28o CHARLES AMMI CUTLER 



felt that this new creation had in it the potency of all libraries; 

 that it might do the work of all that had preceded it and its 

 own peculiar work besides. In other places some parts of a 

 library's function may have been better developed, but no- 

 where yet has the happy combination of private and public 

 liberality made it possible to at once so thoroughly suffice for 

 learned research even of the specialist, gratify cultivated curi- 

 osity, please the bibliomaniac and the dilettante, foster idle 

 meditation, or stimulate vigorous thinking, while yet not neg- 

 lecting to meet every want of the general reader, even the want 

 of amusement and illusion, and, more than this, to attract to 

 itself and to train adults who have never been in the habit of 

 reading at all and children who have not yet learned to read 

 with profit. If in any way the library falls short, it has been 

 in this latter work, which western libraries have taken up 

 enthusiastically and pursued most successfully. 



Another class of free institutions had its origin a little 

 after the town libraries. In 1835 a law of New York per- 

 mitted each school district to tax itself $20 to found and $10 a 

 year to maintain a free public library. But as the people 

 would not tax themselves, the friends of the measure persuaded 

 the legislature in 1838 to appropriate $55,000 a year to pur- 

 chase the books. Fifteen years later the libraries had over 

 1,600,000 volumes, but they were very little used, except in 

 the cities, and the system was an entire failure. Eleven years 

 later, after half a million more had been spent, there were half 

 a million volumes less. A school district is perhaps too small 

 a territory for a successful library, but the real cause of failure 

 was that among a people who are not eager for it, reading will 

 not take root except by wise management, and the charge of 

 these libraries was in the hands of men who were not interested 

 in them. A library always suffers when ruled by a school 

 board — persons who, if not chosen for political reasons, are 

 selected for their ability to administer an institution which has 

 this only in common with libraries, that it is educational, but 

 otherwise differs entirely in aims, personnel, material, and 

 methods. In this case there was not even the safeguard of a 

 librarian to look after the library's interests. The school 

 trustees were often incompetent to select the books, and ac- 



