the room where the pupils collected to "speak their pieces," and where the Superintendent kept a stick trimmed and a strap oiled were arranged in cases the books of the Ohio School Library. But none of these latter books ever became the property of the public, except as they may have been acquired, gradually, by individuals. So, whether the Pickaway Lyceum may or may not have continued to hold their debates after the burning of the library room is to us of no particular interest, as that event determined the disposal of the books. Now, for almost twenty years, the library spirit in Circleville lay dormant, and one might have thought it entirely dead. But not so; for it revived, when several ladies, among them Mrs. N. E. Jones, Mrs. Amos Beach, Mrs. Samuel Moore, and Mrs. Ray instituted a Magazine Club. They collected quite a number of books, which became a circulating library among the club members. When a movement to create a public library was agitated, the ladies turned these books over to the city. At the time of establishing this club, several other ladies, prominent among whom were Mrs. Van Cleaf, Mrs. Crouse, and Mrs. Hays, were invited to join; but they declined, as they wished to devote their efforts in this line to the establishing of a reading-room that the young men of the town might be benefited. They therefore, in 1869, established a Young Men's Christian Association, with a magazine reading-room and some books. In January, 1871, the ladies, in order to add more books, gave a two days' entertainment, features of which were a dinner, and the voting of a gold-headed cane to the most popular clergyman and a cross of "skeleton leaves" to the most beautiful girl. The sum of five hundred dollars was cleared. By 1872, it became evident that the class of young men which the movement was designed to reach did not care to read, and the Y. M. C. A. was given up, a joint stock company, or subscription library being formed, each member paying an annual fee of two dollars. This subscription library must have proved unsatisfactory, for on January 17, 1873, the City Council met to consider a proposition of the Trustees of the Library Association to donate the library to the city. The proposal was accepted and the Circleville Public Library became an established fact early in February, with W. Marshall Anderson as first President of the Board. In making their choice his colleagues did not know that they were selecting as their leader the father of a future great leader, for at that time General Thomas Anderson was at only the beginning of his fine career which to one acquainted with his father and with the fact that he is descended from the Marshall family of which ChiefJustice John Marshall was a member, is not so surprising a career, after all. The first President of the Library Board was a man of learning and culture and an enthusiastic student of American archæology. For several years a cabinet of Indian curiosities, collected by him, had a place in the Public Library, but upon his death this collection, which was considered, by those versed in antiquities, as an unusually rich one, was removed. Col. Anderson took a deep and active interest in all movements tending to the welfare of the little town built in a circle, and in none of these enterprises was his support more hearty or enthusiastic than in the affairs of the Library. At first, no regular appropriation was made by the city government for the support of their new protege; the City Council merely made an allowance (I believe $250.00), for the purpose of adding to the stock of But books turned over by the stock company and the ladies. as such support for a public educational institution was too uncertain, the Board of Managers in their first annual report to the City Council, recommended that a tax be levied for the support of the Library, it being estimated that the expenses for the next year would be $1,000. Pending this report, Col. Anderson wrote an open letter which goes to prove that it is no new thing for City Councils to consider the public library of small importance compared with other enterprises, for he says, -"the Managers have been crossed by a false economy. * * * We demand a fair, liberal and prompt advancement of the corporation taxes. * * * A crochet has entered the minds of certain members of our Council that they have drawn an elephant and that it will cost too much to feed him. A gravel bank or gutter is the height of their ambition!" We are glad to know that the appropriation was granted, and from that time to this, though the advancement has not been exactly fair and never liberal, it has always been prompt. When the City took charge of the Library, a room was rented in Odd Fellows' Hall and Mr. Ed. Bauder, who had a law office in the same building, undertook to look after it, those wishing a book going to him for the key. But as this plan was calculated to interfere with his business, beside being inconvenient for the patrons of the Library, it was soon given up, and Miss Ella Barks was elected librarian. Her first report (for two months) showed 974 volumes on the shelves, beside 51 volumes of unbound magazines; 935 books were issued for this period. An interesting and perhaps unique feature of the library during the time it was kept up by subscription, as well as for a year or more after it became a public institution, was the series of public readings and entertainments given under the auspices of the Board of Managers. These readings, which were free, were held, every Tuesday evening, at the Library room, and were participated in by nearly all the literary and musical people of the town. A lecture would occasionally be given-and once, even, a comedy was enacted-at Peck's Hall, for which a small admission fee was charged. Almost one of the last of these entertainments advertised was a lecture on his travels in Mexico, to be delivered by W. Marshall Anderson, "the proceeds to be applied to the purchase of an organ for the use of the library room." Unfortunately, for those who might have heard him, Col. Anderson was ill, and the lecture was never given. But I dread to think what might have been the consequence if that organ had been acquired and would now form a part of the library equipment. What would we do with it? Would it be draped in mourning for the glories departed, or in roses for the glories achieved? Or would it serve as a passing amusement to some of our chronic visitors; or be used in times of a "rush," as an instrument to instantaneously reduce the crowd, by being deftly manipulated upon by one or other of our librarians? Since moving into commodious quarters in the new Memorial Hall (for which the Library Board hold a lease for ninety-nine years, beginning with 1892) the romance of the old regime seems forever departed. We have no public readings; no music; and no meetings to talk over, in a friendly way, our social affairs; instead we have settled into the prosaic routine of trying to do, as rapidly as may be, a large amount of work on a very limited income, and in a manner approved by advanced library workers. Perhaps, who knows? when we come into the ten thousand dollars left to us by the scholarly and traveled Dr. Brown we may find more leisure to combine poetry with prose. But Dr. Brown gazes serenely at us, from his frame over the reading room mantle; he has solved the greatest of all problems, before which the everyday problems which beset our Library shrink into nothingness. MAY LOWE, CLEVELAND. ADELLERT COLLEGE LIBRARY. This library is made up of the library of Adelbert College, the libraries of the Philozetian and Phi Delta Societies - the college literary societies which flourished in the old Hudson days and the books deposited in the building by the authorities of the College for Women. The library numbers 40,000 bound volumes and many thousand pamphlets. Since June, 1896, these books have been commodiously housed in the Hatch Library building, the gift of Mr. Henry R. Hatch. Recently, through the continued generosity of Mr. Hatch, the building has been enlarged by the addition of two wings. These wings increase the capacity of the library by 25,000 volumes, give more space for administrative purposes, and add two seminary rooms, devoted to the use of graduate. students. The library is particularly rich in German Literature and Philology, French Literature, Classical Literature and Philology, and the history of the French Revolution. The German literature collection, of which the books belonging to the Scherer Library form by far the larger part, is perhaps the richest of its kind in America. The Scherer Library, consisting of several thousand volumes, relating chiefly to German philology, literature and history, was purchased from the estate of Dr. Wilhelm Scherer, at the time |