The Position of the Library
in the Community.
^—_ — -
To those who in 1901 and 1902
organizied the Lydia Brunn
Woods library, it will always
hold a position of prime impor
tance. They put into all the
arrangements their best efforts.
They planned not for one year,
nor two. but for all the future.
The building was made plain
but substantial. Every detail
was carefully studied with one
aim in view to make the
library of the greatest good to
the greatest number.
The work of the first book
committee meant hours of hard
labor, even after using all help
attainable. That their work
was well done has been noted
many times by the satisfied
readers who have found “just
what we were looking for.”
To these few at the time of
the opening, the library had a
large meaning, marking a defi
nite step in the intellectual de
velopment of the town, but to
the community at large it was
experimental. It meant every
thing intellectually good to
those who had worked to make
it possible, but it was still not
much more than a name to
many. it liau no standing
whatsoever for them.
After a while there came a
time when it seemed that some
aggressive measures were nec
essary to put the library where
it should be in the public mind.
Then the members of the Wom
an’s clubs made a house to
house canvass and told all the
town people about the institu
tion and did their best to make
it of importance to every one.
The results were astounding,
and in less than two months the
library began to assume its
rightful place in the community.
But for the club women it had
already been attained, for their
work had shown them the great
empty places which only good
books could till. And since
then, for these women, the
library has been one of the in
dispensable things to the town.
The working principle of all
libraries is “The library is an
integral part of public educa
tion.” The librarian, with the
help of the teachers, set about
making this real to the pupils
in the schools. The narrow
outlook on subjects as treated
in text books has given way to
the broader outlook on the
same subjects as treated in well
written books and magazines.
A few hard dry facts are no
longer considered a sufficient
knowledge of a subject, for the
means of clothing those dry
bones with living flesh of the
best thought is at hand. And
for the teachers and pupils the
library takes its place.
Finishing or stopping school
is not finishing or stopping edu
cation. Some one lias called
the public library the poor
man's university. It is the
means by which many continue
their education even after fin
ishing the university. To these
it is an institution of higher
learning, and is used as such..
Not so very many years ago,
little children were controlled,
made to mind,learn their “three
IJ's” and keep still. Nothing
was done for their pleasure in
tellectually for they were not
supposed to have any. But in
these days of free kindergartens
and libraries, the little child
assumes a vast place in the
scheme of things. Books have
been written about and for him.
Pictures are made for his edifi
cation, and whose Sections of
the library are given over to
them, that the small person
may know and enjoy the best
in his youthful world. Perhaps
to no one else does the library
hold so high a place as in the
life of the little boys and girls.
But if a library has become
of importance only to these
[special individuals because of
tlieir special interests, it has
failed to live up to its name. A
public library is a library for
the public and according to
Webster the public is "all the
people collectively or in gener
) al of a particular community."
i Until every person in that pub
' lie knows and uses the library,
it does not stand as it should in
[the town. With this end in
view, an effort is made to buy
books to interest the business
man, the lawyer, the student
along scientific lines, the trav
eler, the housekeeper and who
soever cares to read.
So if a library fulfills its mis
sion it holds a well defined
position in the community, as a
part of the educational plan
and intellectual development.
Its kind and importance de
pends upon the individual. It
is not of a relative standing, to
be compared with other institu
tions, but is standing of utility,
and is dependent upon the
use to which it is put by the
public. Lois Spencer.
MISS GEORGE’S CHRISTMAS
Happy Memory of a Season When She
Did Not Write One Glad
Holiday Story,
H, my happiest Christmas!
I did not then realize it, but
I recall it now with a ra
diant glow of delight. It
was my first season upon
the stage. I was only a novice, one
day soaring upon the buoyant wings
of boundless ambition; the next
plunged in an abysmal depth of doubt,
despair and self-depreciation. It was
a very tiny part that had fallen to me.
The compensation was but sufficient
for the barest necessities. The route
bristled with all the horrors of the
one-night stands.
At midnight, huddled, miserably
worn, dejected, and wretched, in the
waiting room of a country station,
listening in vain for the whistle of a
belated train, I confess to a sudden
flood of tears. What a mockery this
Christmas day had been. Even the
chimes had sounded like the tolling
of a funeral knell. The cheerless dis
comforts of a cheap hotel, the unsa
vory, slatternly served travesty upon
a Christmas dinner, the cold chill of
a shabby, musty dressing room, the
added toil of an extra matinee for a
mere handful of people, and now the
hungry wait for an accommodation
train of dingy day coaches.
That was all Christmas had meant
to me. Iowa was blizzard swept.
Mails were delayed and tangled wires
hung useless in gathering snowdrifts.
No message of cheer, no souvenir of
remembrance, had come to any of us.
Our hollow, half-hearted exchange of
Christmas greeting had carried no
conviction. We were only strolling
vagabonds, outside the pale of sym
pathy, debarred from the domestic
joys of living, mere dispirited rain
bow chasers, with success ever mock
ingly elusive.
But as I recall it all now, I am sub
merged by a great wave of passion
ate, longing regret, for I know that
such a Yuletide will never come to
me again while I am upon the stage.
It was my happiest Christmas, be
cause the first and only one, since I
began to tread the thorny and tor
tuous path of my profession, that I j
have not been called upon to write a
Christmas story.
GRACE GEORGE.
—
Speak as you think; be what you
are; pay your debts of all kinds.—
Montfort.
TOMMY AS GOOD AS A CHART.
Nurse Had No Trouble Remembering
Time for His Medicine.
A Boston physician tells a story of a
youngster of his own that an over
strenuous vacation had put on the sick
list. The father had an appropriate
prescription filled, and left the bottle
with the child's mother. As she, how
ever, is very forgetful, he gave her a
chart, and suggested that she set down
the hours when the medicine should
be given, checking off each dose as
taken. Upon returning from his even
ing rails, however, he found the chart
blank.
“Good gracious. Mary,” he exclaimed;
"surely you haven't failed to give Tom
his medicine?”
“Oh, no. I did not miss a single
time,” his wife assured him.
"How in the world did you remem
ber it without the chart?” he asked.
She smiled.
“That was easy. I just told Tom this
morning at what hours he was to have
it, and half an hour before pach time
he would begin hallooing that he
wouldn’t take it.”
Good Nature.
The man who is always complaining
that people are Imposing on his good
nature is pretty sure to have a hazy
idea of what good nature is.
_
Nothing But hoes
We Carry
the
Stock
Xmas
Slippers
We Aim
to
Please
% _
Xmas
Slippers
We sell the famous BALL BAND line of Rubber Goods. Overshoes. Leggings. Rub- Qyy yoUT ShoCS 3t 3 ShOC StOTG
bers. Gaiters. Warm Shoes. Lined Slippers and EVERYTHING FOR WINTER WEAR -i-;-;---■ -■ ■.-nrrr^r,
H. M. JENNE SHOE STORE
" FALLS CITY, NEBRASKA - ■ ■=■*--=
Read Every Advertisement in Both Sections of This Issue
Before You Decide Where and What to Buy for Christinas
Some New Ideas in Overcoats
Out-of-the-Ordinary Designs and Styles in Sincerity
Clothes to be Found Exclusively at This Store
APPARENTLY the clothing world has gone crazy over “freak”
styles. You see lots of them on the street that you wouldn’t
have for a gift, and yet there are a great many styles that come
under this classification that are highly
attractive. It depends upon how much
care you take in making your selection.
We have plenty of styles that are out=of=
the=ordinary; take this “Grenadier”
Coat, for instance, shown on the left. In
medium brown color; this is one of
the most striking coats we have ever
seen or sold. Other colors equally as
good. The Ulster known as the “Col
umbia,” m, _
shown at the
Sincerity Clothes—Copyright, 1908
right, is meeting with great favQr on
account of its style and adaptability to
strenuous outdoor work. It has all the
advantages of the old-fashioned Ulster
with a lot of new style ideas to com
mend it to the careful buyer.
Our Overcoats Range in
Price From $8 to $18
Our line of Hats, Caps, Gloves, Mittens, Shoes, Under- if®" %
wear, Furnishings, Trunks, Valises, Ftc., is complete.
WAHL 8c PARGHEN
WE KEEP OPEN UNTIL NINE O'CLOCK
