y.

Let us gather the children in; give "milk for babies," in the
illustrated books which they may understand though they cannot read;
juvenile magazines and literature of a healthy nature to counteract the
pernicious trash that is flooding our communities.

It is only necessary to refer you to the specimens of flash literature
which our boys have relinquished to us, with pale faces and trembling
hands, after reading from the scrapbook here on exhibition the cuttings
from the newspapers of the day showing the bad influence of the dime
novel. It tells its own story far better than I can tell it, and the one
in whose mind this great remedial agent originated is daily blest in
seeing the good results of his experiment.

Help the children to begin early to understand that even they are of use
in a community; awaken their pride and ambition in the right direction,
and their future is assured.

If there are those who doubt the practicability of this work, and, like
Hosea Bigelow, would

"Give more for one live bobolink
Than a square mile of larks in printer's ink,"

come and see our "Flower Band," numbering 200 children, gathered from
the little girls and boys who frequent our library and reading-room,
from five years of age to fourteen; from the little fellow who brings
three wilted daisies, or a rose without a stem, to the dainty miss with
a bouquet from the greenhouse.

Their badges signify a pledge to bring flowers once a week (if
possible), and to respond to a call to distribute them in any place
where they will add a bit of brightness to a shadowed household; also to
seek out such homes and report them. Several names have been already
stricken from our list, of those who have died leaving a blessing for
these little missionaries.

The influence of this work upon the children and the community cannot be
told. It must be seen to be appreciated.

I have endeavored to show that upon the influence of the public library
working in harmony with the spirit of the churches and the schools, with
the single object of the highest welfare of the people, depends much of
the prosperity, morality, and culture of our industrial communities--I
might also say of our country; but when we consider that there are less
than 6,000 public libraries in the United States, are we not tempted to
say in the words of old, "What are they among so many?"

But let us remember that the same spirit that gave power to feed the
multitud