couple apply, who, it is thought, would contaminate the mayor's office, they are brought in here. I have seen as many as six marriages in here in one day, all of that class."

Notwithstanding these unpleasant features, the library has a good many visitors, among whom ladies are often noticed. It is safe to infer that all come from sheer necessity.

THE CHELSEA LIBRARY.

From the Boston Evening record, Dec. 23 THE new public library building in Chelsea was formally transferred to the city on the evening of December 22.

The Rev. Isaac P. Langworthy, Librarian of the Congregational Library, Boston, pronounced the invocation, with an unusually felicitous choice of words and ideas. This was followed by music, speaking, and an inspection of the new library building, after which some of the guests sat down to a pleasant lunch.

In presenting the new building to the city, Mr. Fitz traced the history of the public library of Chelsea from the first allusion to the subject in any of the city documents by the mayor in 1861, and the first gathering of books in a small room under the Old First Baptist Meeting House, at the corner of Broadway and Third Street, where they were collected as the property of the Young Men's Library Association (an organization formed for study and debate about the year 1848, and at a later period reorganized upon a broader basis as the Chelsea Library Association), down to last year. He continued:

"The number of volumes taken out during the last year was 74,000, and the number of persons now using the library is 4101. It is proper that mention should be made here of some of those whose interest in the library has manifested itself in contributions of money, books or service. The principal donations in funds were those of the Hon. Francis B. Fay, $1000; G. H. Norman, Esq., $600; the Hon. Frank B. Fay, trustee of citizens' fund, $400; Chelsea high school scholars, $112, and, in addition, various smaller sums from different inindividuals, duly credited and recorded. In books, the largest number of volumes came from the Chelsea Library Association-viz., 980. From the Winnisimmet Library Institute came 446 volumes. These were followed by liberal donations of valuable books from the Hon. Frank B. Fay, the Hon. S. Hooper, the Hon. Rufus S. Frost, the Hon. Leopold Morse, H. P. Bailey, Miss Ann Cary, Captain G. B. Hanover, C: A. Richardson, the Hon. T. Green, James Tent, Arthur Sibley, B. P. Shillaber, the Rev. Dr. Langworthy, estate of the Hon. Francis B. Fay. Besides the above named, the library has received many volumes from other contributors. ... Of those who have contributed efficient service in this behalf, none were more conspicuous than the late Dr. G. W. Churchill, who entered most heartily into the work of organization. His death, in 1869, deprived the library of one of its truest friends and promoters. Dr. Churchill, and the late James P. Farley, who was also an earnest friend of the in

stitution, were members of the first board of trustees, as was also the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. To the latter, although he is not now a member of the board, the library is often indebted for valuable information and suggestions. Elbridge C. Donnell and J: Edmunds have been on the board from the beginning, in 1868, a term of seventeen years, while B. Phipps and the Hon. T. Green have each served fourteen years. C: C. Hutchinson has been a member of the board for eleven years.'

After describing the new building and indicating the purposes to which the different rooms might be devoted, Mr. Fitz closed thus:

"Said John Bright, at the opening of the free public library at Birmingham in 1882, 'It is impossible to confer upon the young a greater blessing than to stimulate them to a firm belief that to them now, and during all their lives, it may be a priceless gain that they should associate themselves constantly with this library, and draw from it the books they like. It is a fountain of refreshment and instruction and wisdom. The young man who drinks at it shall still thirst, and thirsting for knowledge and still drinking, we may hope that he will grow to a greater mental and moral standard, more useful These as a citizen, and more noble as a man. words of wisdom from one of our truest friends in Old England are applicable in our own time and locality. We make no mistake when we provide for our youth the most abundant opportunities for the cultivation of their intellectual faculties. And now, Mr. Mayor, this property is committed to your keeping, in the hope that you and your successors will care for it and preserve it in such condition as will always be creditable to our city. May these keys be used to unlock the doors and open them wide for the freest admission of the public, and may the library ever be cherished as one of our most beneficient institutions."

Mayor Endicott stepped forward and took the bunch of keys midst the applause of the company. In a few well-chosen sentences he accepted the trust imposed upon the city, and touched upon the manifold advantages it would afford to the people. He then presented Mr. James Russell Lowell as the orator of the occasion. Mr. Lowell was warmly greeted, and delivered the address given in full on page 10 of this number.

THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY.

IN the Senate of the United States, January 14, 1886, Mr. Sewell presented the following letter from George Ticknor Curtis, on the proposed building for the Congressional Library, which was referred to the Select Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress :

"WASHINGTON, D. C., December 12, 1885. "Hon. William J. Sewell, Chairman of Committee on Library, Senate of the United States.

DEAR SIR: I have thought, since the brief conversation I had with you on the subject of the Congressional Library, in which you invited

me to make any suggestions that might occur to me, that I could best make them in writing. My interest in this matter is that of every citizen of the United States, and it arises also out of the fact that in a small degree I have contributed something, both in and out of my profession, to the literature of the country.

"The subject of a new and appropriate building for the National Library divides itself into the following heads: The necessity for immediate action, the acquisition of a suitable site, the character of the building, and the internal arrangements, including separate provision for the general mass of books and for the copies of new publications, which are required by law to be deposited as evidence of copyright.

"In regard to the urgency for immediate action, it is not necessary to say much. There seems to be an almost unanimous conviction that Congress should at once take steps for the accomplishment of this most desirable object. Now that the President has in his annual message so forcibly stated the case, it is to be presumed that Congress will no longer postpone action. Whether its action should be in one law or in separate laws, it is manifest that the first step to be taken is the acquisition of a suitable site for the new building.

"Obstacles have heretofore arisen, or are supposed to have arisen, from the rival efforts of property owners to effect a sale of their property to the Government. All such difficulties or embarrassments, if they exist, are very easily obviated. Congress, by the exercise of the power of the eminent domain, can take any property in this District that it determines to be necessary for the use of the Government, making at the same time suitable provision for its valuation, and for payment of the amount found to be justly due. The best way to do this would be to appoint a commission with authority to select a site, and to value the property proposed to be taken. The members of this commission should be persons who are not property owners in the District of Columbia, and they should be required to give some guarantee that they will not become property owners within a certain distance from the new building before the expiration of a certain time after the Government has acquired the site for the new library. There is an obvious reason for not having the valuation made by a jury drawn from the District, or by commissioners who are property owners in the city of Washington.

"The site having been selected and paid for, and the title to the land acquired, the determination of the character of the building and its internal arrangements should be, I respectfully suggest, vested in a separate commission, whose functions should continue until the work is completed and the books have been transferred to the new building. When this has been done, the care of the building would appropriately pass into the hands of whatever public officer has charge of the other public buildings. It would manifestly be inconvenient to have the work of erecting the building and determining its internal arrangements kept in the hands of Congress, or of committees of Congress, because membership in

that body is continually changing, and this is to be a work of several years. A permanent commission, with suitable provision for filling vacancies, would be far the most advantageous.

"In regard to the character of the building, I have some ideas which may not be in accordance with the wishes or tastes of those who are to legislate on this important subject, but I will venture to express them. I would not, if I could govern this matter, aim for one moment at making the new Library a distinguished architectural ornament to this city. No private individual who owned a considerable library and meant to increase it so as to make it commensurate with all the uses of a great library, and then to throw it open to the public, would be willing to incur the risk of sacrificing its internal arrangements to external magnificence or imposing architectural effects, whatever his pecuniary resources might be. Yet this is a risk that is always incurred in the erection of public buildings, unless the architect is a very exceptional person, or is restrained by those who are charged with responsibility for the plan. The power, dignity, and resources of this Government are sufficiently manifested now in the external aspect of our beautiful Capitol, and in a few of the other public buildings. In a Library, the power, dignity, and resources of our Government will be best manifested, so far as they should be exhibited at all, in the completeness and adaptation of the internal structure, and in the number, character, and arrangement of the books upon its shelves.

"Persons who are not in the habit of using public libraries are not generally aware how much the facilities for ready and accurate research depend upon arrangements that are largely mechanical. But to effectuate such arrangements in the best manner requires the most extensive knowledge of books and their uses, and no small amount of intellectual labor. This is the work of a librarian. When the library is, or is intended to become, a very large and complete one, the internal structure is a point of the utmost importance, and if this is not properly attended to no librarian can do his work successfully. If I had the whole Treasury at my command for this purpose I would build nothing but a brick structure, with very thick walls, with the least possible amount of wood-work, and with only so much attention to the outside architecture as to give the building a respectable appearance. Granite, or marble, or stone of any kind, as the chief material, I would eschew, for the reason that brick, when well made, is far more capable of resisting fire. If the building is originally isolated as much as it ought to be, and is kept so, the danger arising from any conflagration in the neighborhood will be reduced to the minimum, and will be practically nothing for all time.

"In considering and acting upon different plans submitted by different artists, native or foreign-and I would open the competition to the artists of the world-I would not think of adopting any one that did not make security against fire and the internal adaptation of the building to the uses of a great library the paramount considerations.

"To enable the commissioners to decide on the internal arrangements, one or more of them should be authorized and empowered to visit the principal public libraries in this country and in Europe, especially the great library of the British Museum, the National Library of France, formerly known as 'Bibliotheque du Roi,' and some of the larger private libraries in England and on the Continent. The present accomplished Librarian of Congress would, I presume, concur with me in these suggestions. From his official position and his great experience he could render the most valuable aid to the commissioners if Congress should determine to have the Library built under the supervision of such a body. In any mode of action his advice would be, I should think, indispensable to sound and safe conclusions.

"The preservation of the copies of all new publications which are required by the copyright laws to be deposited in the Library of Congress is a matter in which the authors and publishers of the country have a deep concern. These copies are the muniments of copyright title. Their preservation, as evidence of what was secured by the original entry, and of what the widow or children of an author is or are entitled to re-enter for a renewal of the copyright term, together with the record of transfers of titles and of contracts made by the author when such contracts have been recorded, is, in the aggregate, of vast consequence. Authors and publishers are taxed by the Government through the requisition of such deposit of copies. Oftentimes this tax, in the case of expensive works, is an onerous one, and in all works, from the most to the least expensive, these copies are the proofs of what is embraced in the copyright. In the course of my professional experience I have often had occasion to know how critically important to the rights and interests of authors and their representatives these evidences of their copyright title are. Our literature has now reached a condition in which enormous pecuniary interests are involved in the execution and administration of the copyright laws. The system, so far as our native literature is concerned, is not likely to undergo any material change. That literature has grown to its great present proportions since the generation to which I belong first learned to read, and no one needs to be told how important it is to the education of the people, or how much it nas done to raise the country in the estimation of the world.

"Experience has shown that wherever there exists a public library under proper regulations, and affording reasonable guarantees for the preservation and use of large collections of books, it may to a considerable extent rely for accretions on donations from private individuals, and is not wholly dependent for its enlargement on the funds appropriated for its increase by public authority. Individuals, who have during their lives made important and interesting collections of books, have not unfrequently been induced to make testamentary disposition of them to some public library in which they know that their collections will be carefully treasured, and that their

names, as donors, will be perpetuated. There is no reason why a National Library should not be, and there are many reasons why it should be, a favorite object of such donations. But in order to encourage them, the internal arrangements and the management of such a library should be so calculated from its foundation as to afford ample accommodation for special donations. The building should be projected and executed on such a scale that it can wait for such accretions and be fitted to receive and provide for them when they come; and if halls remain for some years unoccupied and unused the knowledge that they exist will have a strong tendency to fill them in the course of time. Let us build for posterity as well as for ourselves.

"Let us have a National Library worthy of such a country, and fitted to receive all the additions, for which Congress may from time to time provide the means, and all that individuals may be willing to bestow.

"I have ventured, Senator, to make these suggestions because, from long reflection, I am persuaded that there are hazards attending the inception and execution of this very important undertaking which ought to be foreseen, and which can be obviated by proper precautions. "GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS."

A CLEARING HOUSE FOR DUPLICATE PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

From the Nation.

THE United States spent in 1884 through the office of the Public Printer close upon $3,000,000; and yet it is next to impossible for public libraries to get documents that they want very much, though they often get sacks of documents which they do not want. These latter the library and its groaning shelves keep, unless they are duplicates. If they are, it is as hard to get rid of them as it is to get the more desired volumes. They cannot be exchanged (the best resource for the disposal of duplicates), for other librarians say to themselves, Why should I give anything for this when I can get it for nothing by simply asking my Representative for it? They cannot be sold at auction, because the auctioneer says that they will not pay for the cataloguing. Did not Senator Anthony's two thousand volumes of Congressional documents sell for eight cents apiece? The librarian's conscience will not let him sell them for old paper, and so they accumulate. But now an outlet has been furnished. The Department of the Interior, having very successfully acted as clearing-house for libraries in the matter of the Congressional record, receiving duplicates from those libraries that had them, and from the stock thus formed supplying deficiencies wherever they existed, has resolved to apply the same system to all public documents. Mr. J. G. Ames, Superintendent of Documents, Interior Department, if informed that any library has duplicates which it is willing to contribute to the common fund, will furnish wrappers which will enable the library to dispatch the volumes free of expense, and if the library will

send a list of its wants, he will supply them so far as the volumes in his possession allow. Let every library hasten to assist in this good work.

U. S. PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

THE publication and distribution of U. S. Government publications were shown by the papers and reports presented at the Conference of the American Library Association at Lake George (now reprinted separately from the Proceedings in a ten-page pamphlet), to be very extravagantly, wastefully managed, since they are inaccessible where they should be, and scattered as waste paper where they should not be. An important attempt to cure this state of things is shown in Mr. Singleton's bill (H. R. No. 1298), presented in the House Jan. 5, 1886, and referred to the Committee on Printing. Its provisions are of much importance to librarians, booksellers, and publicists. They are as follows:

A BILL

To reduce the expense of the public printing and binding, and for other purposes.

Regular Documents.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, etc., That the regular documents shall comprise the Journals of the two Houses of Congress, the President's messages, the report of the Secretary of the Treasury on commerce and navigation, the report on the commercial relations of the United States with foreign countries, the annual reports proper of the heads of Executive Departments, together with such condensed statements of their respective Bureaus as are absolutely necessary to explain the same, and such other reports and documents ordered to be printed as may from time to time be designated by either House of Congress as of the regular number.

Number.

SEC. 2. That there shall be printed of the regular documents 1516 copies, and of all other documents, except reports in contested-election cases, 938 copies; Provided, however, That of committee reports of a private nature, on pensions, patents, claims, reliefs, disabilities, and desertions, 588 copies only shall be printed.

Distribution.

[SEC. 3. Provides for the distribution of [1516] regular documents, including unbound copies [601], of which the Secretary of State is to have 40 for immediate despatch to legations and consulates abroad, and those [915] reserved for binding, in sheep, including to the Library of Congress 2 for itself and 35 for the foreign exchanges; to the State Department 25 for legations and consulates abroad, and to the Interior Department 425,] to be distributed as follows: One set to the executive of each State, to be deposited in the State library for the use of the State, in exchange for a complete set of its legislative and executive documents sent to the

Library of Congress; one set to the executive of each Territory, for the Territorial library; and it is hereby made the duty of the secretary of each Territory to send a complete set of its executive and legislative documents to the Library of Congress; one set to the Military Academy at West Point; one set to the Naval Academy at Annapolis; one set to such incorporated college, public library, athenæum, literary and scientific institution, or board of trade in each Congressional district and Territory of the United States as may be designated in a manner hereinafter provided; and the Public Printer shall deliver to the Secretary of the Interior one additional set for each additional Senator, Representative, and Delegate added to the present representation in Congress.

Public Depositories.

SEC. 4. That the Representative of each Congressional district and the Delegate in Congress of each Territory in which no institution has heretofore been designated shall name to the Secretary of the Interior one institution in his district or Territory, and each Senator from States still entitled to such designation one institution at large, to which the publications directed to be distributed under Section 3 of this act shall be delivered: Provided, however, That previous to its receiving said documents it shall signify to the Secretary of the Interior its willingness to pay all cost of transportation, to preserve them as a permanent portion of its library, accessible, free of charge, to the general public; and shall also, during the month of January of each year, report to the Secretary of the Interior the number of volumes in its library and the number of documents received from the Secretary of the Interior under the provisions of this act still in its possession; and the provisions of this proviso are hereby declared to apply to all institutions already designated as depositories of public documents; and all institutions already designated, or that shall hereafter be designated, as depositories of public documents, shall continue to receive them so long as, in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior, they remain suitable depositories of the same: Provided, That when, in consequence of the redistricting of a State, or from any other cause, any Congressional district shall include more than one such depository, the Secretary of the Interior shall select one institution to remain the depository for said district, and shall strike the other or others from the list, except in case of institutions at large, designated, or to be hereafter designated by Senators.

Private Reports.

[SEC. 5. Provides for the distribution of the [588] reports of committees of a private nature, on pensions, patents, claims, reliefs, and desertions, to be termed "private reports," including those [39] to be bound in sheep, of which the Congressional Library is to have 2 copies.]

Contested Election Reports.

[SEC. 6. Provides, as to contested election reports, for 2 copies for each member of the House in which said contest may lie; and 22 copies, in