Library in Relation 
 to the School . 
 
 Alfred Bay /is s 
 
The Library in Relation 
 to the School 
 
 An Address Delivered at the Northern Illinois 
 Teachers’ Association, Dixon, 
 
 April 28, 1899 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED BAYLISS 
 
 Public-School Publishing Company 
 Bloomington, Illinois 
 1901 
 

 
 THE SCHOOL LIBRARY. 
 
 Of the twenty-five to thirty thousand 
 teachers in Illinois, probably 24,750 to 
 29,700, or ninety-nine in every hundred, 
 either spend some portion of every school 
 day in teaching children to read, or in 
 wishing that some predecessor had suc- 
 ceeded in doing so. Possibly, at this 
 very moment, some ten thousand are en- 
 gaged in teaching young children to rec- 
 ognize and pronounce words. Some are 
 doing it by the modern, so-called “word 
 method ;” a few are still teaching, as their 
 grandsires taught, — by the mediaeval 
 a-b-c method. Still others are devout 
 believers in the infallibility of the sound- 
 ing and singing synthetic “system.” 
 Many are not married to any device, and 
 if they were, would not think of dubbing 
 it either a “method” or a “system.” They 
 only know that somehow, — by the shortest 
 rational method, if possible, it is the chief 
 part of their duty to see that the children 
 master the mechanics of reading. This 
 is foundation work, and is as difficult as 
 it is important. 
 
 3 
 
All beginnings are difficult; but we. 
 who have long since been released from 
 the task, are in danger of forgetting; and 
 you, who have never tried it, do not know, 
 just how difficult, both to teacher and 
 child, this particular beginning is. The 
 really skillful teacher is often able to so 
 combine phonic, word, and sentence de- 
 vices as to quit*> baffle the unskilled ob- 
 server who would label her method. (The 
 perfection of art is to conceal art.) But 
 if, by levying tribute — ad valorem — of all 
 the devices, she has taught the children 
 to get the thought expressed by the writ- 
 ten and printed forms of his vocabulary, 
 and trained him to reproduce them dis- 
 tinctly, and “give the sense, ” she has 
 performed a service that makes the child 
 and all his future teachers her debtors; 
 for she has given the one the key to all 
 that the mightiest of earth have 
 thought worth preserving, and has left 
 nothing for the others to do but to guide 
 him to and through the store-houses. 
 
 Perhaps. For this cannot be said 
 without reservation. It is a case of the 
 dualism, which, as Emerson points out, 
 bisects the entire nature and condition of 
 man. It is like day and night, or light 
 
 4 
 
and darkness. Every good has its evil. 
 “Every faculty which is a receiver of 
 pleasure has an equal penalty put upon 
 its abuse. It is to answer for its modera- 
 tion with this life” So, after all, we dare 
 not say that one who has taught another 
 to read has thereby done him a great 
 good. It does not necessarily follow. The 
 speechless guest who went in with- 
 out a wedding garment was bound hand 
 and foot and cast into outer darkness. It 
 is true, that who is master of this art 
 (reading) has access to the universal 
 mind of man. He may share the thoughts 
 of the philosophers and the emotions of 
 the saints of all ages. The record of the 
 past is his. So is the fresh, damp journal 
 of the “Days Doings.” He may read 
 Shakespeare or Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. He 
 may saturate himself with the “Vision 
 of Sir Launfal,” and the “Commemora- 
 tion Ode,” or he may turn to that which 
 leads to mental and moral degradation, 
 impossible before. Reading may build 
 “more stately mansions for the soul,” or 
 it may shrivel and disfigure it; train it 
 to revere the right, or tangle and 
 strangle it in the mazes of unrestrained 
 desire. 
 
 5 
 
The school library as a factor in the 
 formation of right character is in special 
 harmony with the key-note of onr work, 
 and it is from that point of view that I 
 wish to speak. Yet I cannot forbear to 
 say a half-reminiscent word about its 
 function in teaching the mere mechanical 
 art of reading. We understand this bet- 
 ter than we did a few years ago. If it 
 were possible to select the best ten teach- 
 ers of reading in Illinois, I think I know 
 at least one whose name would be on the 
 list. Several years ago he was in charge 
 of the schools in a little central Illinois 
 city, and being in advance of his timej 
 had the temerity one day, to ask his board 
 to appropriate a small sum for the pur- 
 chase of what he called “supplementary 
 reading matter.” Supplementary is a 
 long word, and the directors wouldn’t 
 have been more in the dark as to what he 
 really wanted, if he had asked for some 
 Choctaw or Sanskrit books for the primer 
 class. Those were the days of slates and 
 pencils and such a proposition required a 
 diagram. This was what he finally had 
 to do to get those books — first readers of 
 another kind — which were what we all 
 used then. (The Seven Little Sisters had 
 
 6 
 
not been written then, nor had any of the 
 wealth of material for this purpose, so 
 abundant now. been put in form for school 
 use.) 1 i 
 
 Having manipulated the board with 
 some skill, he eventually inveigled the 
 two leading members into a primary 
 room. The best first reader class was 
 then called out and “wound up,” — that 
 is, set to reading. It was, no doubt, an 
 excellent class for the purpose, — picked 
 and trained for the purpose, for anything 
 I know or suspect to the contrary. At 
 any rate, the children read the book 
 “through,” in an hour or so, and it hap- 
 pened that one little chan dropped his 
 book, and after recovering it, held it 
 wrong side up during the remainder of 
 the exposition, but read the right para- 
 graph, just the same, whenever his turn 
 came. That accident, reinforced by both 
 ocular and aural demonstration, that sev- 
 eral of the children could “read” quite as 
 well without a book as with one, overcame 
 the objections of the conservative direc- 
 tors, and an extra set of readers was 
 provided. In northern Illinois, at least, 
 that particular form of school library is 
 no longer considered an “extra,” but is 
 
provided for as one of the regular sup- 
 plies. Without so much of a library, we 
 cannot teach even the mere art of reading 
 economically. 
 
 But to obtain books to be used in train- 
 ing the young in the reading that makes 
 for character and affects the issues of life 
 is not yet altogether and everywhere ea^y, 
 nor is the place of the library in educa- 
 tion quite acknowledged or clearly un- 
 derstood. 
 
 Nevertheless, the library spirit is 
 abroad in the land, and is very much 
 alive in Illinois. In more than half the 
 counties active efforts are in progress, and 
 every conceivable plan of raising money 
 which the ingenuity of enthusiastic teach- 
 ers and pupils has been able to contrive, 
 with variations, has been tried some- 
 where. Literary, musical, social and 
 “mixed” entertainments; box, basket, pie, 
 oyster, and plain socials and suppers; 
 subscriptions of money, from a penny up ; 
 book receptions; spelling matches; and, 
 in two or three cases, the pupils even 
 clean the school house — scrub the floors 
 and wash the windows, for the benefit of 
 the book fund. An enterprising young 
 teacher, in Peoria county, went to a lead- 
 
 8 
 
ing merchant, about Christmas time, got 
 a supply of bibles, photograph albums, 
 and other holiday goods, and at the close 
 of a short concert or something, auc- 
 tioned them off, and earned eight dollars 
 in commissions for her school library. 
 Memphis, Tennessee, is not in Illinois, 
 but I have no doubt the Memphis variety 
 of auction is, — somewhere, — so I will just 
 add it to the list as the last variation that 
 has come to me. The principal of one of 
 the schools in that city (the St. Paul 
 school) has the children collect and care 
 for all lost and unclaimed articles. They 
 are kept for a stated time, and if still 
 uncalled for, are turned over to a com- 
 mittee to be sold at auction. At the 
 proper time an auctioneer is selected, the 
 flag hung out, the bell rung, and the ar- 
 ticles duly sold to the highest bidders for 
 cash. The children in that school are 
 reported to be very proud of their library, 
 and the thirty-five pictures framed by that 
 means. 
 
 It is sometimes objected that these 
 things disturb the regular work of the 
 school to an extent not fully compensated 
 by the books earned, even when due al- 
 lowance is made for the contribution to 
 
 9 
 
the social life of the school. This objec- 
 tion is sometimes well grounded. When- 
 ever and wherever a board of directors is 
 nearly enough up-to-date to appropriate 
 money for books and book-cases, it is 
 probably wise to “accept the good the 
 gods provide,” and accumulate the library 
 in that way. But some boards do not have 
 the funds at their disposal, and others 
 doubt the expediency of so appropriating 
 them, and what is the teacher to do then ? 
 Money can be raised and expended with- 
 out turning the current of school life too 
 widely from its regular channel. 
 
 (1 once had occasion to equip a football 
 team for action on very short notice. I 
 said to the school, on Thursday morning, 
 that we would have a “social” Friday 
 evening, and that each pupil might invite 
 as many friends as he pleased. At noon, 
 I asked the girls to wait a few minutes. 
 After the boys had gone home, I said: 
 “All the girls who can’t keep a secret may 
 be excused ;” also, “all the girls who don’t 
 care to help the boys out.” Nobody went. 
 So I said : “Every girl who wants to may 
 fill any kind of a box with anything she 
 pleases that is good to eat, and worth 
 from a nickel to a dime ; but no girl may 
 
 10 
 
tell another what is in her box, nor put 
 any distinguishing mark upon it ; and the 
 boxes must all be brought to the school 
 building Friday evening and delivered to 
 a certain committee in a certain room.” 
 The next morning I told the boys that 
 the girls had taken upon themselves the 
 entire burden of the evening’s entertain- 
 ment, the nature of which they would 
 learn at the proper time, — but not be- 
 fore, — and that they ought to have from 
 fifteen to twenty-five cents in their pock- 
 ets. There was enough curiosity to in- 
 terest, and not enough to excite. There 
 was plenty of time after school, Friday, 
 to pick up some music and a very short 
 “impromptu” programme; everybody had 
 a good time, and the sale of the boxes 
 netted over thirty dollars for the football 
 team. The money could have been earned 
 for books in the same way, and just as 
 easily. ) 
 
 A number of sagacious county superin- 
 tendents have expressed the opinion that 
 the right way to provide a school library 
 is by money regularly appropriated by 
 the school boards. In discussing this 
 subject at Springfield last December, I 
 stated that I was disposed to agree with 
 
 11 
 
them. A day or two afterward, however, 
 one of the best and most practical city 
 superintendents in the state, said to me: 
 “Your remarks about building libraries 
 were not much over half bad, except as to 
 the statement just referred to.” In the 
 discussion which followed, I am inclined 
 to think he must have got the better of 
 the argument, for he is a reasonable man. 
 and I couldn’t change his opinion. His 
 theory is that there is a valuable edu- 
 cating force in “self-help,” and that the 
 collection of a library furnishes the best 
 possible motive for its exercise. He en- 
 forced his argument with the history of 
 the foundation and growth of a school 
 library which I am sure is unique enough 
 to interest some of you as much as it did 
 me, and I am going to give it to you as 
 it was afterwards condensed by him at 
 my request: 
 
 Galesburg, III., January 7, 1899. 
 
 I am not very busy but I am very lazy. 
 I am glad to receive your Hew Year’s 
 greeting, and I certainly hope it will be a 
 happy and prosperous year to you. You 
 would like me to tell you the tale of the 
 Yates City School library. With the help 
 of Mr. Felch, our teacher of stenography. 
 
 12 
 
I will undertake to tell yon the story as 
 best I can: 
 
 The school at Yates City took the 
 premium at the county fair in September. 
 1878, which was ten volumes of Rolfe’s 
 Classics. I mean, what was called the 
 High School department, took this 
 premium. These books suggested that 
 more books were desirable. I proposed 
 to them that each pupil should give to 
 the school, to form a library, one book 
 which he or she had read and found in- 
 teresting, and that the name of the donor 
 would be written on a tag which was 
 pasted in the book. I made this state- 
 ment in all the rooms, and, as a result, 
 we got about fifty volumes in this way. 
 They were readable books because none 
 would be accepted that the child had not 
 himself read and had not been interested 
 in, and the fact that his name was to be 
 placed upon the tag was a guarantee that 
 it was a valuable one, as you will readily 
 see. 
 
 After this I began to talk to some of 
 the citizens to get them interested in a 
 library. The leading merchant, I found, 
 had had experience in establishing a li- 
 brary in Farmington, a town five miles 
 
 13 
 
south. It had lasted for two or three 
 years and had failed. While he appre- 
 ciated the value of the library, he thought 
 that it could not be successfully con- 
 ducted in a town of our size. Another had 
 had a like experience in Elmwood, a town 
 three miles east of us. I found that the 
 trouble had been the want of funds — 
 that room rent, fuel, janitor’s services 
 and the libraries cost more than the towns 
 could raise for the purpose without 
 adding any books to it. So I undertook 
 to get around that point in this way. 
 
 There was a room adjoining the princi- 
 pal’s room, which had been used for 
 recitation purposes. The board readily 
 said that we could use it for a library. 
 This provided not only the room but the 
 fuel and janitor’s services, and I proposed 
 to act as librarian. Thus every dollar 
 that would come into our hands would 
 be placed in books. We called the library 
 the “School and Public Library,” allow- 
 ing the school to get books from it every 
 day and the public on Saturday after- 
 noons. 
 
 We organized a literary society from 
 the pupils of the upper room and the 
 young people in the town. We decided 
 
 14 
 
to hold a library festival on Thanksgiving 
 evening , and the young people solicited 
 provisions from the town and the sur- 
 rounding country. Any person who con- 
 tributed in this way and bought two tick- 
 ets, which were sold at thirty-five cents 
 apiece, would be given a ticket to the li- 
 brary good for one year. Along with this 
 festival was given a literary entertain- 
 ment by the society. This society, literary 
 entertainment, and festival gave oppor- 
 tunity for social exercises to the young 
 people which had formerly been spent in 
 dancing. One thing I watched with great 
 care and that was that nobody, under any 
 conditions whatever, should have a free 
 ticket to either the librarv exercises or the 
 festival. All of the work was done from a 
 motive of pride and loyalty to the school 
 and town. This brought in only the ca- 
 pable, energetic and generous part of the 
 community as workers, and the public 
 knowing this fact, I think, were much 
 more willing to contribute when they 
 knew nobody was dead-headed. This 
 point I have not made clear, but it is the 
 most essential feature of conducting such 
 an enterprise, viz., those who did the 
 
 15 
 
work donated it and paid for admission 
 the same as those who did nothing. 
 
 . Ten days after the entertainment, we 
 had the books which the money pur- 
 chased, in the library, and every person 
 connected with the school or with this en- 
 tertainment, was greatly interested in the 
 books and wanted one to read, and it was 
 wonderful the number of volumes drawn 
 during the winter months which followed 
 this entertainment. I made all the se- 
 lections of the books, mainly biography, 
 history, travel, and standard fiction. 
 There were men in that community who 
 were influential and had means, and who 
 enjoyed hunting and fishing. In order 
 to enlist their interest, I found out what 
 books would interest them, and bought 
 them. As I recall them now, some of 
 these books were “Isaak Walton,” “Sports 
 Afield,” by Forrester, “The Still Hunter,” 
 and “The Game Birds of America.” 
 These books are classic in their line, good 
 for anybody to read and nobody could ob- 
 ject to them. By placing these books in 
 the library, these persons became inter- 
 ested and contributed to it, not only bv 
 always giving the soliciting committee 
 something and buying tickets, but by 
 
 16 
 
words of encouragement which amounted 
 to more. 
 
 The first festival was held on Thanks- 
 giving evening, 1878, and we undertook 
 to dedicate that day as sacred to the Yates 
 City School and Public Library. For the 
 past tiventy years that entertainment has 
 been held annually. Next to the Harvest 
 Home, it is the event of the year to that 
 community. 
 
 We made daily use of the library in 
 connection with almost every subject but 
 especially with geography and history, 
 and many a day I have helped put back 
 into the library fifty volumes that had 
 been consulted by the pupils of my room. 
 
 I was there seven years and the last 
 3 r ear, I remember that there were thirty- 
 seven persons who had attended that 
 school that were then teaching in Knox 
 county, and Peoria and Fulton counties, 
 which were but a few miles from Yates 
 City. I was in luck in that commu- 
 nity — came to it just in the right time. 
 It did lots for me and I think I did some- 
 thing for them. I have tried to give you 
 an idea of this enterprise but I am afraid 
 it has been rather rambling ; however, 
 perhaps you can “catch on.” 
 
 W. L. Steele. 
 
 17 
 
Remembering that I had once heard 
 something, which I do not believe with- 
 out reservation, to the effect that: “As 
 is theteacher, so is the school,” and know- 
 ing that Mr. Steele has been away from 
 Yates City for twelve or fourteen years, 
 it occurred to me to inquire how long the 
 library survived him. A letter to the 
 present principal brought the following 
 very interesting reply : 
 
 “I have pleasure in responding to your 
 request of recent date for information 
 concerning our school and public library. 
 
 “The association was formed and the 
 library started about 1878, during the 
 time Superintendent Steele of Galesburg, 
 was principal of this school. Under his 
 care and management the library was 
 placed firmly upon its feet and made an 
 institution of the community. How fully 
 it enters into the lives of our people and 
 how much of their care it has, may be 
 inferred from the fact thatfai this village 
 of fewer than eight hundred people , it has 
 been maintained for twenty years , and 
 numbers almost two thousand volumes , 
 without any assistance whatever, except 
 that coming from the voluntary efforts 
 of the citizens. 
 
 18 
 
“During the earlier years, annual and 
 life memberships were sold; but later, that 
 plan seems to have been dropped and all 
 living in the village and those in the 
 country who in any way contribute to its 
 support are considered members of the 
 association and entitled to the use of the 
 library. To such as live in the country, 
 membership tickets are issued; for those 
 who live in town, the fact of residence 
 is considered enough. Formerly many 
 donations of books and money were made ; 
 we receive some yet, though fewer. The 
 chief means of the library’s support has 
 always been the giving of entertainments, 
 festivals, etc. For twenty years, on the 
 evening of Thanksgiving day, an enter- 
 tainment or festival, or both, has been 
 given. At times other entertainments 
 have been given. Those on Thanksgiv- 
 ing have netted from forty to one hundred 
 dollars. The series of annual reports is 
 not complete and I am unable to give you 
 the aggregate sum expended for the li- 
 brary since its foundation. Two thousand 
 dollars is an approximation. Our first 
 entertainment this year netted fifty doh 
 lars. We have another in preparation and 
 desire to make this year’s receipts one 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 19 
 
“In 1889 the then principal, Mr. L. E. 
 Harriss classified the books and made np 
 a catalogue which was printed. In 1895. 
 this catalogue had ceased very fully to 
 represent the library, and the present 
 writer made a card catalogue under some- 
 what modified form of the expansion sys- 
 tem. We have no printed catalogue now, 
 though there goes to you by this mail 
 under separate cover, a copy of the old 
 one. It will give you the constitution of 
 the association, and something of the his- 
 tory thereof. 
 
 “Herewith enclosed you will please find 
 a few facts from my latest report which 
 will enable you to form an idea of the 
 character and use of the library. 
 
 “Trusting that this carries the desired 
 information, and that if it does not you 
 will not hesitate to ask further, I am, etc., 
 
 BOOKS ISSUED DURING THE YEAR. 
 
 The library is opened regularly each 
 week from 2 until 4 p. m. Saturday. At 
 these openings the number of issues was 
 1,864. The two lower rooms of the school 
 have books of their own belonging to, but 
 separated from the main library. From 
 these collections, and in connection with 
 
 20 
 
the literary work of the higher depart- 
 ment, were issued 471, — total, 2,335. The 
 larger per cent of the first number above 
 represents fiction, though enough comes 
 from the other departments to make the 
 showing fairly creditable to the reading 
 taste of the community. 
 
 BOOKS NOW IN THE LIBRARY. 
 
 (A) General works, Dictionaries, Cy- 
 clopedias, Reference books, 45 ; reports 
 bound, 113; reports not bound, 117; 
 bound periodicals, 15. (B) Philosophy — 
 
 B. M. Moral Philosophy, 23; B. R. Re- 
 ligion, 54. (D) Ecclesiastical History, 
 
 3. (E) Biography, 254. (P) History , 
 
 302. (G) Geography, travels, etc., 141, 
 
 (H) Social Sciences, 11. (I) Education 
 
 20. (J) Political Science, 19. (K) 
 
 Woman, 2. (L) Science, 82. (U) Art 
 of War, 1. (V) Athletic and Recreative 
 
 Arts, 7 ; Music, 1. (Y) Literature, 35. 
 
 (Y E) Essays and Reviews, 9. (Y F) 
 Fiction, 256. (Y M) Miscellaneous Liter- 
 ature, 18. ( Y J) Juvenile literature, 307, 
 
 (Y P) Poetry, 8L (Y 0) Orators and 
 Oratory, 13. (YW) Wit and Humor, 40, 
 (X) Language, 7. Total, 1,990. 
 
 W. P. Boyes, Principal. 
 
 21 
 
Now, Yates City is a small community. 
 There are but 800 people in the village, 
 and but four teachers in the school, and 
 the principal gets less than “a thousand 
 a year.” I know no reason why any other 
 similar community, or any good rural 
 community that has the judgment to unite 
 the schools of a township into a single 
 organization, cannot do as well. 
 
 In some counties there is a system of 
 exchanging district libraries within the 
 townships, or township libraries within 
 the county. Madison county has a county 
 circulating library to which each school 
 having a ten-dollar library is admitted. 
 Bond and Effingham counties report simi- 
 lar plans. In the last named county, the 
 superintendent says there is “one trouble .” 
 The books do not circulate as fast as he 
 anticipated. The children get hold of 
 them and won’t return them on time, be- 
 cause “father and mother, and their big 
 brothers and sisters have to read them 
 first.” Well, “trouble” of that kind is 
 just what the libraries are intended to 
 make at first. 
 
 Other counties, like Stephenson and 
 Champaign, have county libraries for 
 teachers. In Champaign, there are over 
 
 22 
 
2,000 volumes in the county library, and 
 it has been the fruitful mother of many 
 local libraries. Stephenson has 1,500 vol- 
 umes which “circulate among the teachers 
 and pupils like coin of the realm,” and 
 the superintendent says that “the result is 
 that school authorities have come to see 
 the benefits of the library and have joined 
 hands with the pupils and teachers to 
 secure one for the district,” another evi- 
 dence that the gods help those who first 
 help themselves. 
 
 A very interesting and fruitful inquiry 
 into the condition and workings of public 
 libraries in Illinois was made last winter 
 by Mr, Barbour of Rockford. By the 
 papers, which he has been kind enough 
 to lend me, two things are made evident. 
 First, that in cities of 10,000 and under, 
 the relations between the public libraries 
 and the public schools might well be 
 closer. Few in the class named are doing 
 such a work as Yates City is doing. Few 
 are doing as much as Stephenson and 
 Champaign counties are doing. (This 
 by the way, is our fault. The libraries 
 are for all the world like Barkis, willin' — 
 though at least one librarian might be 
 more generous. She writes Mr. Barbour 
 
 23 
 
to the effect that she hopes he will publish 
 the result of his inquiries, but not in a 
 school journal — as, in that case, Mr. X 
 might see them, and he has been in the 
 library but once since he came to town 
 and then didn’t seem to be interested in 
 the books. Mr. X. is a city superintendent 
 of schools. 
 
 Secondly, it is noticeable that nearly 
 every librarian is in favor of more library 
 legislation — very many of them favoring 
 a State Library Commission , which, by 
 the way, was the particular feature of the 
 proposed traveling library law which 
 caused its death at the hands of the “more 
 numerous branch” of the last general as- 
 sembly. 
 
 But I refer to public libraries, chiefly to 
 call attention to the work begun by the 
 Rockford library this year, and which I 
 think no other library in Illinois is yet 
 doing. The report says: “The library 
 is placing in the schools chests of books 
 for the home use of grades four to eight 
 inclusive.” That was one time when, in 
 my judgment, the Rockford library made 
 a ten-strike. And when it placed thirty- 
 two books on pedagogy, forty-four books 
 on zoology, and seventy-five volumes on 
 
United States history, at the disposal of 
 the county superintendent, to re-inforce 
 the High School Library for the use of 
 the institute, it made almost as good a 
 ten-strike as Superintendent Kern did 
 when he surrounded his teachers by books 
 and gave them, many of them, I imagine 
 their first experience with the seminary 
 method of study. 
 
 I see some of you are frowning, be- 
 cause you think I use slang, — and I hasten 
 to assure you that it is worse even than 
 that. I don’t even know what a “ten- 
 strike” is. But these three things : 
 1 — The carrying books from the public 
 library to the grammar grades, 2 — the 
 loaning books so generously to the teach- 
 ers, and 3 — the attempt to give teachers 
 the pleasure and profit and inspiration 
 of a week’s work under such conditions, 
 are new departures and deserve to be 
 properly characterized, — and advertised. 
 
 Three things stand out in bold relief 
 as signs and products of civilization; 
 Cultivated fields, cities, towns, or vil- 
 lages, with the roads and bridges which 
 join them; and printed books. The book 
 is by far the greatest of the three. Three 
 things, chiefly, conduce to clearness of 
 
 25 
 
vision, mental or moral: Observation, 
 thought, reading. The last, again , is the 
 most important, for it extends the first 
 stimulates the second, and corrects them 
 both. It is almost certain that the intel- 
 lectual capacity of man has not increased 
 for a thousand years. But it is quite 
 certain that the cultured man of today has 
 an immense advantage over his intel- 
 lectual equal of 1,000 years ago, because 
 of the wealth of knowledge and thought 
 accumulated and stored in printed 
 books. To be sure it is undeniable 
 that a man whose observation is re- 
 liable, i. e., one who sees clearly, and who 
 thinks logically, may become the master 
 of broad acres without knowing how to 
 read. He may be shrewd, and deep , — 
 enough so to move into town and rent 
 his farm, but his shrewdness and depth 
 may be, and sometimes are , entirely com- 
 patible with a narrowness that will permit 
 him to scheme to keep down the school 
 taxes upon the fields he has abandoned. 
 
 Reading clarifies as well as broadens the 
 understanding. A teacher of history gave 
 me the following tidbit the other day: 
 
 26 
 
HISTORY AS SHE IS RECITED. 
 
 “On March 15, Caesar was met in the 
 senate by the Ides of March, who were 
 led by Brutus, Cassius and the Ides fol- 
 lowing.” 
 
 “They pierced twenty-two holes in him 
 and he was dead. When Antony had 
 heard that Caesar was killed he ran up 
 and down the streets telling people that 
 Caesar had been killed by the Ides of 
 March.” j 
 
 “Cassius and his men started down the 
 street yelling, “Rome is free ! Rome is 
 free!” until people got after them, and 
 they all escaped for their lives, of which 
 Cassius and Brutus escaped to Greece, 
 of which they remained a few years, of 
 which they committed suicide.” 
 
 The father of the subject of that report 
 is a statesman himself (an alderman) 
 who thought it unnecessary to establish a 
 public library for the double reason that 
 mature people could buy their own books 
 and children would be better employed 
 at their lessons than in reading books. 
 Yet there is no sort of doubt that the 
 reading of books is one ingredient of the 
 remedy for this peculiar mental condition. 
 
 Our saddest failure in teaching is the 
 
 27 
 
hopeless attempt to cram information 
 into growing minds in measured quanti- 
 ties, against time, prematurely, and then 
 pump it out again with the “test” pump^ 
 without loss in quantity or quality. Such 
 a process is not education. Education is 
 the science of interesting. Likes and dis- 
 likes have a bearing and a value that can- 
 not be ignored. 
 
 In the days when the “West” was newer* 
 and wilder, and woolier than it is now, — a 
 traveler, — reading leisurely through a 
 rather elaborate bill of fare, was abruptly 
 asked by the restaurant proprietor, if he 
 wanted “hash.” 
 
 “No, Ell take quail on toast !” 
 
 “Stranger, you want hash !” 
 
 As the guest looked up, and along the 
 shining barrel of the revolver, he quietly, 
 and without unnecessary delay, answered 
 “Yes, Fll take hash!” 
 
 Some of our “Courses of Study/' as ad- 
 ministered, are like hash, and are only 
 accepted when there is no alternative. 
 
 There is danger, too, in “Courses of 
 Beading.” 
 
 A county superintendent has a list of 
 “one hundred books for a library,” which 
 he sends to his teachers, and it is a very 
 
 28 
 
good list indeed. But he mars it by print- 
 ing at the bottom of the page: “The 
 above list of books should be read in the 
 order in which they are given !” Why, 
 for example, should the “Hoosier School 
 Master” be read before “Tom Brown at 
 Oxford?” or “Nathan the Wise” before 
 the “Vicar of Wakefield ?” Or why should 
 the Carey Sisters be last on the list — 
 Shakespeare alone excepted? Why can- 
 not a boy read Shakespeare whenever he 
 gets a taste and finds that he likes it? 
 “There is no tone of feeling that is not 
 capable of yielding resonance to that of 
 Shakespeare !” and there is no fixed age 
 at which man, the instrument upon 
 which he plays, begins to be conscious 
 of the harmony. The list is a good one, 
 but the advice to read it in “order” is al- 
 together bad. 
 
 At the age of six, as you may remember, 
 the “Little Minister” hit another boy 
 hard , for belonging to the Established 
 Church, from which the stern Auld 
 Lichts were the original seceders. At 
 seven he could not lose himself in the 
 shorter catechism. His mother expounded 
 the scriptures to him until he was eight, 
 when he began to expound them to her.” 
 
 29 
 
By-and-by, there came a black year when 
 the things of this world, especially its 
 pastimes, took such a grip of Gavin that 
 he said to Margaret (his mother) he 
 would rather be good at the high jump 
 than the author of “Pilgrim’s Progress.” 
 But that year passed and Gavin came to 
 his right mind. 
 
 Why not take note of these things, and 
 while we cater to it, educate the interest 
 of the child? Season his “hash” with 
 books of his kind, — travel, adventure, the 
 stories of the great deeds of historic men, 
 biography, history, poetry, all literature, 
 and presently a library. “Give us, 0 give 
 us,” says Carlyle, “the man who sings 
 at his work. He will do more in the same 
 time, he will do it better, he will persevere 
 longer. One is scarcely sensible of fatigue 
 whilst he marches to music.” But who 
 will sing, except the man whose mind is 
 filled with good thoughts ? The man 
 whose head is empty can, at the utmost, 
 merely whistle . If the pleasure to be de- 
 rived from good books, — the added dispo- 
 sition, as well as ability, to sing at one’s 
 work, were all, it would amply justify 
 everything we are doing, or can do to 
 make the children acquainted with them. 
 
 30 
 
But the chief end of man is not happi- 
 ness. Books, rightly chosen, and rightly 
 read, will certainly throw over our lives 
 great floods of the “light that never was 
 on sea or land,” but their full service goes 
 much further than that. “Every animal 
 of the barnyard, the field and the forest, — 
 of the earth and of the waters that are 
 under the earth” — says Ralph Waldo — 
 “has contrived to get a footing and to 
 leave the print of its features and form in 
 some one or other of these upright 
 heaven-facing speakers. Ah, brother, hold 
 fast to the man and awe the beast; stop 
 the ebb of thy soul — ebbing downward in- 
 to the forms into whose habits thou hast 
 now for many years slid.” 
 
 So the highest aim we have to accom- 
 plish through the agency of the library 
 is an ethical one. 
 
 “We come, then, to the great concourse 
 of the Dead,” says Ruskin, “not merely 
 to know from them what is true , bu f 
 chiefly to feel with them what is right - 
 eous.” “Men are criminals because they 
 have not imagination enough to see the 
 inevitable consequences of their mis- 
 deeds,” says Charles De Garmo. 
 
 But most of us might better “bay the 
 
 31 
 
moon” than depend upon direct and di- 
 dactic methods in teaching ethics. If 
 the education which “makes for the con- 
 duct of life” depended upon that, its 
 influence would be altogether insufficient. 
 In this part of our work we must proceed 
 almost wholly by oblique methods. 
 
 The county superintendent of LaSalle 
 county, who has been one of the most 
 devoted friends and advocates of the Il- 
 linois Pupils* Eeading Circle, tells me 
 that, in addition to the greater interest 
 in the school work, both by pupils and 
 parents, which he attributes to the reading 
 of the books supplied by the circle, he 
 sees a distinct effect upon the conduct of 
 the pupils. He is a close observer. 
 
 I asked Mr. Barbour, who is the soul 
 of the Eockford plan, if during the first 
 three months of its operation, he had seen 
 any results that could be stated in words. 
 He sent me the following answers the 
 other day: 
 
 I. “One boy who has been in the habit 
 of spending several evenings each week 
 down town on the streets, became very 
 much interested in the books that he had 
 drawn from the library sent to his room. 
 Two or three weeks after the books had 
 
 32 
 
been put into the school, he told his 
 teacher that these library books were bet- 
 ter than a curfew law for him, for he had 
 not been down town an evening since the 
 library came into his room. He spent 
 his evenings reading the nice books that 
 he drew from the library. 
 
 II. “In another school, a little colored 
 boy, by his almost utter disregard for the 
 rules of good order and the neglect of his 
 books had become a very seriously dis- 
 turbing element in school, and his teacher 
 was getting not a little discouraged about 
 doing anything with him. One day the 
 subject of heroes was being considered. 
 Several pupils had told of heroes that they 
 had read about, among them Grant, Sher- 
 idan, and Dewey. Soon the teacher no-, 
 ticed this boy’s hand raised. She called 
 upon him. He said, “I can tell of a hero.” 
 When asked to tell his story, he stood with 
 eyes sparkling, and told the story of one 
 of the old Greek heroes about which he 
 had read in one of the books he had taken 
 from the library. (Apollo, serving King 
 Admetus a year and a day, as like as any, — 
 and all about the golden chariot drawn 
 by the Lion and the Boar in which they 
 went to claim the beautiful Alcestis.) 
 
 33 
 
Since then, he has been much more inter- 
 ested in his school-work and his conduct 
 in school is very much improved. 
 
 III. “In another school, a boy, who 
 seemed to have no interest in school 01 
 school work, and who had spent much 
 of his time in planning mischief, became 
 very much interested in the books he read 
 from the library. Since then he has be- 
 come one of the most studious of his class, 
 and his deportment is very much im- 
 proved. 
 
 IV. Many of the parents and the older 
 brothers and sisters of the pupils who 
 were not patrons of the public library 
 proper, have become interested in these 
 books. Pupils have frequently asked their 
 teacher for an extension of time on their 
 books so that other members of the family 
 at home could read them. 
 
 Testimony of this sort is abundant. All 
 who have used the P. R. C. books much 
 express surprise at their universal adapta- 
 tion. Older brothers and sisters read 
 them “on the sly,” parents enjoy them 
 openly, and teachers read them both ways 
 — depending upon the teacher — all read 
 with pleasure and profit. 
 
 Such illustrations might be multiplied 
 
 34 
 
indefinitely. There can be no doubt of the 
 value of books, then, in the education 
 which counts most for the “Conduct of 
 Life/’ nor that what we do to inculcate 
 the love of liberty, truthfulness, patriot- 
 ism, piety, patience, gratitude, reverence, 
 philanthropy, fortitude, and to subdue 
 such passions as anger, avarice, envy, jeal- 
 ousy, hatred, revenge, pride and vanity — 
 to “hold fast to the man and to awe the 
 beast/’ can best be done, — can, perhaps, 
 in some cases be done in no other way 
 than through home, school, and public 
 library. 
 
 There is a story of a rough sea captain, 
 of the old school, who went on a long 
 voyage in command of a sailing ship. 
 There was but one book on the ship — a 
 volume of Shelley. When that captain 
 came home again, he had been trans- 
 formed from a rough sailor to a cultivated 
 gentleman in fact and in appearance. 
 
 I cannot vouch for the truth of the 
 story, but we can all vouch for its essence. 
 One book owned is equal to many taken 
 from the library. Every man is rightful 
 heir to a share of the culture of his time, 
 but he cannot possess it until he owns , 
 as well as reads , a few good books. “1ST c 
 book,” says Euskin, “is serviceable until 
 
it has been read, and re-read, and loved 
 and loved again ; and marked so that yon 
 can refer to the passages yon want in it* 
 as a soldier can seize the weapon he needs 
 in an armory, or a honse-wife bring the 
 spice she needs from her store.” 
 
 The final cause, then, of all our work to 
 develop interest in books and to train the 
 children to read them, — should be to lead 
 them to know, select and become the 
 owners of books ; some of which, at least, 
 should not only be real books, but well 
 bound, printed from clear type, on good 
 paper, with broad margins ; standards of 
 taste, as well as sources of happiness, vir- 
 tue and strength. 
 
 I have seen nowhere a clearer statement 
 of what seems to me to be the true notion 
 of human dignity than this by the pro- 
 found old Scotch critic: “Two men I 
 honor, and no third. First, the toil-worn 
 craftsman that with EARTH-made im- 
 plement laboriously conquers the Earth, 
 and makes her man’s. Venerable* to m§ 
 is the hard Hand ; crooked, coarse ; where- 
 in notwithstanding lies a cunning virtue, 
 indefeasibly royal, as of the Scepter of 
 this Planet. Venerable, too, is the rugged 
 face, all weather-tanned, besoiled with 
 
 36 
 
its rude intelligence ; for it is the face of a 
 Man living manlike . 0, but the more 
 
 venerable for thy rudeness, and even be- 
 cause we must pity as well as love thee ! 
 Hardly-entreated brother! For us was 
 thy back so bent, for us were thy straight 
 limbs and fingers so deformed; thou wert 
 our Conscript , on whom the lot fell, and 
 fighting our battles wert so marred. For 
 in thee, too, lay a god-created Form, but 
 it was not to be unfolded ; incrusted must 
 it stand with the thick adhesions and 
 defacements of Labor : and thy body , like 
 thy soul , was not to know freedom. Yet 
 toil on, toil on: thou art in thy duty, be 
 out of it who may ; thou toilest for the al-. 
 together indispensable, for daily bread. 
 
 “A second man I honor, and still more 
 highly : Him who is seen toiling for the 
 spiritually indispensable ; not daily bread, 
 but the bread of Life. Is not he, too, in 
 his duty, endeavoring towards inward 
 Harmony; revealing this, by act or by 
 word, through all his outward endeavors, 
 be they high or low ? Highest of all, when 
 his outward and his inward endeavor are 
 one ; when we can name him Artist ; not 
 earthly Craftsman only, but inspired 
 Thinker, who with heaven - made Imple- 
 
 37 
 
ment conquers Heaven for us ! If the 
 poor and humble toil that we have Food % 
 must not the high and glorious toil for 
 him in return, that he have Light, have 
 Guidance, Freedom, Immortality ? — These 
 two, in all their degrees, I honor : all else 
 is chaff and dust, which let the wind blow 
 whither it listeth. , 
 
 “Unspeakably touching is it, however, 
 when I find both dignities united ; and 
 he that must toil outwardly for the lowest 
 of man’s wants, is also toiling inwardly 
 for the highest. S.ublimer in this world 
 know I nothing than a Peasant Saint 
 could such now anywhere be met with. 
 Such a one will take thee back to Naza- 
 reth itself; thou wilt see the splendor of. 
 Heaven spring forth from the humblest 
 depths of Earth, like a light shining in 
 the great darkness !’ (Sartor Resartus, 
 Chap. IV.) 
 
 If the library is a potent agent in the 
 work of the school, which is to raise more 
 and more men and women toward 
 this sublime dual dignity, we can 
 do no better thing for the chil- 
 dren whose characters we are — at least 
 in part — forming than to say to them, 
 “Here are books, always diligently taking 
 
 38 
 
care that they are books — they open to 
 you all of earth and a good deal of 
 Heaven ! You have eyes and brains. Set 
 to and Read.” 
 
 The teacher who does less than this 
 neglects his golden opportunity. On the 
 other hand, all that the high school, — tho 
 college, — and the university can do, is 
 but to continue what the primary school 
 began and teach us to read. 
 
 39