lic
schools, and, indeed, an adjunct to these. It is, no doubt, possible
that my own personal experience may have led me to value a free library
beyond all other forms of beneficence. When I was a boy in Pittsburg,
Colonel Anderson, of Allegheny,--a name I can never speak without
feelings of devotional gratitude,--opened his little library of four
hundred books to boys. Every Saturday afternoon he was in attendance
himself at his house to exchange books. No one but he who has felt it
can know the intense longing with which the arrival of Saturday was
awaited, that a new book might be had. My brother and Mr. Phipps, who
have been my principal business partners through life, shared with me
Colonel Anderson's precious generosity, and it was when revelling in
these treasures that I resolved, if ever wealth came to me, that it
should be used to establish free libraries, that other poor boys might
receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to
that noble man.

Great Britain has been foremost in appreciating the value of free
libraries for its people. Parliament passed an act permitting towns and
cities to establish and maintain these as municipal institutions, and
whenever the people of any town or city voted to accept the provisions
of the act, the authorities were authorized to tax the community to the
extent of one penny in the pound valuation. Most of the towns already
have free libraries under this act. Many of these are the gifts of rich
men, whose funds have been used for the building, and in some cases for
the books also, the communities being required to maintain and to
develop the libraries; and to this feature I attribute most of their
usefulness. An endowed institution is liable to become the prey of a
clique. The public ceases to take interest, in it, or, rather, never
acquires interest in it. The rule has been violated which requires the
recipients to help themselves. Everything has been done for the
community instead of its being only helped to help itself.

Many free libraries have been established in our country, but none that
I know of with such wisdom as the Pratt Library, of Baltimore. Mr. Pratt
presented to the city of Baltimore one million dollars, requiring it to
pay 5 per cent. per annum, amounting to fifty thousand dollars per year,
which is to be devoted to the maintenance and development of the library
and its branches. During the last year 430,217 books were distributed;
37,