122 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



The Traveling Library Idea 



The story of the traveling library is a 

 fascinating one. A few sporadic attempts 

 at establishing such libraries were made in 

 Maryland, in Scotland, and in Australia dur- 

 ing the early part of the last century, but, 

 with the exception of the work in Australia, 

 the development of the traveling library is 

 only a decade old. The movement in the 

 United States dates from 1892. "Undoubt- 

 edly no such great educational, and, we 

 might say, social protective measure," de- 

 clares Jessie M. Good (in an article on "The 

 Traveling Library as a Civilizing Force" in 

 TJw Chmitauquan, for October), was ever un- 

 dertaken with such small means. "Only the 

 cheerful, volunteer service of hundreds of men 

 and women made it possible. Nothing more 

 purely altruistic exists in our social economy 

 than this determined effort of cultured men 

 and women to lighten the loneliness and 

 isolation of the families and individuals, 

 who, through election or necessity, must 

 pass their lives far away from all that to us 

 makes life worth the living." Miss Good 

 outlines the history of the traveling library 

 movement, and presents a few suggestive 

 figures. Among the examples of private in- 

 itiative and generosity in this phase of 

 social betterment, one of the most interest- 

 ing is the work and accomplishments of 

 Hon. J. H. Stout, in starting the movement 

 in Wisconsin. Mr. Stout sent out the first 

 traveling libraries in the state in 1896, from 

 his own town of Menominee. He first ven- 

 tured with 500 books, which were sub- 

 divided into lots of thirty each, ten of them 

 juvenile, packed in the convenient traveling 

 cases. Every crevice was filled with the 

 magazines from interested friends. He no- 

 tified the residents of the county that books 

 would be sent to those first applying and 

 complying with the following conditions, 

 viz: to designate a proper place for the 

 books to be kept, to appoint one of their 

 number as librarian, to permit the freest 

 access to them, and to pay one dollar for 

 each case sent. This fee, which was really 

 exacted from a desire to make the people 

 feel a personal interest and responsibility, 

 covered transportation charges, repairing, 

 and the cost of new books. The new and 

 choice books were so popular that Mr. Stout 

 soon had thirty-seven libraries in the county, 

 in stores, postoflices, and homes. "Girls 

 have been known to ride forty miles alone 

 to exchange a book or get a magazine. Much 

 gratitude is manifested and pride shown in 

 these libraries, while the moral betterment 

 in many settlements and lumber camps was 



very noticeable." Each year Mr. Stout 

 brings all the volunteer librarians to Me- 

 nominee, where they are entertained as his 

 guests. The prominent librarians of the 

 state are there to talk on the best methods 

 of reaching the people. The year's work is 

 discussed, and failures explained. 



Home traveling libraries constitute an 

 interesting phase of Chicago's new philan- 

 thropic work. The Bureau of Associated 

 Charities is conducting this work very suc- 

 cessfully. The method is very simple. A 

 library case with twenty books, appropriate 

 for young people, is placed in the living 

 room of a needy family. Neighbors' children 

 draw the books and take them home. Once 

 a week the readers gather with a volunteer 

 visitor around the library case to talk over 

 what they have read, relate the stories, 

 analyze their teachings, draw illustrative 

 pictures, and play games. The librarian is 

 a boy or girl of the family in whose home 

 the little book case is placed. Games are 

 provided in some cases. Lotto, dominos and 

 parchesi, loaned like books, make house- 

 holds interesting and sometimes keep father 

 and children at home together. A loan col- 

 lection of pictures also is associated with 

 some of them. 



The work, says the report of the bureau, 

 is fascinating. "One sees neglected children 

 growing, week by week, in good manners, 

 higher ideals, cleanliness, self-respect, knowl- 

 edge and spirit." 



Just one withered petal dooms the flower. 

 Who would accept it, as a living flower, with 

 that single dead petal? The florist tosses 

 it out into the waste heap — nobody wants it. 

 It is considered by all a dead flower. What 

 if God should treat us likewise, for a single 

 fault, for a single withered petal of sin? Yet 

 how the withered petal must grieve him 

 whose eye is so sensitive to the beauty of 

 perfection, the beauty of holiness! 



The Coal Strike and the Life Beautiful 



While politics and industry are quite 

 without the field of this magazine, the life 

 beautiful is dependent on political and in- 

 dustrial conditions to so great an extent 

 that, in a consideration of "a more beautiful 

 American life," Home and Flowers has a 

 viewpoint from which it is perfectly legiti- 

 mate to discuss many social and industrial 

 crises, such as the great coal strike, which 

 is even now scarcely settled. 



On another page of this issue Mr. Ernest 

 H. Crosby declares that, "after all, the fun- 

 damental and spiritually architectural 

 beauty of justice — equality and balance — in 

 our social relations must precede any per- 



