scope and prospective operations.
Such an account would worthily occupy a separate volume; for the
institution, in the hands of its wise directors, was a pioneer and model
in many respects in which later enterprises, with larger means, have,
perhaps, surpassed it. I must content myself here with brief mention of
a few particulars.

The immense free reading-room, with its average daily attendance of
nearly 1500 to 2000 persons, was Mr. Cooper's special delight; and well
it might be so; for the sight is one almost without a parallel--not in
the architecture, size, or furnishing of the place, but in the extent
and constancy of its use by the public. Entrance is free to all who are
not unclean, intoxicated, or disorderly. In the main, the privileges
thus given are not abused, but occasionally the evils almost inseparable
from so large an attendance have been felt. At one time, the curator
earnestly represented to the trustees the necessity of doing something
to check the mutilation of books--a practice which public librarians
know well as one of their most troublesome foes. It appeared that some
unknown persons, who combined a love of the beautiful in language with a
barbaric ignorance of it in conduct, were accustomed to slash out with
their penknives favorite passages of poetry for preservation, treating
in this matter newspapers and books alike. It was found difficult to
keep whole the volumes of Tennyson and Longfellow. But a more frequent
and injurious practice was the cutting out of plates from illustrated
books. This was not for love of art, as the other for love of poetry.
The object was to sell such engravings for two or three cents each to
the print-shops in the city, where they were bought by refined amateurs,
for the purpose of "illustrating" special volumes. This fashionable
hobby has been the indirect cause of the ruin of many a choice book; and
buyers of fine old editions are well aware that they must look well to
their bargains, lest they find that the thief, at the bidding of the
"collector," has plundered the volumes of the plates which once adorned
them.

When this subject came up for discussion in the board of trustees, Mr.
Cooper was so full of pity for the poor fellows, who were obliged to
sell stolen engravings at two cents a piece to keep body and soul
together, that he could scarcely be brought to take a severe view of the
offense. Nor was he willing (and in this his fellow-trustees agreed with
h