The west shore., March 28, 1891, Page 204, Image 6

204
PORTLAND'S LIBRARY.
The fine stone structure now being erected by the Portland Library
Association will be an ornament to the city. Its construction has been made
possible by the legacy of the late Miss Ella M. Smith, to whose memory the
memorial reading room will be suitably decorated and dedicated. The build
ing is of stone, of the Italian Renaissance style, the basement being of
Nelson granite, the stories of light colored sandstone and the roof of tiles.
It will have a length of 144 feet on Stark street and sixty-four feet on Seventh
and East Park.
The main entrance is in the center of the Stark street front, through an
open vestibule, whence a few steps lead to the main hall and corridor of the
first floor. This floor will contain the stack, or bookroom, in siie 1 tox 24 ;
librarian's room, 15x23; ladies' reading room, 15x24: magazine room,
2 1 x 34 ; chess room, 21x22; newspaper room, 52 x 22 ; and also toilet rooms
for ladies and gentlemen. The second floor will have a memorial reading
room, 140x24; reference library, 21x34; trustees' room, 21x21; lecture
hall, 32 x 40 ; and also toilet rooms. The basement will have ample accom
modations for the reception of books and for cataloguing and distributing.
THE WEST SHORE.
memorial reading room, located over the stack room, on the south side of the
building, and occupying the entire length of the building, 140 feet-
The reference library on this floor is locaiea on wc .uC,
directly over the magazine room.
The trustees' room is on the Stark street
side, near the staircase. At the west eno 01 mc uuuu...8) .
room, is a lecture hall which, it is expected, will be used for lectures on art,
education, science and kindred subjects. The details of the interior fin.sh are
not yet settled, but all the rooms will be simply and quietly treated, in keeping
w ith the purposes of a library. The building will cost, when completed, aboui
Si :o,ooo, and will probably be ready for occupancy in the Utter part of this
year. m
The Philadelphians are at it now. A few paintings of the undraped
human form, alleged to be divine, have been hung at the Academy of Fine
Arts, and this has led to an indignant protest against the public exhibition of
" indecent " pictures. The same ground that was fought over in the Portland
papers is now being reddened with gore in the Quaker City, and the prude
and the prurient are both enjoying themselves. The contestants on both sides
appear to miss the kemal of the question. It is the spirit, rather than the
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These rooms are reached by an exterior entrance at the east end ol the build
ing, and also by interior staircase. The west end of the basement is to be
usul for boiler room, engineer's room and storage room, reached by exterior
steps at (hat end of the building.
The stack room on the first floor is given up to books arranged in alcoves,
with a Urge open space in the room that will be lighted by large windows on
the south side of the building. The librarian's room is at the east end of the
stack room, and the ladies' room at the west end, with retiring room conven
iently placed. Kor the present there will be accommodation foe about 30,000
volumes, but in a tew years this stack room will be entirely devoted to books,
accommodating 1 20,000 volumes, and necessitating the use of the memorial
room on the second floor as a general reading room, where the books will be
delivered by means of lifts from the floor below.
The chess room is located on the Stark street side of the building, just
ran of the nuin entrance, and the magazine room is on the east side facing
Seventh street. The new-spaper room occupies the entire north side of the
building on Statk street, west of the nuin enlrance. By means ot a large,
easy, double staircase the second floor it reached, leading directly to the
substance, of a picture that makes it good or bad. If a picture suggest
impurity it is bad, and if it suggest purity it is good, irrespective of the
quantity of clothing with which human figures it contains may be adorned.
Tested by this standard many a nude figure will stand higher than others with
enough draper)- on them to clothe a family.
An Australian piper says that Americans should be proud of Choynski.
Indeed, we are. As he stood in the sawdust arena, " dripping with gore," he
was a sight to nuke every American heart swell with pride, despite his name,
which is more suggestive of the second hand clothing business than of heroics.
We have had great men in the past who have gone abroad and received the
hospitality and homage of the world, such as William H. Seward, Generals
Grant, Sherman and Sheridan and James G. Blaine ; but we were not puffed
up with pridt, nor did we exalt ourselves unduly, until this noble representa
tive of American manhood, with his eyes closed and his mouth and nose
bleeding, hung senseless over the ropes in Sidney, knocked there by a man
weighing thirty pounds more than he, including his name.