1892-93.] NIAGARA LIBRARY. 337 



between such deeds as the glorious death of the Hero of Upper Canada, 

 the rattle of guns and roar of cannons, the flight over frozen plains, 

 watching the smoking ruins of once happy homes, still go on in the 

 same handwriting, the payment of money, the purchase of books, the 

 annual meetings, etc. It may be doubted if in this day of boasted 

 enlightenment we are willing to pay so much for our reading. One 

 thing at least is certain, against the proprietors of this library cannot be 

 made the charge of light reading now brought so justly against the 

 frequenters of modern libraries. Nothing light or trashy can be found 

 on the list. Theology, history, travel, biography, agriculture, a little 

 poetry, and later, a small amount of fiction. We in these days can 

 almost envy the people of that time for the delight they must have 

 experienced when " Guy Mannering " and " Waverly " appeared, for 

 they knew that the Great Magician of the North was still alive and was 

 sending out regularly those delightful stories, while we can never again 

 hope for such pleasure as the first reading of these books evoked. 



In glancing over the list of subscribers we meet with names of many 

 who played no insignificant part — the church, the army, the civil service, 

 the yeomanry, are all represented. We find several names from Fort 

 Niagara, U. S., and also several names of women. Were there nothing 

 in this book but the list of names, this alone would be valuable. It 

 seems strange to think that after all these years we can now take the 

 name of a noted man of those days and follow it up through these 

 pages, tell what style of reading he preferred, when a particular book 

 was taken out, when returned, how he paid his fees, when he attended 

 the meetings of managers, and many other particulars. How little did 

 they think that they were thus providing for us a very interesting page of 

 history now ! 



The first entry is : " Niagara Library, 8th June, 1800. Sensible how 

 much we are at a loss in this new and remote country for every kind of 

 useful knowledge, and convinced that nothing would be of more use to 

 diffuse knowledge amongst us and our offspring than a library, supported 

 by subscription in this town, we whose names are hereunto subscribed 

 hereby associate ourselves together for that purpose, and promise to paj'- 

 annually a sum not exceeding four dollars to be laid out on books as 

 agreed upon by a majority of votes at a yearly meeting to be held by 

 us at this town on the 15th August annually, when everything respect- 

 ing the library will be regulated by the majority of votes. 



Andrew Heron. Wm. Musgrove. G. Drake. 



John Kemp. Silvester Tiffany. Wm. Hodgkinson. 



John Boyd. Burgoyne Kemp. John Jones. 



John Young. John Harrold. Alex. Stuart. 



