University of Illinois - Illio Yearbook (Urbana Champaign, IL)

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the present year by Judge C. G. Neeley, of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and Pre- siding Justice Burroughs, of the Third District Appellate Court. Judge O. A. Harker, of Carbondale, associate justice of the Third District appellate court, has charge of the moot court work, the work in criminal law, and also has given a course of lectures on the Origin and Jurisdiction of Courts. Lectures have also been delivered before the school by Prof. C. M. Moss, of the department of Greek of the university, and Judge F. M. Wright of the Champaign County Circuit Court. The moot court work, referred to above, is an important part of the school work. It partakes more nearly of the nature of the work in the actual courts of the state than that in vogue in many moot courts, owing to its being presided over by Judge Harker, and here the aspirants to legal fame have an opportunity to learn some of the ins and outs of the actual professional career to which they are looking forward. The law school is young as yet, and its attendance is not as large as that at similar departments of other institutions which have been longer established. This is a short- coming which time will cure, however, and as the department is a vigorous and lusty youngster, full of life and ambition, it is the confident prediction of all connected with it that at no very distant day it will be able to add new honor and renown to the fame of Old Illinois. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. — Prof. A. C. Burnham. 21

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supreme and appellate courts), New York, Massachusetts and Ohio State Reports, U. S. Supreme Court Reports, the American and English Kncyclopedia of Law (first and second editions, so far as issued), the Kncyclopedia of Pleading and Practice and the recent volumes of the West National Reporter series, was purchased; and the services of two professors, Messrs. Gardner and Pickett, who should give their entire time and attention to the work of the school, secured. President Draper, himself an able lawyer, would, it was announced, act as temporary dean of the new department. The University authorities were surprised and gratified at the number of students presenting themselves at the opening of the first term. They had anticipated a small attendance at first, but the term opened with an enrollment of over thirty-five, which was increased to forty before the middle of the term. This number included a senior class of five, and two women students who entered the junior class. The courses, as originally planned, were two in number — a three-year course covering, in addition to GEORGE E. GARDNEU, PKOFiSSOK OF LAW. the strictly technical studies, some work in public law and administration, and constitu- tional history, and leading to the degree of LL.B.; and a two-year technical course preparing for admission to the bar, but leading to no degree. Owing to the change in the rules of practice made during the fall of 1897 by the Illinois Supreme Court, the course of study was changed, the one now offered being a strictly law course, three years in length, and leading to the degree of Bachelor of Law. In addition to the class-room work there have been courses of lectures given during Oh! there ' s nothing to be hoped for from her; she ' s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile. — Klla Loftus.

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Zhe library School o HERE the ancient scholar depended upon his memory, the modern scholar depends upon his books. It is difficult to realize that books were once too few and too precious to be easily or readily consulted. In those days it was not enough merely to remember the book in which a fact was stated, for the bit of wisdom might never again be accessible. Now it is impossible to keep in mind the books upon even one subject, and catalogues and indexes are indispensable. This change in circumstances has naturally brought to libraries power, influence and responsibilities of which the ancients never dreamed. There were many steps, differing, of course, in the various countries, between the former and the present condition ; between the keeping of books as the brightest jewels of some secluded monastery, closely guarded and sometimes even chained, and the housing of them to-day. At an early day in our own country, libraries made their influence felt. While we are proud of the number of copies of Blackstone which came to the colonies, and of the wisdom of the Fathers of the Constitution, we are apt to underestimate the influence of those early subscription libraries in making the colonists as well versed in their rights and privileges as were few even among the cultured classes in England. To-day, as our democracy grows older and its strength and weakness become more apparent, the need of equal educational advantages for all is more keenly felt. Here it is that the library comes forward to supplement the public schools and becomes, in the best sense of the phrase, the poor man ' s university. Though the poor man may not be able to receive all the advantages of the schools, yet the library can bring the wisest teachers of all ages to await his leisure moments. Not only may the library be the teacher of the people, but in our modern university system it has been most happily called the teacher of teachers, emphasizing all branches of knowledge. Ever since the days of Benjamin Franklin there have been in various parts of the country men who realized the vast influence of libraries, but the era of organization had to be awaited before the old idea of the library as a storehouse would yield to the idea of the library as a workshop. The first well-defined step in this direction was taken in the centennial year, when the American Library Association was organized, with its speaking motto : The best reading to the greatest number at the least cost. In 1887 Mr. Melvil Dewey, recognizing the need of specialists for this new field of work, organized, in connection with Columbia College, the first library school. After two years the school, no longer an experiment, was moved to Albany. Graduates from Albany during the next few years organized schools in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. In 1893, under the directorship of a prominent Albany graduate, Miss Here ' s a starched piece of austerity. — Miss Strkight.