together. It is an old saying that you can never meet a man anywhere in the world 23 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY with whom you have not some point of touch. We have another illustration to-day. Away across the seas this after- noon, down by the shores of Capri, just now taking the boat to Sorrento, is a lady whose heart and thought and feeling are with us here as though she stood among us. It is she whose representative I am at this moment. Daughter of this town, bred into the heart and life of Plymouth County, loving and revering its rocks and its sands and its sea, she sends her tribute to you and to this library. These candlesticks shall stand in the presence of the generations that are yet to come, not " to hold up a candle to the dial," but to tell the story of colonial days, and tell how the worthy youth of this ancient town pored over the pages of the past. And this clock, too, shall turn its face to future generations, measure their days and point the finger to the flying hours. As her representative I now present to your Association the candlesticks and the timepiece, which are to ornament the mantle, over the fireplace in the reading room, inscribed so appropriately with the Allen name and dedication. We are told that literature knows no time, that great litera- ture is of no age, of no century and no generation. Yes, that is true because literature is of all time, but it is only by seizing upon time in its flight that we may know our books and our writers, and those who have engraved their lives into their books for our use. So I think of the young men and young women of this town in this library, poring over the works of recent date and the works of ancient date, and looking up at 24 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY this clock to see how the passage of time is allying their lives to all time. [Applause.] Mr. GALLAGHER. If there were any acceptance neces- sary for the Association I should ask Mrs. Nellie Allen Galla- gher's sister to respond and receive it, she who is Secretary of the Association, Mrs. Amy Allen Frye. [Applause con- tinued, during which Mrs. Frye was reluctantly led on to the stage and bowed her acknowledgment.] When I was a ten-year-old boy I used to spend my sum- mers in Halifax in this county. I stayed with my mother's uncle Porter. I recall once his coming home, and, as he took off his black broadcloth Sunday coat, telling about having been up on the jury (I did not know what a jury was in those days). He said, " There was a lawyer from Dedham, some old fellow, and we didn't quite know whether to believe in him or not ; but when Lawyer Ben Harris told us this old man was filling the jury full of ' sophistry * our minds were made up, and we didn't take much stock in him, and we stuck by Lawyer Harris and gave him a verdict." I remem- ber the words " jury " and " sophistry." I did not know what either meant; it was my first introduction to law. I have learned since about both. I tell the incident only to show how Hon. Benjamin W. Harris was beloved and respected in this county and throughout the judicial district of this and Norfolk County ; and how every one believed in him and fol- lowed his guidance. As a representative in Congress and as 25 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY a judge he has left a name and heritage to one who we who know him personally feel is worthy of the inheritance, and a credit, indeed, to the name and family. " Like father, like son." From the student and lawyer whom we knew as " Bob " Harris, as we used to call him in younger days ; " Brother " Harris when he got to holding us down from the higher position he held in trying cases ; " Your Honor " when he was on the Superior bench, that he adorned with his knowl- edge of literature and law, and won our admiration by his fairness and his practical sense in decisions; he too has received the encomiums of his worth at your hands by being honored as your representative in the Congress of our nation. The parallel provokes in me a story, and I tell it with the deepest reverence and regard for the senior, who if he were here would enjoy it as much as we. When William E. Russell was a young man he tried one of his first cases before the Admiralty Court, Judge Nelson on the bench. His good old father, Charles Theodore Russell, sat inside the bar, perhaps to assist or give a suggestion. E. D. Sohier, a contemporary of the senior Russell, and the wit of the bar of his day, came in to the court. Knowing young Russell he paused for a moment in admiration, but thought he must have his joke, so went up to the father and said : " Brother Russell, who is this young man talking to the court ? " " My son, sir, William E. Russell." " Ah ! good stock ! above par ! " [Applause and laughter.] A man who is welcome all through Plymouth County, as 26 HON. ROBERT O. HARRIS THE, ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY his beloved father was, is certainly qualified to welcome visitors and guests and " the stranger within our gates." I take pleasure in presenting the Hon. Robert O. Harris of East Bridgewater. [Applause.] . jarrta Gentlemen, Members of the Association, and Friends : It may seem at first a little singular that Brother Gallagher should go over to another part of the county to bring a man down here into Scituate to welcome you and your friends to your own new house. He does not know something that I am now about to reveal to him, and that is that, although not per- sonally of Scituate, there are no less than three of my grand- maternal family lines which date their origin in this town, and three of our family names are of Scituate location from the earliest days ; so that perhaps I may be not altogether out of place when I come in here and say to those who are not of this town that " we people of Scituate are glad to see our old friends." [Applause.] I want to tell you a little bit more of how I came to be here. Two or three times the first of the week when I went into my office in Boston the boy said : " Mr. Gallagher has been in to see you," or " Mr. Gallagher has called you up on the telephone." So day before yesterday I got the boy to call up Mr. Gallagher, because I had visions, you know, that pos- sibly he might want to retain me for something. He said he wanted me to come down here with him, and I said I would 27 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY come, particularly if I could enlist my townsman Mr. Nutter, and his automobile, to come across the country. I went home that night and got a letter; I am sorry I did not bring it; in substance it read : DEAR BOB : I have put you on the program. I did not know just how, so I have called it " Welcome ,to Visitors and Guests." That gives you a wide field. You can say what you have a mind to. [Laughter.] Now, at this stage of the proceedings it seems to be rather useless to extend any further welcome because you have all evidently made yourselves at home. I am a little shy of Sam Elder here. I do not know which one of us has the advantage. You remember the fellow he was telling us about who was lost in the fog. First he would hear the big horn of the ocean liner and then the tin horn of the smack. He looked first at me and then at Governor Long. I do not know whether I am the smack or the liner [laughter] ; but we know that he got out of the fog and into clear weather in safety, and that is good enough for us any way. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to be here to- day and witness the dedication of this new library. I am delighted to think that the donors of this library have had the wisdom to erect it in their lifetime, and be present here with you to-day to themselves present to you the building, and to witness your pleasure and your satisfaction in receiving it [Applause.] 28 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Some years ago in our own town an old gentleman under- took to provide for the future, and put a fund in trust for a library to be built after he was gone. My father said to him one day, " Don't you think you would have a good deal more fun if you built it now ? " and he concluded to do it. He did as you have done ; he supervised its construction, came him- self on the day of the dedication, and went away feeling that he had done something that was well worth doing, and some- thing which would make and hold for him a place in the grateful hearts of those who were present and of those who are to come hereafter. The library in the town is a most important spot and place, which, when it is once erected and given, as it is now, should receive the fostering care and generous support of the town in the future ; it should be looked up to, it should be made the place to which the people, young and old, come ; a library should be well provided for. I am a little regretful over something that Mr. Brown has said, because I thought I saw an opportunity for me to con- tribute to your shelves; but he assures me that agricultural reports and all that sort of literature are barred. I could furnish you, of course, with some literature of solid informa- tion, consisting of some of the " Congressional Records," with the solid speeches that were made in former days in Congress, and I can send to you some light fiction in the form of some of the modern speeches ; and so to a certain extent I may be able to supply your needs, but I shall not offer you the more 29 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY ponderous tomes issued by the government departments. [Laughter.] I thank you again for the opportunity to be here, and I assure you it is with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that I have been able to accept Mr. Gallagher's invitation and join with you in this dedication. [Applause.] The orchestra rendered "Village Bells" by T. H. Rollin- son, after which Mr. Gallagher continued as follows : All is finished, and at length has come the bridal day of beauty and of strength. [Laughter.] I could not help it, after this nautical talk about "fishing smacks " and " ocean liners," really I felt the simile. This ship is not only finished, rigged, provisioned and manned, but has got a full list of passengers on board. It is ready to be launched in its noble work. If the illustration is apt, it will be done by a noble man. There is something about the name of Allen that means prosperity. My own association with it has been beneficial. [Laughter.] But I recall those days of thirty-five or thirty-six years ago, in the old Tudor building in Boston, with its stone copings over the windows, which would be described by Rob the grinder, one of Dickens's characters, as a " leathery, feath- ery, musty, fusty, dusty, old place." The back of the building was iron frame, with little glass panes to light the offices across the corridors. One of these offices was my quarters, and in 30 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY going in and out of the building I passed the door of a room, similarly situated, which was filled with shelves piled with papers and documents ; and I used to think to myself, if I ever got enough to fill one of the dozens of tins of cases I saw there I should be a prosperous lawyer. One day, the door being shut, I saw on it the name of Allen & Long, and as the asso- ciation of Hon. John D. Long with Stillman B. Allen was prosperous and beneficial to him, so also to me as a young lawyer in that building were the courtesy, attention and kind- ness given by both of that firm of lawyers. It was in great contrast to the treatment generally accorded younger men by the older practitioners of that time ; the law offices were redo- lent with fight, and it was imparted even to the student and juniors. Not so with these courteous men, who were of the type of him who became Chief Justice Field, and others. The young men looked up to these men with the same respect and regard that the people of this county and the town of Hingham do to our beloved friend who is to address you to-day. [Applause.] There is an apt feature, however, that I do not believe the Governor remembers. We had something to do with starting this library nearly thirty years ago. In '82 His Excellency, then Governor Long, was completing his third term, and I had the honor to be a member of the upper branch of the Legis- lature. The Satuit Library was formed, and I spoke with him about sending some State volumes to it ; they were sent, and I do not know but what they have them now, the same kind 31 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY that Mr. Brown the architect calls dead wood and such truck, perhaps [laughter] ; I thought we were doing a great thing, any way ; however, we did it, and the Satuit Library Association was formed, and the Governor and myself little thought then that we should be performing the service we are to-day under present conditions. [Applause.] I was talking after dinner with the genial Boniface who keeps the Gushing House over at Hingham, and he and I concluded there never was and never would be another county in the United States where the relations between two great men and their neighbors were so lovable, so kindly, so mutually respected as those of Mr. Webster of Marshfield and Gov- ernor Long of Hingham with the good people of this county. [Applause.] As Mr. Webster preferred the town of Marsh- field, with his old friends and neighbors, the blacksmith, the storekeeper and Tim Williamson the boatman, to "the ap- plause of listening Senates to command," so our respected friend delights in the association of old Plymouth County and her people ; more delighted with this opportunity, I doubt not, than when receiving the plaudits of the State as its Executive, or when feeling the thanks of a grateful people at his success in the Navy Department of our nation's cabinet during a foreign war. I assume this from the cordiality with which he re- sponded to the wishes of Mr. George and Miss Cornelia Allen when he was asked to perform this service. It is appropriate that this temple of literature should be dedicated by the honored 32 HON. JOHN D. LONG THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY President of the corporation of the University at Cambridge. He needs no introduction to you. It is my delight as well as my pleasure to have the honor to simply mention and present the Hon. John D. Long of Hingham. [Applause.] nf Sjim. Jolftt S. Cong Charlie Gallagher seems to remember me in the past days ; I cannot recall him. [Laughter.] He says I need no intro- duction I wonder why he consumed five minutes of my valuable time in giving me one. [Laughter.] He is an ad- mirable presiding officer as you have noticed. I have only two criticisms to make of him to-day. One is that in men- tioning me and Daniel Webster he put Daniel Webster first. [Laughter.] The other is that he referred to my good friend Sam Elder as " the best lawyer in Boston." I do not bear any resentment, but how must Judge Harris feel ? [Laugh- ter.] I can draw on my imagination better than Judge Harris; all my ancestors were born in Scituate, and, like him, I am very glad to come. I accepted the invitation at once ; it was fixed for the 8th of July, but my friend Gal- lagher pretended that the time was extended until to-day, the 1 5th, for the purpose of having me present. I learn that the building was not completed until within a day or two ago. [Laughter.] It is another instance of Charlie's aptness. The gentlemen who have preceded me have taken so much time that, while I have an admirable address which will take 33 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY not more than two or three hours, I think they have taken the edge off the occasion. [Laughter.] One of the most creditable and distinctive features of Massa- chusetts is her public libraries. Of her three hundred and fifty towns and cities not one is without that benefit. Nothing more eloquently testifies to her intellectual culture. Hardly a hamlet that does not surpass ancient Athens in this respect. Formerly many of these libraries the book more vital than the cabinet, the meat more than the shell were lodged in meagre quarters, sometimes in a single room of a dwelling house, thereby, however, all the more significant of an un- quenchable thirst for knowledge. In this connection we cer- tainly do not forget the old building in which for thirty beneficial years the Satuit Library Association, forerunner of this present gift, was your literary center. But to-day the growing wealth and aesthetic taste, often, as in this case, the loyalty of a grateful son or daughter of the town, have pro- vided many and many a beautiful enclosure which, like this, with their tasteful architectural effects, are such an adornment to our village life. But we are to-day not merely dedicating a lovely and com- modious library building to literary, and, what is quite as im- portant, to social purposes. If you would trace the true inspiring soul of this edifice you will not stop with its walls or its architectural plans, but will go into the sacred recesses of human hearts, and you will catch delicate utterances of the spirit and the lights and shadows of tender memories and pious 34 REV. MORRILL ALLEN THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY affections, all whispering and playing about the hearthstones of beloved and honored family circles, and recalling husband and wife, child and parent and grandparent, the living and the dead ; nay, all still alive in the good works which they have done and which do follow them. [Applause.] The Allen Memorial Library ! As you think of the scope of its noble and far-reaching beneficence with what gratitude you turn to those who gave it ! It stands as a memorial to those who made the name it bears a synonym for personal worth and public spirit. The best tribute to them is in their own life work, which is typified here as in an open book before you in this edifice, and in the cordial responsiveness with which you, their fellow citizens, have here gathered to honor them in dedicating it. It emphasizes the example of good and true lives, of plain living and high thinking. It thus suggests not the least significant lesson of the hour. What better inspiration can we have than this blending of the patriotic and beneficent names of Allen-Otis ; this family descent which reckons among its forbears that model farmer of Pembroke who made farming an art and a profit, and who led his people in the worship of the Lord and, had need been, would, like his namesake, the fighting parson of Pittsfield, have led them on the perilous edge of battle for freedom. [Applause.] While this building is unique in its purpose it is yet only in the line and easy evolution of our New England system. It is as much a flower of the Pilgrim and Puritan seed, as much an 35 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY outgrowth from the " Mayflower," as much a result of that vote of the General Court in 1 647 declaring that " learning should not be buried in the graves of our forefathers," as is Harvard College or our common schools. Still more does it partake of our later marvellous industrial growths. It is the fruit of that homely, saving economy, that intelligent thrift, which characterized early New England. And what a boon! Measure the value of your public library! Suppose for one moment that its contents were blotted out ; that the world of books were consumed ; that the records of history, science, fiction and poetry were lost. Why, we live not in the present, which is gone before we say the word, but in the past; in that past which history and literature have created. What man in this region of the earth is so open to you in his heart and thought and dream as David in his psalm, or Emerson in his philosophy, or Thackeray in his satire, or Dickens in his fun. Was it Becky Sharp or Mr. Pickwick that you were chatting with just before you came into this hall ? Or Colonel Newcomb or Leather Stock- ing or Rip Van Winkle ? Of what man here in your own town do you really know so much as of Abraham Lincoln. [Applause.] In whose poetic tendernesses or aspirations among your neighbors do you find the sympathy you find in Longfellow or Whittier? What drama of surrounding do- mestic or public life is half as familiar as that of Walter Scott or Shakespeare ? Which of your neighbors can hold you with the illuminated talk torrent of Macaulay ? [Applause.] 36 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY In the town in which I live we have, like you, a public library founded by the munificence of a citizen. Walking toward it one perfect day in June I met a young girl slowly sauntering from its portals. In her dress was the evidence of that pathetic poverty which seeks to hide its ravages with the mother's midnight needle and prudent patch. Her broken and overcrushed shoes, much too large, were the evident gra- tuity of charity. But under each arm was a library book and in her hands a third, held wide open, which she read as she walked. Passing I caught under the torn hat-brim that intelli- gent child face traced with a pensive sadness which is so often seen among the children of the poor. Apparently my saluta- tion woke the blue eyes, which trembled up from a dream in which all consciousness of the actual time and place had been lost, and in which the soul was living in its transcendent ranges of an upper world, the world of the aspiring imagi- nation ; the world of literature and mind ; the world in which all the good and wise and lovely are our society. Is it noth- ing to have conferred such a blessing on one of God's little ones, to have made such a one a messenger of glad tidings to some humble household, which, under the gifts she was bring- ing, would gladden into happiness and light ? [Applause.] Is there nothing, too, to be said in praise of an agency which thus sweeps our vision out of the small and inbreeding confines of local frictions and gossip into these world-wide ranges of creative power ? Here in his single hand the citizen grasps the universe. Here he listens to the debates in Congress and 37 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY just now wishes they were over. Here he joins in the coro- nation of a king and rides in a royal chariot. Here he studies diplomatic contests and looks over the shoulders of negotiating ambassadors. Here he cuts the Panama Canal, or explores the icy terrors of the pole, actually reaching it with Peary if not with Cook, or in the exquisite realm of the imagination sings with the poet or inquires with the philosopher. Here solitude becomes society. The soul is supreme master. It is more than education ; it is possession. The scholar is king. He inherits the earth. No devil tempts him, yet his are all the kingdom of the word and the glory thereof. [Applause.] Thus this building typifies the true communion or socialism. Here will be the most precious and abundant wealth, as far above all material mint and anise and cumin as the clouds above the earth, and all is for all alike. Ah ! that is the sweet assurance which letters, books, art, literature give to the world The vicissitudes of fortunes, the rise and fall of stocks, the succession of good times and hard times, the inequalities of material lot which are inevitable, nay, which are to some extent the soil and stimulus of social and individual bet- terment, all these cannot invade this realm; and he who invests his happiness in this security will never suffer bank- ruptcy. The refinement and riches of study and letters, open alike to all, is one of the best lessons of this dedication, sum- moning the whole world to its communism of goods. The wealth of Croesus could not equal what this inclosure will hold, and it will be not the monopoly of Croesus but in 38 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY common possession. For the poorest child will here come and here command statesmen, poets, orators, warriors, all the greatness of human career to his side, to minister to his pleas- ure and instruction and companionship. Under this vault will echo no song of the shirt, but the poets song of the woods, of enriched solitude, of the mind's paradise. And here the citi- zen, whatever his quest or trade or circumstance, will learn that to him these great spirits of the past are of more interest, as they reflect his own highest ideals and help him to realize them. Nothing to him the royal robes or fragrant palaces of Solomon, but everything to him David's agony of pain or tumult of aspiration, because they are the pain and aspiration of his own heart. Indeed, in the engrossments of every-day life few of us appreciate what a universal blessing a library and a social gathering room are. I have been delighted, in my observation of our towns, to find how generally people of all conditions of life and degrees of means depend upon the public library ; of how many a sick room it is the light ; of how many a poor man's home it is the cheer ; of how much leisure and ennui it is the relief ; and how thoroughly well informed and well read the community is made by its resources. Little does he know of our New England culture who thinks it confined to the select, or who, from a thorough acquaintance with New England homes, has not often found in them a wealth and variety of reading and a familiarity with the field of authors and their works, which a characteristic reticence often hides, but which 39 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY is as surely there as the waters, the flow of which is in winter unheard, are copiously flowing under their mantle of snow and ice. But this fact of the eager and general use of the public library suggests most emphatically what is the vital and most important thing of all, and that is that while such a resource is a mighty instrument for delight and for good, we should not forget that it may be made an instrument also for evil, for mental and moral waste and dissipation. It is no small re- sponsibility that falls on those who have this trust in their keeping to select the fare it shall minister from its shelves, lest it demoralize rather than improve the public tone. We are nowadays especially careful of the water or milk or other food which we distribute. Let us be careful of the intellectual and moral supply which, under the great influence of a public library, so much determines the moral sentiment of the people. It is here that the function of the librarian is especially exact- ing. It cannot, under modern conditions, be avoided that the overwhelming proportion of books will be those of fiction, and to a very large extent of light fiction, most of it evanescent and even harmless trash. You cannot altogether keep it out, but an intelligent and wise librarian can do much in directing the selections of readers, in cultivating good taste, and in leading the young into lines of better historic and biographic instruction and of the finer works of imagination and, to some extent, of poetry. This public library ought also to be an aid in your schools, training the pupils in the use of reference books and to ,40 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY association with the masters of English literature, so as to acquire facility in the use of material in composition and good style in writing. [Applause.] Citizens of Scituate, I congratulate you upon the completion and dedication of this edifice. It is not the least interesting feature in this occasion that in this memorial building we behold a marvel more wondrous than any magical tale or Oriental myth. For not from the school of the student, not from the vista of the poet, not on the campus of a college, but straight out of the hearts and public spirit of two of your patriotic and loyal citizens, venerating their ancestry, and mindful of coming generations, and out of the farmer's well- rewarded toil in this historic old town and along this beautiful shore of the broad ocean, springs this fair flower of the gentlest humanity, this fountain of letters, this charm of architecture. It will be an unfailing spring of living water. It will teach the harmony and mutual interdependence of our common in- terests, and to use the word that Daniel Webster loved, make us all neighbors. It illustrates the truth that wealth can never accumulate to the sole use of any one hand and only finds its fitting appropriation when held in trust and applied to the general welfare. It is a memorial to all the beauty and wisdom of the past, and will raise still higher that aim for the future to which it is at once an index and a spur. Long may its blessings shed their influence on you and yours as the sunshine and showers refresh and fructify the 41 THE ALLEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY responsive soil. Ah, how gratefully you and succeeding gen- erations,^ you or they pass or enter it, will bless the Allen Memorial Library ! [Prolonged applause.] The orchestra having performed Fulton's " Battleship Con- necticut," Mr. Gallagher concluded as follows : The Lord has indeed smiled on us this day ; He has cer- tainly blessed the work in hand ; it is with grateful hearts that we close the exercises by a benediction from an old Scituate resident, for many years the pastor of Mr. and Miss Allen. Rev. NATHANIEL BEAVER. And now may the God of wisdom, of love and of might, shed his richest blessings upon this institution, making it not only a source of intellect with us, but a family joy of the purest wisdom and public spirit. Amen ! After the literary exercises, the ladies of the Allen Library Association served ice cream and cake, thus concluding the dedication by adding refreshment for the body as well as for the mind. 42 ?33 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. JAN 16 199? .UC. SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 743 003 6