the librarian may guide reading by stimulating that love--a
paper by Mrs. Sanders of the Pawtucket Public Library (long
lovingly known among librarians as "Mawtucket of
Pawtucket").

Minerva Amanda Sanders was born in Providence, R.I., Feb. 1,
1837. About 1876 she became librarian of the subscription
library in Pawtucket, R.I., organized in 1852, which
preceded the present free library; and when about six months
later it was turned over to the town, she continued in
charge, serving until her death, March 20, 1912. Mrs.
Sanders did notable pioneer work in her profession,
especially in the adoption of free access to books and in
work with children. This paper was read at the Thousand
Islands Conference of the American Library Association in
1887.

Sir John Herschel, in an address to the working people of Windsor and
Eton upon the occasion of opening a public library for their use in
1839, said:--

"If I were to pray for a taste, which should stand me in stead under
every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and
cheerfulness to me through life, and as a shield against its ills
however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a
taste for reading.

"Give a man this taste and a means of gratifying it, and you can hardly
fail of making a happy man, unless, indeed, you put into his hands a
most perverse selection of books.

"You place him in contact with the best society in every period of
history; with the wisest, the wittiest, with the tenderest, the bravest,
and the purest characters who have adorned humanity.

"You make him a denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages. The
world has been created for him. It is hardly possible but the character
should take a higher and better tone from the constant habit of
associating in thought with a class of thinkers, to say the least of it,
above the average of humanity.

"It is morally impossible but that the manners should take a tinge of
good breeding and civilization from having constantly before one's eyes
the way in which the best-bred and the best-informed men have talked and
conducted themselves in their intercourse with each other.

"There is a gentle but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit of
reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man's character and
conduct, which is not the less effectual because it is really the last
thing he dreams of.