South Orange (N. J.) F. L. Eugene F. Connett, president of the village board of trustees, has given a fine lot of land, 50 by about 125 feet, for the erection of a library building for the South Orange Free Library, the building to cost about $7500. Mr. Henry A. Page, another wealthy resident ofthe vicinity, has signified his willingness to give $1000 toward the building, provided the balance necessary shall be secured without placing a mortgage on the building. Some two months previous to this, what may be called the real nucleus of the building fund was created by the efforts of five little girls, aged about 12 to 14, who held a fair and sent the proceeds, $40, to the treasurer of the library, "to be devoted to the building fund," not then existing.

Southampton (L. I.) P. L. The sum of $5000 has already been subscribed toward a public library building. It is hoped that at least $15,000 can be raised.

Superior (Wis.) P. L. The "citizens' committee on retrenchment" has made the following recommendation in its report submitted to the city council:

"That Superior Public Library be reduced from $5000 to $2500.

"To permit of this reduction we suggest that the library board dispense with the service of one assistant and all distributing offices and expenses connected therewith; that they reduce the salary of the librarian to $40 per month and the rent of the library to the same figure; that they also reduce the amount of reading-matter in the reading-room, thus curtailing the expenses of subscriptions to magazines and weekly and daily papers, and that they close the library from 5 to 7 p.m. and open it from 7 to 9 p.m., thus reducing the expense of light. With these reductions, $2500 will be ample, and as the library may be considered more or less of a luxury, we believe the reductions recommended should certainly be made." This recommendation, together with the others contained in the report, was unanimously adopted.

Tacoma (Wash.) City L. A four-months' course of Friday evening lectures is being conducted under the auspices of the library board. There are 12 lectures in the course, and season tickets are sold at $1; single tickets, for adults, are 25 cents, or a book; for children, 10 cents, or a book. The lectures are by different persons, and cover history, literature, and travel.

opened on Dec. 15, in its new quarters, and an informal reception was held. The new library rooms are not only far more convenient and spacious, but have been attractively decorated and fitted up.

Washington, D. C. Congressional L. Mr. will be ready for occupancy by the summer of Spofford believes that the new library building 1896, and that the library could probably be removed from its present quarters by the middle of that year.

The work on the building is being pressed forward with all possible speed, about 400 men being employed upon it. The principal work now in progress is on the marble finishing of the interior of the building; the marble-work on the rotunda or main reading-room of the library is almost complete, but work on the hall of the main stairway has not progressed so far. These two apartments adjoin, and enough has been done on both to justify the prediction that the effect will be equal to the highest expectations of the designers. The hall will be finished in Italian marble; in the elaborate reading-room there is a comingling of Numidian, Sienna, and Tennessee marble. The African stone is used for the pillars and pilasters, the Sienna for the screens and galleries and the American for bases only. The marblework in the entire building will cost $600,000.

Besides the series of nine colossal granite busts, which will form a part of the exterior decoration of the library, there are to be various other important decorations for the interior of the building in the line of statuary. General T: L. Casey, chief of engineers, desires to have the reading-room, a grand octagonal hall, suitably provided with works of art, and especially with statuary by American artists; and for a year he has been in consultation with the National Sculpture Society with reference to this matter. With the advice of three of the sculptors - Augustus St. Gaudens, J. Q. A. Ward, and Olin L. Warner

he has already outlined the scheme and given out some of the commissions. In each of the eight corners of the room a colossal statue will stand, representing Art, Religion, Law, Science, Philosophy, History, Commerce, and Poetry. With each of these colossal statues will go two smaller statues -Michaelangelo and Beethoven with Art, Moses and St. Paul with Religion, and so on. This plan contemplates giving American artists an unprecedented opportunity to display their capacity both in ideal and portrait figures.

FOREIGN.

Belfast (Irel.) F. P. L. (6th rpt.) Additions not given; total, lending 1. 16,305 v., ref. 1. 15,478; issued, home use 213,402 (fict. 63.37 %), turnover of stock 13.08; issued, ref. use 40,060. Visitors to news-rooms, 780,257; no. cardholders 7099.

rooms will be lined with bookcases, and stacks will be added by degrees.

The library has at present about 20,000 volumes, but the number will be very largely increased during the next four or five months, and the shelving, to be at once provided, will accommodate about 50,000 volumes. The arrangements are being so carried out that probably, if necessity arose, 100,000 volumes could be stored in the library.

Philadelphia P. Ls. The liberal policy of the city council in appropriating for 1895 $50,000 to the board of education for its branch libraries, may be taken as definitely marking the success of the free library movement in Philadelphia. The appropriation is an increase of $25,000 over that allowed for 1894, and will enable the board to establish two more branch libraries during the next few months. It has already been decided

that one of these branches shall be located in the

West Philadelphia Institute, at 40th and Ludlow streets, where there is already a small library belonging to the Young Men's Institute. It is the intention of Chairman H: R. Edmunds, of the board of education's public libraries committee, to add 10,000 books to this collection, and to open the new library in the spring. The other branch will probably be opened in Germantown. The growth of the free libraries established by the board of education has been remarkable. The first was organized in 1892, when an appropriation of $15,000 was made to the board, with which Branch No. I was established. This was followed by $25,000 in 1893, and the same amount in 1894, with which branches have been opened at Roxborough, Broad and Federal

streets, and Frankford avenue and Norris street.

With this small sum-$65,000-41,000 volumes have been collected in the three years, and the expenses of the four libraries, which require 28 librarians and assistants, have been met. There are over 26,000 registered borrowers, and the circulation for 1894 was 525,438 volumes, an increase of 335,916 over the record of 1893.

The four libraries that have already been established have become so popular that the rooms are not large enough to comfortably accommodate the very large number of persons using them. At Branch I (Wagner Institute) 1825 volumes were issued on Saturday, Nov. 24, and this was only a slight increase over the record of other Saturdays. The total circulation for the year was 224,130 v. This is an increase of 79.000 v. over the record of last year. There are 14,800 names registered as cardholders, and the number of v. cataloged is 15.679. All the work of the branch is done in one room 25 x 70 ft. The circulation at the other branches for 1894 is: Branch 2, 26,290 v.; Branch 3. 80,637 v. Branch 4. 71,510 v. Branch 4 was opened in March and Branch 3 in May.

Providence (R. 1.) P. L. By Nov. 1, the date by which plans for the new library building were to be submitted to the committee, that body had received nine sets of plans from local architects, which were forwarded to the consulting architect, Prof. W: R. Ware, of Columbia College, to be examined and reported on.

On

Rindge, N. H. Ingalls Memorial L. Dec. 17 the Ingalls Memorial Library, given to Rindge by the Hon. Rodney Wallace, of Fitchburg, was formally made over to the selectmen of the town. The offer of the library was made in June, 1894, when Mr. Wallace offered to build on a site belonging to him, "a good substantial building, complete in all particulars, to be used for a free public library and readingrooms, to be called the Ingalls memorial library,' to cost not less than $5000," and to give "a deed of the building and land to the $500 be raised and expended within one year town of Rindge, on condition that the sum of after the completion of the building for the purchase of books, and also that the sum of $1000 be raised, to be kept as a permanent fund, the income of which is to be used annually for the purchase of books, or for the care of the library, as the trustees each year may deem best." The proposition was at once accepted by the town, with Mr. Wallace's request. and appropriations were made in accordance completed in December, 1894. and was made over The building was to the town furnished and equipped in every detail, even to a supply of coal for the coming year. The deed to the town was accompanied by a check for $1000 to be invested, and the check for $500 to be used for the purchase of income devoted to caring for the building, and a postponed until next summer. books. The dedication of the building has been Mr. Ingalls, of whom the library is a memorial, was the fatherin-law of Mr. Wallace.

modern Romanesque style of architecture; it is The library building is 40 x 47 feet, of the built of pressed brick and sandstone, with granwhich is a course of sandstone ashlar work three ite underpinning, immediately surmounting feet high, capped by a nine-inch water-table of the same stone. Access to the building is through a handsomely carved archway, nine feet wide. The vestibule is four by 10 feet, the waiting-room 10 by 131⁄2, directly in front of which is the delivery-desk, with the book-room

beyond, which is 19 by 32% feet, and capable of accommodating about 8500 books. On the right of the waiting-room is the art-room, 121⁄2 by 21 feet, and on the left the reading-room, of the same dimensions, both connected with the waiting-room by sliding doors. Both rooms have open fireplaces. The attic is well lighted, and can at any time be finished into a hall. The finish in the book-room is western ash, all the rest of the first floor being quartered oak, wainscoted to the height of three feet with with the exception of the vestibule, which is marble, and has a tiled floor. The attic is fin

ished in white wood.

South Orange (N. J.) F. L. Eugene F. Connett, president of the village board of trustees, has given a fine lot of land, 50 by about 125 feet, for the erection of a library building for the South Orange Free Library, the building to cost about $7500. Mr. Henry A. Page, another wealthy resident ofthe vicinity, has signified his willingness to give $1000 toward the building, provided the balance necessary shall be secured without placing a mortgage on the building. Some two months previous to this, what may be called the real nucleus of the building fund was created by the efforts of five little girls, aged about 12 to 14, who held a fair and sent the proceeds, $40, to the treasurer of the library, "to be devoted to the building fund," not then existing.

Southampton (L. I.) P. L. The sum of $5000 has already been subscribed toward a public library building. It is hoped that at least $15,000 can be raised.

Superior (Wis.) P. L. The "citizens' committee on retrenchment" has made the following recommendation in its report submitted to the city council:

"That Superior Public Library be reduced from $5000 to $2500.

"To permit of this reduction we suggest that the library board dispense with the service of one assistant and all distributing offices and expenses connected therewith; that they reduce the salary of the librarian to $40 per month and the rent of the library to the same figure; that they also reduce the amount of reading-matter in the reading-room, thus curtailing the expenses of subscriptions to magazines and weekly and daily papers, and that they close the library from 5 to 7 p.m. and open it from 7 to 9 p.m., thus reducing the expense of light. With these reductions, $2500 will be ample, and as the library may be considered more or less of a luxury, we believe the reductions recommended should certainly be made." This recommendation, together with the others contained in the report, was unanimously adopted.

Tacoma (Wash.) City L. A four-months' course of Friday evening lectures is being conducted under the auspices of the library board. There are 12 lectures in the course, and season tickets are sold at $1; single tickets, for adults, are 25 cents, or a book; for children, 10 cents, or a book. The lectures are by different persons, and cover history, literature, and travel.

opened on Dec. 15, in its new quarters, and an informal reception was held. The new library rooms are not only far more convenient and spacious, but have been attractively decorated and fitted up.

Washington, D. C. Congressional L. Mr. will be ready for occupancy by the summer of Spofford believes that the new library building 1896, and that the library could probably be removed from its present quarters by the middle of that year.

The work on the building is being pressed forward with all possible speed, about 400 men being employed upon it. The principal work now in progress is on the marble finishing of the interior of the building; the marble-work on the rotunda or main reading-room of the library is almost complete, but work on the hall of the main stairway has not progressed so far. These two apartments adjoin, and enough has been done on both to justify the prediction that the effect will be equal to the highest expectations of the designers. The hall will be finished in Italian marble; in the elaborate reading-room there is a comingling of Numidian, Sienna, and Tennessee marble. The African stone is used for the pillars and pilasters, the Sienna for the screens and galleries and the American for bases only. The marblework in the entire building will cost $600,000.

Besides the series of nine colossal granite busts, which will form a part of the exterior decoration of the library, there are to be various other important decorations for the interior of the building in the line of statuary. General T: L. Casey, chief of engineers, desires to have the reading-room, a grand octagonal hall, suitably provided with works of art, and especially with statuary by American artists; and for a year he has been in consultation with the National Sculpture Society with reference to this matter. With the advice of three of the sculptors-Augustus St. Gaudens, J. Q. A. Ward, and Olin L. Warner

he has already outlined the scheme and given out some of the commissions. In each of the eight corners of the room a colossal statue will stand, representing Art, Religion, Law, Science, Philosophy, History, Commerce, and Poetry. With each of these colossal statues will go two smaller statues -Michaelangelo and Beethoven with Art, Moses and St. Paul with Religion, and so on. This plan contemplates giving American artists an unprecedented opportunity to display their capacity both in ideal and portrait figures.

FOREIGN.

Belfast (Irel.) F. P. L. (6th rpt.) Additions not given; total, lending 1. 16,305 v., ref. 1. 15,478; issued, home use 213,402 (fict. 63.37%), turnover of stock 13.08; issued, ref. use 40,060. Visitors to news-rooms, 780,257; no. cardholders 7099.