rary affords; providing in a most
accessible and useful form the means by which our young people
and those whose daily toil leaves them little leisure for study,
may draw to themselves the results of all past experience; and
rendering both attractive and easy to all classes of our people
opportunities of turning their thoughts from the sterner
features of their daily occupations to the amenities of life as
presented by specimens of artistic and literary merit.

_Resolved_, That while sharing in the delight of our citizens in
view of the valuable gift thus unexpectedly placed at their
service, we congratulate them even more upon the presence among
them of men whom Providence has blessed in three-fold
measure--with hearts abounding in philanthropic instincts, with
material resources ample for the gratification of such impulses,
and with that rarer gift than either, the judgment requisite to
secure for their donations the widest and most permanent range
of influence.

_Resolved_, That we cannot resist the inclination to felicitate
our honored benefactor upon the deep and abiding joy which must
be the most adequate reward for this expression of his good will
toward our city--the joy arising from the knowledge that every
home within our corporate limits will enter into the enjoyment
of his gift and that not a few of our youth will be allured from
scenes of degrading and immoral pleasure by the presence in a
most convenient location of a beautiful edifice within which are
at their disposal the graces of art and the riches of
literature.

_Resolved_, That the distinguished giver by this gift, the most
valuable ever received by this community at one time from a
single citizen, has "erected a monument more enduring than
bronze and loftier than the regal structure of the pyramids" in
the establishment of a lasting sense of gratitude within the
hearts of his appreciative fellow citizens.

ALONZO DAVIS,
JOEL JOEL,
BERNARD H. FLAHERTY,
JOHN PARKHILL,
(_Committee_)
FITCHBURG, April 1, 1884."

Although $40,000 is the lowest limit named, it should be said that the
cost of the noble pile will far exceed that sum. It was a generous and
princely act for which he will be held in lasting and greatful memory.
He will leave behind him a monument which will forever identify his name