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Show Free Library a Great Power for Land. Salt Lake is to be congratulated upon the fact that generous John Q. Packard proposes to hasten the building of the new public library. Xotbing better could happen to the city. While the library has been for years and is now a power for good the influence-of which is hard to estimate, only those who have the work in charge or who have made a careful study of the situation know how handicapped the institution is in its present quarters. For the greater portion of each day the reference and reading read-ing rooms are-too crowded to be comfortable and the space assigned the books in circulation is too small to admit of proper classification or easy handling han-dling by the librarians. The children need a sepa-. rate room, one large, enough to hold several hnn- dred, for the little booklovers of Salt Lake are numbered num-bered by thousands. ,The taste for good, healthful literature is not so rare as many suppose, it is largely large-ly the cheapness of the "Deadwood Dick" style of story that uiakes it the meiital food of so many youths. W hen every boy is certain that1 there is a quiet corner atnd a stirring tale of war Or adventure adven-ture waiting for him in the public library, a majority of them will be only too glad to take advantage of the opportunity presented. And this suggests the thought that opportunity to enjoy and profit by the use of a library comes to many only upon one day of the week, Sunday. Those whose hours of labor are long, whose toil is such that when home is reached they are too weary to do anything except rest, and there are many to whom" this applies, have only Sunday for getting out of the rdutine of their work and keeping in touch with the deeper and broader currents of life. Few of these men can afford even a small collection of books at home, they need and should be given the opportunity to profit by the city's great collection during their only day of recre- ation and rest. In a large measure the library means more to the poor 'man of intellectual tastes than to any one else. Many who by force of circumstances cir-cumstances are barred from using other means for the development of culture, find among the masters of literature almost their only chance for higher pleasures. It is essential that those whose opportunities opportu-nities are so limited should not be denied the privileges privi-leges of self-improvement, for many of the temptations tempta-tions to idleness and soul suicide know neither nights nor Sundays, but are an ever present influence. influ-ence. The library can and shodld be one of the greatest powers for the public good known to civic life. ' |