y useful collections of books open to the public in this country. Of
all the greater collections, it is the only one which lends out books
free of charge to all citizens. Instituted in 1852, its career has been
one of rapid progress and ever widening usefulness. I shall not dwell
upon it at length, as the facts regarding it have been more widely
published than those relating to any other library.

Under the permissive library laws of thirty States, there had been formed
up to 1896, when the last comprehensive statistics were gathered, about
1,200 free public libraries, supported by taxation, in the United States.

A still more widely successful means of securing a library foundation
that shall be permanent is found in uniting private benefactions with
public money to found or to maintain a library. Many public-spirited
citizens, fortunately endowed with large means, have offered to erect
library buildings in certain places, on condition that the local
authorities would provide the books, and the means of maintaining a free
library. Such generous offers, whether coupled with the condition of
perpetuating the donor's name with that of the library, or leaving the
gift unhampered, so that the library may bear the name of the town or
city of its location, have generally been accepted by municipal bodies,
or by popular vote. This secures, in most cases, a good working library
of choice reading, as well as its steady annual growth and management,
free of the heavy expense of building, of which the tax-payers are
relieved. The many munificent gifts of library buildings by Mr. Andrew
Carnegie, to American towns and cities, and to some in his native
Scotland, are worthy of special note. And the reader will see from the
long list heretofore given of the more considerable public libraries to
be credited wholly or in part to private munificence, that American men
of wealth have not been wanting as public benefactors.

In some cases, whole libraries have been given to a town or village where
a public library already existed, or liberal gifts or bequests of money,
to be expended in the enrichment of such libraries, have been bestowed.
Very interesting lists of benefactions for the benefit of libraries may
be found in the volumes of the Library Journal, New York. It is with
regret that candor requires me to add, that several proffers of fine
library buildings to certain places, coupled with the condition that the
municipal authorities