library of scientific literature. This decision has been confirmed by the adoption of a scheme for the division of the field recommended, by representatives of the three public libraries of the city. The special field of the John Crerar Library will be accordingly, that of the natural, physical, and social sciences, and their applications.

The total endowment is estimated to be over $2,500,000, and the income should be sufficient ultimately to allow the making of a great collection within the proposed limits. The directors having decided not to encroach upon the endowment, for the purchase of land or the creation of a permanent building, accommodations have been secured on the sixth floor of the Marshall Field Building, 87 Wabash Ave., which are to be opened to the public as soon as a sufficient number of books have been placed on the shelves and catalogued. A full staff has been appointed, and the work of selecting, purchasing and cataloguing the books is being prosecuted as rapidly as possible. The library will probably contain 35,000 volumes before the close of the year and will present a selection of possibly 20,000 on the opening date.

OTHER LIBRARIES AND INSTITUTIONS.

The University of Chicago has an ample book fund and is using it freely. Mrs. Zella A. Dixon is the librarian in charge of this collection, which is rich in all that pertains to educational work. A world of pamphlets and treatises is found in this library and these with bound books foot up a total of over 485,000 volumes, of which 305,000 are bound copies. It is the aim of the management to make this the greatest university library on the globe and for so young an institution great strides in this direction have been achieved. This is the second largest college library in America, Harvard being the first.

The Chicago Law Institute Library is one of the most valuable in its special field. Nearly 3,200 volumes, covering the legal lore of the ages, are accessible to members, and so economically are the affairs of the institute administered, that less than $12,000 per year is expended in its support. The Chicago Law Institute is a pioneer, having been organized in 1857. In the great fire of 1871 it lost its valuable collection.

One of the best evidences that not only does Chicago but the whole country appreciate the value of such training as the Armour

Institute of Technology provides, is the fact that practically all the classes in this institute are full. Between 300 and 400 applications for admission to some of the classes have been necessarily refused during the year. Students are here from twenty states, and the South especially, is well represented. The enrollment in 1893 4, first year, was 1,050 and about 1,500 applications were denied. For 1896-7 the enrollment is about 1,200. In the scientific academy about one-third are young ladies. In the associated departments nearly all are girls and young ladies.

The principle of self-dependence is emphasized in this institution. While the terms are reasonable, there are no free courses. If a young man cannot pay cash, his note, drawn at from one year to five years, and, indeed, for a longer time if needed, is frequently accepted in payment of tuition. The institution is conducted upon business principles.

The library of the Armour Institute, consisting of nearly 13,000 volumes, embraces just such a collection as one would anticipate finding in an educational institution of such scope and reputation. Scientific works, books on mechanical engineering and educational volumes predominate. The library has been well selected and covers pretty fully the field designated by the institute. Students are permitted to withdraw books for home reading.

In an elegantly appointed building in Lincoln Park the Chicago Academy of Sciences has recently found a permanent home. Some 5,000 volumes, many of surpassing interest, and thousands of specimens, are features of this early-day society. The first collection was lost in the fire of 1871, but an energetic management soon began the work of reconstruction, and its efforts have been continuous and successful.

The Field Columbian Museum, with its wealth of curios, specimens, old manuscripts and books, has already acquired international fame. The world is being ransacked for treasures for this great enterprise, and neither money, research nor travel are spared to make this the foremost institution of its kind on the globe. Though but three years old, the Field Museum ranks in many respects with any similar institution on this continent.

The Lewis Institute is a splendidly equipped educational institution and is an enduring monument to the broad philanthropy of Mr. Allen A. Lewis, a former Chicagoan, who died in New York in 1887. This great edifice is located in the heart of the West

Side, at Madison and Robey streets. It was opened September 21st, 1896, at an expense of nearly $500,000. Its assets are $1,600,000, nearly $1,000,000 of which are in revenue-producing investments. This school is designed to furnish a practical education at a nominal cost, and occupies a field specially inviting to the poor but studious and ambitious young man. There are now 3,000 volumes on its shelves, and books are coming in rapidly.

In the reference libraries of the public schools there are more than 200,000 bound volumes. The Art Institute has a valuable collection of 1,600 volumes. Ten Catholic educational institutions report 47,000 volumes in their libraries.

BOOK TRADE.

The book trade in this city is an extensive one. One firm printed about 2,000,000 bound books in 1896 and nearly 3,000,000 paper volumes. Until recent years, few juvenile books were printed in Chicago. Most of the books for the young used in this country were printed in Germany. Now, however, this city is doing a large business in this class of publications. One firm issued 800,000 "juveniles" in 1895 and 1,200,000 in 1896. This concern has about 500 employes on its pay rolls. There are at least two large firms in the field, each with a separate and complete series of school books embracing the best thought of advanced educators. Three or four other houses also print school books, according to the demand. Chicago leads in map engraving and printing, and has the largest house in this line of trade in the world. This firm printed 30,000 maps, including railroad folders, in one year, though its output for 1896 fell below that figure. During several years Chicago furnished railroad maps to two of the principal railroads in England. Chicago has the largest book distributing house in America. This firm reports about the average business during 1896 in their book department, and that 30 new titles, bearing their imprint as publishers, were issued during the year. The fact that good reading is in constantly increasing demand in the west is proven by the library associations that are being founded, even in small villages, and also by the statistics of the trade showing that the better class of books in a literary sense are being more widely and generally circulated.

A careful canvas of the leading printing houses, lithographers and binders, shows an increase of over 1,400 names on the pay

rolls as compared with 1895. About 35,000 bound books, ranging from large sized encyclopedias, dictionaries and atlases down to little 12-mos., school books and "juveniles," was the daily average of Chicago publishers in 1896. Add to these, paper

covered series published, and the production for the year represents in value between $23,000,000 and $24,000,000 at jobbers prices. This valuation is strikingly significant and indicates that our leading publishers have invaded every market in the country, and that Chicago bookmen are found wherever a demand for books can be created. The publication of the works of popular authors on the subscription plan and sales of books on the installment system, if not an original Chicago idea as claimed, is being prosecuted here very successfully. More subscription books are printed here than in any other city in the world. It is noteworthy, in this connection, that the displacement of skilled labor in printing offices by the introduction of laborsaving machinery-notably the Linotype machine for type setting

has resulted in the establishment of several small printing plants by those thus thrown out of employment. Omitting many small shops, that employ from two to four persons, we find that the printing trades gave employment during the year to 10,750 persons, as against 9,386 in 1895. Of this total, 2,751 were women, and 100 boys and girls under the age of 16. In the figures here given, no account is taken of those employed by the various Chicago dailies, which in their various departments afford employment to thousands of high class and well paid workers.

The foregoing facts, together with the corresponding ones of previous years, presenting a phase of Chicago's life often overlooked, account in large measure for the development and greatness of Chicago, and for that resourcefulness which, more than once in her history, has surprised the world.

The Chicago Public Library, the John Crerar Library and the Newberry Library have adopted a joint system of classification, which will not only unify them and add greatly to the convenience of the general reading public, but will also greatly increase their

respective special efficiencies and book-purchasing capacities by the prevention of unnecessary covering of the same ground.

The following is the general classification :

Public Library-All wholesomely entertaining and generally instructive books, especially those which are desired by the citizens for general home use. Also, collections of newspapers, patents, government documents, books for the blind and works on architecture and the decorative arts.

Newberry Library-Literature, language, history, sociology, philosophy, religion, fine arts in part, medicine.

John Crerar Library-Philosophy, physical and natural sciences, useful arts, fine arts in part, sociology. Medicine is omitted from the scope of the John Crerar Library and included in the Newberry Library because of the value of the collection already made by the Newberry. The demand for literature on the subject of sociology is so great that it is included in the fields of both reference libraries.

It is expected that a general catalogue of all three libraries, and also of the Art Institute and Chicago University libraries, in accordance with the new classifications, will be published during the present year. By means of the union catalogue, the Chicago citizen will be able to learn where he can at once find any book contained in the great libraries of the city.

WHEAT.

The year opened with a stock of about 21,200,000 bushels of wheat in store as against 26,000,000 upon the corresponding date in 1895, and a visible supply in the United States (excepting California) and Canada of 69,842,000 bushels, as against 87,886,000 bushels in 1895. The opening price was 57 cents per bushel for No. 2 spring, which was about 4 cents per bushel higher than upon the corresponding date of 1895. From the first of the month of January, prices grew steadily stronger, closing upon the 31st at 63 to 64 cents per bushel. The improvement continued through February with the same steadiness, and sales were made on the lat