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THE

A VILLAGE LIBRARY.

We undertook to begin on our own resources; and we soon found that so far as the necessary public spirit was concerned nothing was wanting. Public opinion was too modest altogether in denying its existence. The conver

HE writer of this article has recently had the pleasure of assisting in the formation of a little Village Library, in a country town where he is accustomed to spend his summersations which thus far had taken place served vacations; and some account of the method pursued may be interesting, and perhaps useful, to many circles of readers in rural districts, who would be glad to possess such a library if they knew how to commence its formation.

In our case very narrow resources proved sufficient to lay a good foundation, and make a prosperous beginning.

to develop the fact that there were half a dozen young men strongly interested in the scheme, and willing to take hold and work it out, if possible.

We met together, and considered the ways and means. One proposed a fair to raise money; another that we should lay the subject before all the pastors of the village, and secure a sermon and a contribution in its behalf in each church; another suggested a course of lectures, and a fourth the appointment of a committee to visit from house to house and solicit donations. Lastly, it was proposed to hold a public meeting, have some speeches, and get an enthusiasm to begin with.

We discussed these plans and some others; but after comparing our views fully, we settled upon a plan of procedure of which the following are the principal points, and our experience commends them to the attention of those inter

The village of F is the central village of a town of over three thousand inhabitants-the shire town of an agricultural county. It has long contained good schools, both public and private; and many families of refinement and culture, residing in the village, possessed books which they were willing to lend among their friends. There was no book-store in the place; but two merchants, each dealing chiefly in other articles, kept a few shelves of school-books, and among these were a few of those faded, clothbound volumes, profusely decorated with cheap gilding, which are insanely supposed to be pop-ested in any similar effort: ular books, because they are cheap. These defunct butterflies of literature stood untouched in their place, a melancholy monument of the unknown past in which they had been new, and, I suppose, will continue to be handed down to future generations, through all changes of proprietorship in the store, unsought and unsold. These, with the monthly magazines, the weekly story papers, and illustrated sheets, and a few cheap novels, constituted the regular resources of the place. Such new books as reached the homes in the village | We would of course accept gladly such benevcame when specially ordered by mail, or when some professional gentleman returned from his occasional visit to one of the great cities.

1. The Library should not begin life as a beggar. Nobody should be told that it was their duty to do something for such a good cause. We were in a thrifty Yankee community, and we would not make our appearance before them as a needy mendicant come to haunt the doors of the charitable.

2. On the contrary, instead of being established as a benevolent effort, living by appeals to every body's generosity, it should be (except as between ourselves) purely a business enterprise.

olent gifts as the object might naturally elicit ; but for our success with the public we would rely on the existence of a demand for good reading matter, and the ability of a shelf of books such as we proposed collecting, to begin to supEv-ply that demand. The support on which we would rely should be that of those who thought it for their advantage to subscribe or take stock. If friends should voluntarily aid us by gifts, the more thanks to them, and the greater the good fortune of the cause.

When the plan of forming a public library was mooted, one difficulty appeared insurmountable: the money could not be got. ery body said, confidentially of course, that there was not public spirit enough in the place to do such a thing; and added a wish that we had some rich man like Mr. Bates or Mr. Peabody. We all approved the project, and straightway fell to calling over the names of the sons of F- who had gone forth to seek their fortunes in the world, and wondered if there were not some one who could come home on a summer visit and lay the foundation some fine day, and begin, carry on, and finish the thing, all out of his own full pocket.

Never, probably, did there exist any where more cordial wishes for the prosperity of absent and half-forgotten friends than was latently cherished at that time among those who entertained the hope of seeing a library founded.

But the benefactor of his race did not appear to grace his native town with a monument so enviable, and we were not inclined to wait for him.

3. For this reason the first books to be procured should be selected from among the newest, freshest issues of the press of the day; live books in the prime of life, and in the vigor of a successful run. It would of course be desirable to avoid whatever we could suspect might prove of ephemeral interest; and it would be very necessary to confine our purchases to books of a moderate price, for it would never do to take the money of fifty readers and present to them forty-nine volumes. In such a case, the better the books the louder would be the complaints. But at the outset we would also avoid those "standard authors," those " great classics" which are said to be " necessary in every gentleman's library," and which are usually found

there, in a high state of preservation, but which | of mechanical plates that young George Stephenthe fortunate possessor never takes down to read.

4. As a corollary to this principle, we resolved that all donations of books be upon the express condition that the trustees should be at liberty, whenever they should think best, to sell them or exchange them for others..

It is hardly necessary to say that we did not adopt this regulation out of any disrespect to Old Books. Age is never more venerable than when it is embodied in the form of antiquated and half-forgotten books. But such memorials of the past, repositories of the thoughts which the world has outgrown, are to be preserved for the attention and reverence of the faithful; they are out of their place, and lose their function, when they are mixed too indiscriminately with the books of to-day, in an effort to attract and stimulate the attention of the busy world, the shop, the farm, and the factory.

We considered that the usefulness of such a library as that which we wished to form must depend largely on its power to create a demand for entertaining and instructive literature, its power to make those read who never read before, and those who always read to read the more!" Such a library should employ provocatives and allurements to rouse the mental appetite.

son took out from a village library, and from which, with his father's help, he obtained a good part of his education as an engineer, may have done more service in that one lending than hundreds of popular books lent again and again by the same library. But the demand, is the means of usefulness. A book for which there is little demand may be of great service-like the poor wise man who by his wisdom delivered the city-but books for which there is and will be no demand are of no service, and can be nothing but an encumbrance.

It ought to be said that we made one exception to this policy of excluding books that were not particularly attractive—an exception, however, that was more apparent than real.

There had been for many years in F——— a case full of well-selected histories, essayists, and poets, the collection of a half-extinct literary society, who had not made it accessible to that general public. As this little library had at one time been the subject of a controversy not yet entirely forgotten, it was rightly accounted a very felicitous omen when all parties concerned in it generously united in ceding its remains, consisting of about one hundred and twenty volumes, to the new organization that we proposed to form. The ground being thus cleared, we resolved to commence the purchase of books to form a public village library as soon as one hundred dollars was secured.

In respect to the form of organization, thinking the simplest plan to be the best, we merely drew up a statement in a fivepenny pass-book, headed with the words "F- Library Asso

Generally, when a library is started, every body ransacks the literary treasures of his garret, which ought long before to have been divided between the Historical Society and the College Library; and the committee accept every thing that has leaves and covers; for, as they wisely observe, "each will count one in the cat-ciation," and setting forth that any person payalogue." Thus the infant library is suffocated ing $10 would become a shareholder, entitledwith donations, principally reducible to two to one vote, and to take out one volume at a classes-books which every body has read, and time, subject to such rules as might be adopted those which nobody will read. for the government of the library; that any person paying by the quarter, half year, or year, at the rate of $1, might take out one volume at a time subject to the same rules; that subscriptions for shares should be binding as soon as ten shares were taken; and that the first five subscribers were requested by the rest to act as a committee of management for a year, at the expiration of which the first annual meeting should be held, and a permanent or

If a little library, whose function is to awaken intellectual life and to make readers, finds its attractive volumes half buried under these dead leaves of the past seasons of literature, the committee might not do amiss by clearing the ground so as to bring their live books to the light. The useless volumes might well be put in a set of shelves separate from those which people look through for something to read, and be labeled "Dead Books," a sort of bibliographic ceme-ganization effected. tery.

In the great public Library of the City of Birmingham, one of the best-managed in England, every book in the department of circulation has a colored sheet, faced with blottingpaper, pasted in at a fly-leaf, and the librarian on giving out the book writes in an appropriate column on this sheet the reader's number, and the date within which the book must be returned. This method, besides being a useful preventive of delay in the return of books, has this great advantage, that every book is made to carry the record of its own usefulness. It is true that the demand for a book is not an accurate measure of its utility. The volumes

This brief paper having been written, we signed it ourselves, by this little coup d'état constituting ourselves provisional directors; and then went out on the street to see who wanted to take stock.

The little pass-book was welcomed wherever it was shown, and the required amount was made up without delay. Probably few societies have spent so little time in "constitutional questions."

With the first thirty dollars that was paid in we sent to Boston for a dozen of the most substantial and most attractive volumes of the season; voyages and travels, popular illustrated books on science, a new novel by a well-known

and favorite author, a new book on gardening, or house-building. Some donations also began to come in; but as they were unsolicited they were good, some of them excellent for our pur

pose.

Happily for the library the editor of the village paper was a member of the committee and took a strong interest in the enterprise, and gave us the benefit of his columns.

When the new books came we did not put them all in at once, but husbanded our resources so as to spin out the sensation as long as possible. We placed three or four of the new works with as many more of the best of the new donations upon a shelf together, and inserted in the column of local items in the week's paper a brief mention of the new enterprise, and a list of the books added.

These books we did not mix with the standard volumes, which remained in their original shelves.

Most readers come into the village library wanting something, but not knowing what, a little fastidious, and a little capricious withal; not having a very strong appetite for letters, and half inclined not to take a book at all, but to take a walk instead, or go a-fishing. If one goes into a book-store in such a state of mind he needs to see for himself. If the store-keeper insists on knowing "what you wish for" your purpose is gone. We don't know what we want. Indeed, if we knew already what was written and printed, what need should we have to be looking into books. It is just because we do not know what we want that we have come to find a book about it. We want to see what there is. When we have seen the inside of that row of new books we shall know what we want well enough.

classical English literature, essayists and poets, a selection of standard periodicals, voyages and travels, popular history and novels, and is moderately well supplied with judiciously-chosen current publications of light literature.

His answer was, in substance, as follows: "The books most read are the bound volumes of Harper's Magazine. We have worn out one set and are on our second. Littell's Living Age and the AtlanDickens's novels, books of voyages and travels, such tic Monthly are also very useful. Next to Harper come as Kane's, Bayard Taylor's, and Livingstone's. Next Henry Ward Beecher's books, Miss Mulock's novels, Mrs. Stowe's, and such books as the "Autocrat of the Holmes, G. W. Curtis's writings, Gail Hamilton, and Breakfast - Table" and "The Professor," by O. W. Timothy Titcomb. We have Scott's novels, but they are much less read than Dickens is. Tennyson, Longfellow, and Mrs. Browning, are often asked for, but, on the whole, poetry is not read much."

We determined to select our first considerable purchase from among the books on this list; and our experience has proved not unlike that of our informant, although we have found that Hawthorne, Irving, and Prescott, and others of the same rank, are in good request, and that popular illustrated histories have an active circulation.

We commenced our "grand outlays" with à set of Harper's Magazine; and even after we had accumulated several hundred volumes of the most attractive authors our librarian still complained that it was not unusual for twentyfive of the thirty volumes of the Magazine to be out at the same time; so that, to supply the demand and allow exchanges of successive volumes, we needed two sets. This was not strange, since these volumes contain half of the works of Dickens, Thackeray, Reade, and others, to say nothing of the original papers. we suspected that the pictures in the Magazine were a part of the secret of its attractions, which had thus seemed superior, in the eyes of our readers, to the allurements of simple letter

But

In such a case one is more tempted by half a dozen fresh books set alone by themselves than he would be by a score of the same slipped in here and there, one by one, between Eight-press. cen-fifty's Occasional Poems, Eighteen-forty's On this account we sought for a class of ilHasty Impressions of Travel in Europe, and Eighteen-thirty's Ancient History.

We put our new books forward by themselves, and let those persons look also through the other shelves who choose to do so. The next week made another addition, and a new list appeared in the week's paper. Each week brought one or more new subscribers for stock or for temporary rights, and the money came in faster than it seemed best to expend it on books newly published, considering that so many which promise fairly prove of very evanescent interest.

In pursuance of our general policy of ascertaining the public want and endeavoring to supply it, we sent for information to the librarian of a social library of about three thousand volumes which had long existed in a larger town not far from us. We asked him to inform us what were the books in his collection that were most read. The library of which he has charge contains a very fair representation of the best

66

lustrated works of a popular yet substantial character, which proved to be very attractive. As instances of this class may be mentioned 'Knight's Pictorial Galleries of Art," "Lindley's Botany, with Colored Plates," "An Illustrated Book on the Horse," "Homes without Hands," "The Boy's Play-Book of Metals,” "An Illustrated Bible Dictionary," etc., etc. We thought it to be an advantage pertaining to such books as these that they would rarely, if ever, find their way into the village in the hands of private purchasers. The last new novel in paper covers is within the means of almost any reader who wishes it. We thought it better to take it for granted that, for the most part, the regular readers of the village would continue to supply themselves with what was already thus within their reach; and while we purchased a few of the most important of such books, we preferred to use a considerable part of our resources to bring into the town what was otherwise likely to be unknown there, al

though equally attractive, and perhaps more service will soon require renewals, and that the substantial.

As to

ordinary resources afforded by subscriptions will
not be adequate to build as largely as we would
like to upon the foundation thus laid.
the wear of the books there is this consolation,
that they have been without exception careful-
ly used, and that so long as this is the case the
rapidity with which they wear out is the meas-
ure of the extent of their service. It shows
how fast the library turns over its intellectual
capital. As to the need of more resources,
successful efforts have already been made by
the young people of the village to raise funds
for additions; and there is no reason to fear
that such an institution will die for want of sup-
port so long as it continues to be useful to the
community in which it is placed.

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We found that the means were not wanting to enable us to carry forward this work with a reasonable degree of rapidity, but we were constrained to exercise the utmost economy to make our money go as far as possible. In the course of the year forty or fifty shares were taken and paid for, and sixty or seventy annual subscriptions were taken. We received also a considerable number of donations; though it should be confessed that while we did not beg, we gave our friends a very good opportunity to offer when they were disposed to do so. But in truth, for the most part, the cause made its own appeal. A gentleman who visited the town in the course of the summer surprised us after his return home by sending a check for $100, in Besides, that son of the village who went token of his good wishes; and other contribu- forth to seek his fortune in the world may yet tions in money and in books were made, equal-return, rich and liberal, and seeking something ly unsolicited. good to do. Who knows?

At the end of the year we had over five hundred picked volumes on our shelves; and on the Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, when the library was opened, people came into town from their farms five or ten miles distant, as well as from neighboring villages, to take out books. The local paper had the pleasure of reporting a diminution of evening "loaferism" in the village street, resulting from the entertaining reading which was accessible to the young men. In a neighboring village the young people formed a reading club, and jointly subscribed to the library, taking out books to read aloud at their meetings on winter evenings. Our little circle of about one hundred and twenty-five readers kept over one hundred volumes in constant circulation.

It was a remark of Thoreau, who, much as he contemned civilization, knew how to appreciate its best gifts, that every American village might have its park, its picture-gallery, and its library, the offspring of the commonwealth, as well as might the petty baron of a monarchical or feudal realm, who engrossed in himself the luxuries of his little community.

Why should not our villages, by united voluntary efforts, bring within their own reach some of those treasures of literature at least, if not also of art and science, which are practically beyond the possession of individuals?

If this brief statement of the methods which have proved successful in one instance in commencing to supply a part of this want should be of interest in any circles similarly situated,

It is easy to see that a library in such active the object of the writer will be accomplished.

THE WOMAN'S KINGDOM:

A LOVE STORY.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN."

CHAPTER XII.

THE postman was by no means a daily

HE postman was by no means a daily visitIt is a fact-amusing or melancholy, according as one takes it-that society in the aggregate does not very much run after resident governesses or poor schoolmistresses; that they are not likely to be inundated with correspondence or haunted with invitations. Of course, under no circumstances, are young, good, and lady-like women quite without friends or acquaintances; such loneliness would argue a degree of unlovingness, or unlovableness, of which certainly no one could accuse the Misses Kenderdine. But this is a busy and a self-engrossed world; it has quite enough to do with its own affairs; and it likes to get the full value for all it bestows. The sisters, who had so little to give it, VOL. XXXVI.-No. 216.-3 F

had not been troubled with any overplus of its affection. Still there were, in different parts of the country, a few households who liked and remembered the Kenderdines; and even at Kensington there were some houses where they occasionally visited, or went to one of those evening parties which in London middle-class society take the place of the countrified, oldfashioned "going out to tea."

They were expecting one of these invitations; so the postman's red coat gleaming against the green hedge of Love Lane attracted Letty's attention, and his knock roused her to jump up and take in the letter. Edna allowed her to go. She herself had not felt well all the day; the morning school had been an unusual burden to her, and now it was over she took refuge in her favorite American rocking-chair-a present from an old pupil-and rocked and rocked, as

quiet and almost as silent as if she were made of marble, for a quarter of an hour. Then Letty rose.

"Now I'll go into the kitchen, for I want to iron out my muslin dress. In the mean time you can read in peace your wonderful letter. You'll tell me about it afterward, Edna, dear." Touched by her sister's gentleness Edna returned a smiling "Thank you," and tried to look as usual while the dinner was being cleared

if in that soothing motion the uneasy feeling in mind and body-half-weariness half- restlessness-would pass away. Though she knew all the while it would not; that there it was, and she must bear it, as many another woman had borne it before her-the dull heart-ache, the hopeless want. These sorrows do come, and they conquer even the bravest sometimes. May He who ordained love to be the crown of life have pity on all those to whom it comes only as a crown of thorns, or who have to en-away. But her head was whirling and her dure the blankness of its absence-the agony of its loss! Both can be endured, and comfort will come at length, but the torture is terrible while it lasts. Edna endured it but in a small measure, and for a short time; yet the pang was sharp enough to make her, till the end of her days, feel unutterable pity and tenderness over those whom the world smiles over as "disappointed in love:" those from whose lives God has seen fit to omit life's first and best blessing; or else, though this is a lesser grief, to give it and take it away.

She was sitting listlessly rocking, not thinking much about any thing, when Letty re-entered with the letter.

"It is for you, dear. What a funny hand! -a lawyer's hand, I should say. Who can be writing to you, Edna?"

"I don't know," said Edna, indifferently, and then, catching a glimpse of the letter, checked herself, with a startled consciousness that she did know, or at any rate guess; that locked up in her desk in a hidden corner she had a small fragment of the very same handwriting

a

most unimportant fragment-memoranda about trains, etc., for their railway journeybut still there it was, kept like a treasure, secreted like a sin.

"Miss Edna Kenderdine," read Letty, detaining the letter and examining it. "Then it must be from a stranger. A friend would know, of course, that you were Miss Kenderdine. Shall I open it for you, dear?"

"No," said Edna, and an unaccountable impulse made her snatch it, and turn away with it; turn away from her sister, her dear sister, from whom she had not a secret in the world. At the first sentence she started, glanced at the signature, and then put the letter in her pocket, flushing scarlet.

Letty looked amazed.

pulse beating fast-so fast that when she at last took the letter out and opened it the lines swam before her eyes. She had only strength enough to creep noiselessly up to her room at the top of the house, shut herself in, and lock the door.

There let her be. We will not look at her, nor inquire into what she felt or did. Women at least can understand.

Letty's muslin dress had, happily, a good many frills and flounces, and took a long time in ironing. Not that Letty grumbled at that: she had great pleasure in her clothes, and was the last person to treat them lightly or disrespectfully, or to complain of any trouble they cost her. This dress especially always engross ed so much of her attention and affection, that it is doubtful whether she once let her mind stray from it to such commonplace facts as business letters. And when it was done, she was good-natured enough to recollect that while she had the things about she might as well iron Edna's dress. She went up stairs to fetch it, when, to her surprise, she found the door locked.

"I will come presently," answered a very low voice from within.

"But your dress, Edna. I want to iron out your new muslin dress."

"Thank you, dear. Never mind. I will be down presently."

"It was a love-letter, then!" pondered Letty to herself as she descended. "I am sure it was. But who in the wide world can have fallen in love with Edna? Poor Edna!"

"Poor Edna!" Rich Edna! rich in the utmost wealth that Heaven can give to mortal woman! Oh, when there is so much sadness in this world-so much despised love-unrequited love-unworthy love-surely the one bliss of "What is the mat- love deserved and love returned ought to outter with you? Is it a love-letter? Do say!" weigh all else, and stand firm and sure what"It begins like a business letter, and the ever outside cares may lay siege to it. They writer wishes me to read it in private and can not touch the citadel where the two hearts alone," said Edna, forcing her white lips-she-the one double heart-has intrenched itself, felt, with a terrified consciousness, how very safe and at rest-forever. white she must be turning now-to utter the exact, formal truth.

"Oh, very well,” replied Letty, a little vexed, but too sweet-tempered to retain vexation long.

She sat down composedly and finished her dinner-lingering a good while over the pudding-Letty liked puddings and all good things; while Edna sat, with the letter in her pocket, as

Edna's "love"-hopelessly and dearly beloved-had become her lover. He wished to make her his wife. Her solitary days were done: she stood on the threshold of a new life in a new world. Never, until through the gate of death she should enter on the world everlasting, would there come to her such another hour as that first hour after she read William Stedman's letter.

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