USA > Michigan > Genesee County > Flint > The book of the golden jubilee of Flint, Michigan 1855-1905. Published under the auspices of the Executive committee of the golden jubilee and old homecoming reunion > Part 18
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"I do not mean to intimate that we should never come to this library to read for pleasure and entertainment. One of the great and proper uses of books is to refresh and amuse us in our hours of weariness and depression. Like the society of our choicest friends, they may wisely be sought for the sole purpose of diverting our minds from the flood of cares and troubles which come in upon all of us. The library may well be
"The world's sweet inn from care and wearisome turmoil." Or in our happy and merry moods we may seek congenial company in the creations of Cervantes and Moliere and Shakespeare and Dickens and Mark Twain. Reading for pastime is a commendable occupation, if wisely followed. Lowell, in his paradoxical style, tells us that what Dr. John- son called browsing in a library is the only way in which time can be profitably wasted. But to browse profitably one should have an appetite only for what has some merit. I have known lads born with a literary instinct as unerring as that of the bee for finding honey, to have the free run of a large library and come out with a wonderful range of good learning. Such instances show the unwisdom of having the same rules to guide every one in his reading. In such cases
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as those just cited the example and taste of the parents often determine the success of the experiment. The books they talk about fondly at table and quote from freely and ap- positely are likely to arrest the attention of the child. There- fore we may say that the home as truly as the school may largely determine what advantage shall be gained in this library. Parents who, for their children's sake, are careful what guests they admit to their house and what companion- ships they counsel the children to form may well consider what reading comes under their roof and what literary tastes they encourage in their household.
"In these days when reviews and magazines and school histories of literature abound, there seems ground for one caution to youthful readers. It is not to be content with reading about great books, and great men, but to study the works themselves of great men. Many of the outlines of English Literature, for example, which pupils in school are required to study, contain dates and names and brief descrip- tions of masterpieces, and from the nature of the case, can contain little else. But cramming the memory with these is not learning the literature. Reading, mastering, and learn- ing to appreciate and love one of the great works of a great author is better than to learn the dry facts in the lives of a score of authors. So our magazines and reviews treat us to criticisms sometimes wise, and sometimes unwise, of many authors. But all these are of little value until the works themselves of the authors have been studied. With the works the biographies of the authors should be read in order to appreciate the conditions under which the works were pro- duced. But far better is it to gain a thorough acquaintance with one great writer's life and works than to learn a few fragmentary facts at second hand about the lives and writ- ings of many.
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"One of the most difficult questions to settle in these days in the selection of books for a library or in directing the read- ing of the young is, how large shall be the proportion of fic- tion in a library or in the reading of any one. Just now we are flooded with fiction, stretching from the short story of the magazine to the two-volume novel. I observe that nearly two-thirds of the volumes drawn from one important library in Michigan (in 1901-02) are classed under the two heads of juvenile fiction and fiction. And I suppose the expe- rience of other popular libraries is similar. This shows at least that there is a great craving for fiction. That craving a library like this must, to a fair degree, strive to meet. Nor need we regret that there is a strong desire for sterling works of fiction. They stimulate and nourish the imagination. They give us vivid pictures of life. They portray for us the work- ing of human passions. They give reality to history. Some- times they cultivate a taste for reading in those who would otherwise be inclined to read little, and so lead them to other branches of literature.
"But on the other hand, I think it must be confessed that a great deal of the fiction which is now deluging the market is the veriest trash or worse than trash. Much of it is posi- tively bad in its influence. It awakens morbid passions. It deals in most exaggerated representations of life. It is vicious in style.
"It is a most delicate task for the authorities of a library like this to draw the line between the works of fiction which should be and those which should not be found on its shelves. As to the individual reader the best we can do is to elevate his taste as rapidly as we can by placing in his hands fiction attractive at once in its matter and in its style. We must hope that with the cultivation of taste to which our best schools aspire, we can rear a generation which will prefer
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the best things in literature to the inferior. That is the reason why the teachers of languages and literature in our schools should be not mere linguists, but persons of refined literary taste, who will imbue their pupils with a love for the truest and highest in every literature which they can read.
"I would like to commend to my young friends who desire to profit by the use of this library the habit of reading with some system and of making brief notes upon the contents of the books they read. If, for instance, you are studying the history of some period, ascertain what works you need to study and finish such parts of them as concern your theme. Do not feel obliged to read the whole of a large treatise, but select such chapters as touch on the subject in hand and omit the rest for the time. Young students often get swamped and lose their way in Serbonian bogs of learning, when they need to explore only a simple and plain pathway to a specific destination. Have a purpose and a plan and adhere to it in spite of alluring temptations to turn aside into attractive fields that are remote from your subject. If in a note book you will, on finishing a work, jot down the points of importance in the volume and the references to the page or chapter, you will frequently find it of the greatest service to run over these notes and refresh your memory. If you are disposed to add some words of comment or criticism on the book, that prac- tice also will make you a more attentive reader, and will make an interesting record for you to consult. .
"If it is ever allowable to envy another, we may envy the happy giver of this building the just satisfaction with which he may look upon the completion of this work. Here he has opened a fountain, the streams whereof shall make glad gen- erations to come. They shall look upon this home as the place where they have received intellectual stimulus and nour. ishment. Some even may remember it as the place of
JUBILEE PARADE-DETROIT COMMANDERY NO. 1, KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.
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their first real intellectual awakening, we might say, of their intellectual birth. How many a toiling mother, who in her poverty is unable to supply her eager minded children with the simplest books, will daily speak her word of blessing on the noble man who has opened the intellectual treasures of the world to her household. Here is the shrine of true Ameri- can democracy, for here the child of the washerwoman sit by the side of the child of the millionaire and with equal freedom hold sweet communion with the great and good of all ages. The eye can rest on no more charming scene than will be witnessed daily in this beautiful temple of learning, where ingenuous students of every station in life, whether clad in the coarse jeans of the workman or in the broadcloth of the wealthy, will be seen pursuing their studies with exactly the same opportunities of making their way to a position of eminence and usefulness among the great scholars of the world. May we not say with pride that this opening of high intellectual privileges to all is in full accord with the historic state, has offered to every child within its borders the oppor- tunity to enjoy almost without cost all the privileges of edu- cation from those of the primary school up to the highest the spirit of Michigan which, from the day of its birth as a University can give."
The next address was delivered by the Hon. W. W. Crapo, as follows :
"There is nothing which more clearly marks the intel- lectual progress of Flint during the last fifty years than this edifice which today is dedicated to free public use. In it is represented the desire for broader knowledge, a more perfect mental culture, a closer acquaintance with the best thought of the past and present and a clearer insight into the investiga- tions and achievements of modern science. To satisfy the hungry longings of the mind, this building has been erected
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in order that it may serve as the repository in which to store the intellectual treasures of the world and from which the people, old and young, can draw for their enjoyment, their enlightenment and their inspiration.
"Libraries have stimulated and aided and, to a certain degree. have measured the civilization of nations and the in- telligence of communities. Where learning is repressed and books are denied there is subjugation and superstition. Where education prevails and books are easily accessible there will be found improved social order, a clearer conception of indi- vidual rights and duties, a higher standard of public responsi- bility and greater freedom. Every additional library creates a new center of intellectual life working for the elevation of mankind to a higher plane.
"It has been mentioned that the residence across the way facing the library building was the home of my father, a citi- zen of Flint respected and honored by his fellow townsmen. This circumstance in itself has little or no significance, but Mr. Chairman, your kindly mention of him today, prompts me to allude, perhaps not inappropriately on this occasion, to his early struggle for education and to contrast the present with the past. He was born on a docky New England farm which, by insistent and unremitting hard work, with the practice of painstaking frugality, furnished a scanty livlihood. The pros- pect which opened up before the boy was one of toil and deprivation. He longed for better things and to rise above the narrow limitations of adverse surroundings. To accom- plish this he must have education. His only hope for success in the outside world was through an outfit of mental equip- ment. I have heard him tell of his three months' schooling and the long walks through the snow to the distant school- house. Denied the training of schools it was for him to edu- cate himself. Encouraged by a sympathizing mother the few
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pennies that could be spared went for the purchase of school books which were studied in the long hours of the night by the light of the home-made tallow candle. The few books in the houses of neighboring farms were borrowed and mentally devoured. If there had been granted to him the opportuni- ties and privileges which this institution will afford to the youth of the present time, what a flood of sunshine would have cheered and brightened his boyhood days. At eighteen he was the teacher of a country school and in teaching others he had better opportunity for teaching himself. This story is not an unusual or extraordinary one. It is the story of hun- dreds of New England farmer boys of one hundred years ago. To them there was no royal road to learning. The path was stony and beset with thorns and briars. The laggard, the incompetent, the indifferent who entered it stumbled and fell by the way, but those with determined purpose and un- faltering will reached the goal. At the age when the Uni- versity student receives his diploma those men of rugged train- ing were employed in the activities of life. While they had not the polish of the University they had acquired self-reliance, and in their hard experience had gained the capacity for sound judgment and power of clear and positive expression which placed them on fair terms with their more favored contem- poraries. The ultimate test of men is found in the quality of their performance.
"In studying the lives and career of those men of a hun- dred years ago and noting what they accomplished, the query is sometimes raised whether the modern methods of learning made easy are in every way advisable, whether the system of instruction which puts a prop here and a lubricator there and pads the brain with esthetic culture tends to make strong men and strong women. The possession of much and varied information is useful, but still the question is at times pre- sented whether the crowding of the brain with a miscellaneous
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assortment of learning, the parts of which have no relation to the whole, and whether the knowing of something about everything, and not knowing everything about something, whether the superficial rather than the solid reality of knowl- dege, can in every respect advantageously take the place of the training and discipline of the mind which wrought the mental toughness and fibre and brawn of the earlier days.
"I do not answer this question, nor do I enter upon its discussion. For me to attempt to do so in the presence of the able and distinguished educators who are with us today would be rank presumption.
The Library presents no such inquiry and is clouded with no such doubt. While the tendency, perhaps I should say the necessity, of the public school is to run all the children through one common mould regardless of disposition or temperament, regardless of hereditary influences, in short, regardless of the child and the life before it, the library deals with the indi- vidual and meets the especial wants of the individual, whether in the department of literature or historical research, of philosophy or economics, or of science and the arts. The library brings the student in close companionship with the best scholars, and furnishing the inquirer and investigator with the searchlight that reveals the achievements of the world's ablest experts.
"There is no magical power in books. More than two hundred and fifty years ago, John Harvard, a young English clergyman, gave his private library and a small sum of money to establish a college in New England. It was a mere pit- tance, the merest trifle, when compared with the munificence of Johns Hopkins at Baltimore, or Leland Stanford in Cali- fornia, or John Rockefeller at Chicago, but it was the founda- tion of Harvard University, the pride and glory of Massa- chusetts. There live in Harvard's time eminent statesmen and learned jurists and famous soldiers, some of whose names
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are now forgotten, or remembered only as found in biographies in the alcoves of libraries, but the name of John Harvard is known and honored and blessed throughout the civilized world and his fame will endure as the ages roll on.
"Little more than two hundred years ago a few orthodox Connecticut clergymen met by appointment in Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Each one of them brought with him a book which he placed upon the table, and in that simple ceremony and in the dedication of that little pile of books to the uses of education was the beginning of the great Yale University. On the campus at New Haven stands the library building, constructed of brown stone, beautiful in its architecture, perfect in its proportions and admirably adapted to the use for which it was intended. The students of fifty years ago gazed upon it with admiration for it was then by far the finest of the college buildings and he regarded its contents with reverence, but now the word has come to me that it is proposed to tear down this building, so dear to the hearts of thousands of men throughout the land, in order that upon its site a larger and grander and more magnificent build- ing can be erected for the accommodation of the accumulating treasures of the University. What a marvelous growth from the little seed planted by these Connecticut clergymen.
"It was thus two hundred years ago that a collection of books, the nucleus of a library, was the primal source from which sprang the two older universities of this country, repre- senting as they do so much of the intellectual force of this nation in its historical development.
"The donor of this building, in the centuries to come, will not be remembered as the successful iron and steel worker or as the great captain of industry that he was, but for his enlightened liberality and colossal benefactions to the world in the diffusion of knowledge among men through the agency of books.
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"I congratulate the people of Flint in their coming into the possession of this building of substantial construction and excellent design and which adds another to the attractive public buildings of which they are justly proud. It is evidence that what was once the little village of Grand Traverse has now become a city of importance, not merely in industrial activi- ties and commercial transactions and social and political in- fluence, but also in educational advantages. This building may not impress the thoughtless and frivolous who pass by without entering it, but those who come with serious purpose will find within its walls the gems and jewels that enrich the mind and give to life added pleasures. It is accessible to all and as free as is the highway to the traveler.
"Coming into this possession, new duties confront you. The library must be equipped and maintained. Let the work be done intelligently and liberally. A few generous and public spirited women forty years or more ago started this movement and in spite of many obstacles carried it forward with unselfish and self-denying zeal. They deserve unstinted praise and last- ing remembrance. The task now falls upon the men and may they exhibit the same willing spirit and fostering care. Remem- ber that the public library is the crown of the public school in the development of higher education. Regard it as the essential adjunct for completing and perfecting the intellectual growth of the community. Cherish it as a precious asset and the city will find its regard in the enlightened mind and the grateful heart of its people."
Mr. Crapo's address was scholarly, thoughtful and stimu- lating, and received close attention and approval. Then fol- lowed two short congratulatory talks by the Hon. W. C. May- bury, ex-mayor of Detroit, and the Hon. Francis A. Blades, controller of the same city, two gentlemen who are always given a hearty and cordial reception in the City of Flint.
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One more ceremony of dedication remained, as part of the Jubilee, namely, that of the County Court House. This took place on the steps of the new building, and long before the hour set for the ceremony a great crowd had assembled in the same place where men had gathered the day before to listen to the army veterans. After an invocation and short address by the Mayor and by Judge C. H. Wisner, who had charge of the erection of the building, came the principal orator of the day, Justice Henry B. Brown of the United States Supreme Court. His address was largely in the nature of an historical review of that court of which he was a dis- tinguished member, from its establishment down to the present day. A special interest was felt in the speaker, aside from his official position on account of his being a Michigan man, and everyone who could get within the sound of his voice listened with close attention, well repaid by the value of the address and the inside views which it gave of the workings of the greatest court of justice of any nation.
Justice Brown was followed by Chief Justice Moore, of the State Supreme Court, whose address consisted largely of reminiscences of the Genesee County Bar, to which others added their quotas.
Reminiscences had thus been pretty freely indulged in, in one form or another, at most of the Jubilee meetings; but, on such occasions there is never enough until old times have been talked over from every point of view. Hence, for the lawyers there must be many more reminiscences at the ban- quet given that evening in honor of Justice Brown and the justices of the State Supreme Court, while for the rest a special reminiscent meeting was held at the Court Street Methodist Church, at which an account was given of the origin and history of the different churches of the city, and a number of old residents of the city told of their experiences in early days. As most of these accounts are reproduced in this
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volume in one form or another, no attempt will be made to give them here. A single incident, however, which created some amusement, may be worth mentioning. It was an- nounced with some solemnity, that a most valuable and inter- esting relic of the early days was to be presented to the audi- ence, in the shape of the earliest Flint postoffice. It was ex- plained that in some respects the earliest postoffice was in line with the latest improvements in that service, as it was moveable, going from place to place wherever its patrons were to be found. With much ceremony the relic was then uncov- ered, and proved to be an old stove-pipe hat.
While these old-time memories were being recalled at the various gatherings, more spectacular entertainment had also been going on elsewhere.
Early in the afternoon there were band concerts in various places, then later a base ball game, and at five o'clock an exhibi- tion run by the fire department. As soon as it grew dark the electric display was resumed, there were more band concerts and, finally, as a grand wind-up a display of fire-works from the Saginaw street bridge. The street in that vicinity was once more thronged to congestion, and as the light faded from the "Good-night"' set-piece with which the exhibition closed, the Jubilee went out, as it began, in a blaze of glory.
JUBILEE PARADE -FLOATS SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VEHICLE INDUSTRY.
Then, Now, and Then.
THE POEM OF THE GOLDEN JUBILEE AND REUNION.
By W. DUDLEY POWERS, D. D.
Distance, the mark of separation, and Milestone 'twixt land and sea, or sea and land, As well defines Time's scenes and dates, - As if it were the Herald of the Fates, Who ventured all the cosmic life to trend, In one great cycling more to one great end. Through Distance calls the evening of the day That was a morning when the happy lay Of youth was sung, and still the further morn When other youth of age, we loved, was born. A fiction of the metaphysic thought, And, Aye, as well a fact that ever ought To lure us to remembrance of the past, Then force us with its aid to right forecast Of Distance yet to come. Distance is art Defining space, emotions, time, the heart Bound in the years agone, and to the years Oncoming, smiling with alternate tears; And living movements. After all 'tis true As well it makes and shades with pleasing hue, Couleur de rose, the skies both near and far. The days and nights, gates closed or well ajar, The Spring of life, the Summer and the Fall- The minutes of the all, the product of the all- Yes, all save Winter, and that untried cold Distance foresees, and doth not yet unfold. Turn back the page of Distance where 'tis warm, And reading gather pleasure without harm, From down the pathway of the absent years We catch a fragrance sweet as purpled tears Distilled of violet's eyes, and from this past A choir of voices sounds, a choir loved and vast There childhood had its benison of days, In which remorse could not a shadow raise; Nor could regret, that pain, make solitude
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For him or her, who lived as nature wooed, And strolled her gardens naive and sweetly wild, A minstrelsy of innocence, a child. Here where the lofty, aromatic pines Did sentinel the land on these inclines Of these old hills, and with their sister trees Made merry song and dance in Southern breeze, Your fathers came, the sturdy pioneer, "Sans peur" their neighbors said, and we, "nor fear," To build a quiet home, and civilize Life's wastrel sunshine under Western skies
Aye, here when painted redman by this stream, In all the picturesque, fantastic dream In blazoned panoply upon his breast - A hieroglyph of gaudy colors charging crest- Made stately way; or silent as the mist If morning issues from the river's tryst, Moved on the trail of men or fallow deer; Or gathered flint for barbs within the waters clear ; Or leaving hunt or war speeds through the glade
To gain the wigwam of some dark-hued maid, His Hiawatha, or his Gentle Fawn, Whose eyes shone brighter than the light of dawn, His well-swung axe struck deep. Quaint cabins
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