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the present librarian, W. H. Brett. The use of the library increased from the beginning, until in 1876-77 there were is sued 189,197 volumes, or an average of 744 per day. Up to this time those using the library had been allowed access to the books. It was decided that it would no longer be advisable to permit this, and this change, together with a great reduction in the working force of the library, had the effect of lessening the next year's business to 105,000 volumes. During the succeeding years there was a steady increase until in 1885-86, 209,000 volumes were issued from the circulating department for home use, and 27,000 volumes used in the reference library.

The growth of the library has been steady from year to year until it has now over fifty-one thousand volumes. The circulating department numbers more than thirty-four thousand volumes. It covers a wide range of subjects, and the selections have been made with the intention of fairly representing each department of literature. Possibly biography and history have received somewhat more attention than other classes, and the mechanic arts somewhat less than might be expected in a city so largely engaged in manufacturing as Cleveland. The extent to which fiction should be placed in the library seems to have been from the beginning a debated question. It has not at any time been doubted that the works of the standard novelists should have a place, but the question has been to fix a standard and to decide to what extent lighter fiction should be admitted. The purchases of books from year to year have reflected the opinions of the various book committees,

and with some fluctuations have shown a tendency to draw the line higher up and to buy less of the lighter fiction. The librarian's report for 1874 notes the purchase of 1,550 novels out of a total of 3,980 books bought during the year, and defends the purchase of so large a proportion of fiction on the ground that a great majority of the users of the library read for amusement and that their preferences should be heeded. From this time there seem to have been a decided tendency in the opposite direction. Librarian Beardsley, in a paper read before the librarians' conference in May, 1882, notes with justifiable pride that during the previous seven years the library had grown from 17,000 volumes with 6,000 novels to 40,000 volumes with 7,000 novels-the entire library thus having more than doubled while the class fiction had remained about the same, due in part to smaller proportional purchases and in part to greater loss by wear in that class. The comparison quoted above gives the proportion of fiction to the entire library. By confining the comparison to the circulating department we may better estimate the use of fiction as compared with other books in the library.

The exact figures as given by the librarian's report of August 31, 1881, show 26,554 books in the circulating department, of which 7,685 were novels, from which 50.14 per cent. of the circulation was drawn. The last published report, August 31, 1886, shows 8,003 novels, out of a total of 33,865 volumes, with a circulation of 50. 17 per cent.

The proportions

are about the same-one-fourth of the books in the circulating department are novels, and from this one-fourth, one-half

of the whole number of books issued are drawn. Add to this the juvenile stories and German novels not included in the above, and it would show from sixty-five to seventy per cent. of fictitious literature issued annually. The circulating department is now kept open from 8.30 A. M. until 9 P. M.

GERMAN BOOKS.

The managers of the Humboldt festival, in 1869, expended the surplus receipts from the festival, amounting to about six hundred dollars, in the purchase of standard German authors for the library. This was the beginning of the collection of German books, which now numbers about five thousand volumes in the circulating department, and more than five hundred in the reference library. Their circulation is about in proportion to their numbers as compared with the rest of the library.

REFERENCE LIBRARY.

From the establishment of the library certain volumes had been designated as for reference only and not to be issued. As they increased in number they were placed in special cases, but it was not until the removal of the library to the City Hall, in 1875, that it was organized as a separate department. It was then placed in a commodious room on the third floor, and is noted in the librarian's report as containing 2,629 volumes. From this beginning it has grown until it now numbers 15,959 volumes. In addition to those standard encyclopædias, dictionaries, atlases and gazetteers, which are the foundation of a reference library, it has a general collection of books embracing good editions of many of the standard writers

in all departments of literature and knowledge.

It includes files of many of the leading periodicals, especially of those cited in 'Poole's Index,' the large use of which is quite an important feature of the library work. Especial attention has also been paid to the fine arts and archæology, as well as to American history, and of late to the history of our own state.

It includes many good editions, but very little that is especially rare or valuable from rarity merely or age. It has never been the policy of the library managers to buy curios or antiques, but rather to build a thoroughly practical working library.

It is open every week day from 9 A. M. to 10 P. M., and on Sundays from 1 to 9 P. M., and is largely used.

There are also over two hundred volumes, mostly bibliographical, in the librarian's office, and about one thousand volumes of surplus duplicates in the library, making the number in all over fifty-one thousand, as before noted.

The newspaper reading-room first appears in the annals of the library as a separate department in 1875, when the library was removed to the City Hall. A reading-room was then opened on the lower floor. It was largely used and proved to be a very popular feature. It was closed for lack of funds the thirtieth of June, 1877, and not again opened until the second of January, 1880, after the library had been again removed to its present quarters. It now occupies a portion of the third floor. It is used to a considerable extent, but has never been so popular or largely frequented as in its former loca

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tion on Superior street, probably in part from the fact that the present location is farther from the business centre, and in part from the fact that it is now on the third floor. It has on file daily papers from the larger cities of the United States and Canada, a fair representation of English and German papers, and the leading magazines and reviews, both American and English, as well as a few in German. One feature is a file of Ohio papers repre senting most of the counties of the state.

LEGAL AND FINANCIAL RESUMÉ.

SO

On the eighteenth of March, 1867, the legislature of Ohio passed an act by the provisions of which the boards of education of cities having by the last previous Federal census more than twenty thousand inhabitants, were authorized to levy a tax of one-tenth of a mill on the dollar valuation of the taxable property of such cities, and to expend the amount collected for the purchase of books suitable for public libraries and for "attendant expenses." It also provided that all residents of the city and of territory attached and taxed for school purposes should have the use of the library. This law was framed by the late Rev. Anson Smythe, ex-state commissioner of schools, and Mr. W. H. Price, then president of the board of education, and was intended to insure a sufficient and permanent income for the growth of the library. Under its provisions the Cleveland Public School library, or, as it is now called, the Cleveland Public library, came into existence. For nearly three years after its establishment the library was directly

under the control of the board of education.

Under the provisions of an act passed by the legislature April 3, 1867, the board of education elected, on October 2, 1871, a board of library managers consisting of six members not of its own number, but with the president of the board a member ex-officio. The board so created continued in control of the library until July 14, 1873, when four of its number resigned, leaving no quorum. The board of education did not fill the vacancies thus caused, but re-assumed the control of the library, placing it, as before, in the hands of a standing committe.

It will be remembered that by the provisions of the statute cited above, the proceeds of a levy of one-tenth of a mill were to be expended for the purchase of books and "attendant expenses." The question was early raised as to the meaning of the phrase "attendant expenses." It was referred to the attorney-general of the state and by him was decided that in the intent of the law" attendant expenses" meant binding only. Therefore the proceeds of this special levy must be expended for books and binding only, and if the board of education would maintain its library it must provide for the current expenses of the library from its other funds. This was done until May, 1877, when the question was again raised in the board of education. It was referred to the committee on judiciary and the city solicitor who decided that the vexed phrase "attendant expenses meant all expenses incident to the maintenance and management of the

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library, and that to appropriate any money from the school fund for the payment of library expenses was illegal. This decision was reported to the board of education at its meeting on June 25, and as the library fund was exhausted it was ordered that the library be closed on July 1. During the previous year the levy of onetenth mill had produced $7,161, which had been spent exclusively for books and binding, and the other expenses of the library, amounting to $10,824, had been paid from the school fund.

The circulating department of the library was re-opened on September 10 by the librarian and two assistants. Six additional assistants were employed in March, 1878, and the reference department was re-opened. The reading room remained closed. On April 8, 1878, an act passed the legislature authorizing the election by the board of education of a library committee of not less than three or more than seven members, not of their own number, for a term of two years, placing the control of the library in their hands, excepting that the board of education should fix the compensation of the librarian and assistants. It authorized the expenditure of the library fund for books, pamphlets, magazines, periodicals and journals and attendant expenses, thus providing for a newspaper reading-room, and further legalized the payment of the expenses of maintaining the library, including the salaries of the librarian and assistants by the library board. This was amended April 1, 1879, to authorize the levy of a tax of two and one-half tenths mills for the support and increase of the library, and placing

it entirely in the hands of the library committee. The revised statutes of 1880 gave the statute as amended in 1879, except that it probably inadvertently followed the original act of 1878 in giving the power of fixing the compensation of the librarian and assistants to the board of education. To remedy this an act was passed April 15, 1881, to amend section 4001 of the revised statutes and substantially repeating the amendment of 1879 in this particular.

On April 18, 1883, an act was passed changing the designation from School library to Public library, and of library committee to Public Library board, and making some changes in the form of proceedure of the board.

It was again amended April 28, 1886, fixing the number of members at seven and the term of office at three years, excepting that, "at the first election, two members shall be elected for one year, two for two years and three for three years. After said first election as many shall be elected each year as equals the number whose term expires that year." This arrangement secures greater permanence in the board and provides against the possibility of an entire change in its personnel at one time, as was possible at the end of each term of two years under the former arrangement.

The first president of the library board was the late Judge Sherlock J. Andrews. He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. John W. Brown, then rector of Trinity church. His successors in the order mentioned were General M. D. Leggett, Mr. John G. White and Dr. H. C. Brainerd, now presiding for a second term.

During the first years of the board the

librarian seems to have been also secretary of the board. Since 1880 the following gentlemen have filled that position: Mr. E. M. Hessler, Mr. William J. Gleason and Mr. L. Breckenridge. The last named gentleman has been a member of the board since 1881, and chairman or member of the most important committees, and has freely given much time and valuable service to the library. Among those who have been members of previous boards might be

mentioned Colonel John Hay, Dr. William Meyer, Colonel W. F. Hinman, Dr. H. McQuiston, Messrs. L. F. Bauder, H. C. Ranney and E. Klussmann. Previous to the establishment of the library board the following were among the members of the board of education especially interested in the library: Dr. D. B. Smith, Messrs. W. J. Akers, Thomas A. Stow, James W. Carson, C. B. Bernard and Judge E. J. Blandin.

W. H. BRETT.

THE EARLY DAYS OF MINNEAPOLIS.*

THIRTY-NINE years ago last June, the first colony was planted in the boundaries of what is now Hennepin county. At that time Chicago was an outpost, Milwaukee an Indian trading locality, and all the great cities, the flourishing towns, the rich agricultural districts of the northwest of the present day, were not. A band of hardy pioneers, natives of a foreign soil, came down from the north to seek a home. They selected the numerous springs about a mile this side of Fort Snelling, and for years tilled the soil and attended their flocks. Thus we find that before emigration had been attracted into Wisconsin, Illinois or Iowa, a small handful of colo

*This interesting and valuable paper upon the early days of one of the thriving cities of the northwest, and one of the great places of the future, was prepared by Colonel John H. Stevens for the banquet of Old Settlers' Association of Hennepin county, Minnesota, on February 22, 1867. It will be found replete with facts well worthy of permanent preservation.-[EDITOR MAGAZINE.

nists from the Hudson bay country and Prince Rupert's Land ferreted out and improved the advantages which so many have since found in the bosom of Hennepin county. These people were not suffered to remain, but were obliged to leave by the strong arm of military rule, and subsequently went east of the Mississippi, where many of them even to this day reside.

In 1822 Lieutenant Camp, United States army, set the first plow in motion in order to open up vegetables to the soldiers. The experiment was considered a hazardous one, but it proved successful. Lieutenant Camp died two years afterwards, at the fort, and his ashes are mingling with the dust in the old military graveyard of Fort Snelling. He was the first person who proved the virtue of our soil.

In May, 1830, Philander Prescott, who was so barbarously murdered on the afternoon of the nineteenth day of

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