PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. xxix 



recent years, and especially during the term of your office, President Dixon, 

 is well known to all. A splendid future is in store for us of service to the City, 

 the State and to the whole country, in collaboration with the many other edu- 

 cational institutions of a similar character of which we boast. 



We should not duplicate too much, but try to have every institution attend 

 to its own province and functions. Every institution of learning ought to have 

 an individuality of its own, and I believe that the Academy has an individuality 

 that is not part and parcel of any other institution of our city. 



Philadelphia is going to build a new Free Library. This Library will be 

 located on the Parkway. (Whenever I hear the Parkway mentioned, I feel like 

 crawling into a hole and pulling the hole in after me.) There are many people 

 in Philadelphia who think that the Parkway is the most important project 

 before the public to-day. I am not of this opinion. We all favor the Parkway; 

 we all want to beautify Philadelphia, make her something like Paris, at one 

 time the most beautiful city of the world. As we know, Paris has the Champs 

 Elysees. There is nothing quite equal to this Paris "parkway," as we would 

 call it in our vernacular. We shall give Philadelphia a Champs Elysees, only 

 let us be reasonable as to time. We have no Baron Haussman nor Emperor 

 Napoleon, who simply demolished and built up as they pleased, because they 

 were accountable to no one for their acts. If we had commenced operations 

 forty years ago, Philadelphia to-day would probably be as beautiful as Paris, 

 but we were utilitarians then and had little thought for the beautiful. Now we 

 have awakened, and it is not yet too late. 



We are going to finish the Parkway, and on this Parkway, almost opposite 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences, we shall build a new Free Library. We 

 mean to make this library one of the institutions of the country. I ask of you 

 here present, as I request the gentlemen at the head of the Free Library, not to 

 enter the domain of the other; that is, not to duplicate or to waste force in the 

 same direction. Let each be original in its own way. What is the use of a 

 library with books of reference that will be rarely used and then have these 

 books duplicated across the street? You have a library with many rare sci- 

 entific books that are useful to you in your own researches. There is no sense in 

 having in a library across the street the same books. Let us cooperate. With 

 cooperation we can have everything in Philadelphia that will tend towards the 

 benefit and welfare of the whole community. 



We are all proud of Philadelphia, even those who live at a distance, even 

 those from Boston, the "Hub of the Universe." Philadelphia is one of the great 

 and leading cities of the world. We have many institutions that are not to be 

 found elsewhere. Take Girard College, with its vast grounds and fine buildings. 

 Stephen Girard, a Frenchman, gave us Girard College; his name is honored and 

 will be revered for all time. Fifteen hundred is the average number of orphan 

 boys who are there educated year in and j^ear out, free of charge. They are 

 housed, fed, clothed, and educated, and many of the graduates of that college 



