University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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tin iversitr common dust beside the daily registers and account books. Bound copies of the theses of many alumni relinguished their ity to an all-consuming flame. And, Oh! the pity of it all, that the labor, the time, the anxiety, the solicitude, the self-sacrifice, which have gone to make up a great library—a library which should not only be the pride of the state but which should be the meat and drink, the stimulus and inspiration of thousands and thousands of students—that all should become cinders and charred remnants to be shoveled into carts and dumped by the wayside. Those who for nearly forty years have witnessed the library grow from a few hundred volumes to a collection, rare and useful; who have seen this set of books, then another, then another added; have watched the leaves of many a volume grow thin, and times ragged with excessive use; have seen the eves of students kindle with a new light and an awakening sense of the value of so many useful books; have seen students reluctant to leave the room when the clay was clone, and awaiting the opening of the doors in the morning; to such the calamity of fire is simply appaling. The loss to the library was, in round numbers, sand bound volumes and nearly fifteen thousand pamphlets. The only portion saved, of all which was in the building, was from the D. H. Talbot collection, which numbered four thousand two dred and eighty volumes. Of this perhaps two thousand five dred volumes will be saved. They await the skill of the binder. Among the the losses were many gifts to the library; the Talbot lection, just mentioned, was the gift of D. H. Talbot of Sioux City, Iowa; the Walter Tallant memorial library of two hundred umes, consisted of choice books upon Art and Architecture; the German library of four hundred beautiful books, which Prof. Wilson had industriously collected; the Alumni Americana lection of about seventy-five exceedingly rare volumes; some of the latter being in the librarian ' s office were saturated yid] water, but not burned, and were subsequently dried in a certain kitchen in the north part of town. There were also in the room some class memorials. The flames paid no respect to the large Visitor ' s 21

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became of the same caste as the rare old books which had retired from active duty and for many years had reposed in serene majesty upon their lofty shelves. The rare copy of St. bound in pig-skin, was fallen to the level of Webster, and Allibone and Appleton. A hundred choice bibles, printed in Hebrew, in Sanskirt, in Hindoo, and sian, lay prostrate beside bound copies of Harper ' s, Scribner ' s, and the Forum. The cinders of Thomas Hope ' s beautiful tions of The Ancient Costume were mingled with those of Puck and Die Fliegende Blatter. The stately volumes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton, participated in the same mad carnival with Mark Twain and Ignatius Donnelly. Ruskin was hurled down, enveloped in the same flame which consumed the Critic and the Dial. Thirty rare, beautiful volumes from the British Plaeontological Society, compiled for this library by Mr. Rich, were made one with the embers of Gray ' s nies and Steele ' s common school series. bon ' s birds, the elephantine ume of Victoria Regia, the derful Me- designs of the Pyramids consumed by the same flame which devoured Government meats. All which money and genius could collect on Archaeology lay smoldering in a common heap with modern history and literature. The autographs of many distinguished scholars and heroes were 20 the charts of the U. S. Coast Survey and the

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ister and its artistic stand, which were presented by the class of 1893. In the same ruthless manner it destroyed the elegant hogany clock presented by the class of 1894. On the walls were the portraits of all of the presidents of the University except Dr. Dean and Dr. Schaeffer; also a fine photograph of Samuel J. Kirkwood, and large photographs of several of the early ors of the Institution. There were plaster busts of Homer, Shakespeare, Scott, Goethe, and Franklin; there was the silk flag given. by the girls of the Uni- versity to the boys who went out as hundred-clay men during the war; the plaster cast of the Rosetta Stone; the inter-class cup; the individual donations of books amounting to several hundred umes. Perhaps no library in the west had a finer collection of tions of Goethe and works in early English than this, but they were all burned and there was left only a pile of roofless rubbish ing in pity to an open yet pitiless sky. Before the burning ceased, the librarian and a few firemen, at their peril, entered the building, the firemen to remove the body of their dead comrade, and the librarian to begin the rescue of such books as might remain. Many willing workers proffered ance. Baskets and shovels were secured, the smoldering piles searched for unconsumed treasures, and whatever was worth ing at all was carried to the Central Building to be dried, and, if possible, saved. The hall, the President ' s office, the rooms of Profesors Currier, Wilson and Loos were invaded by wet and charred books. On chairs, tables, window-sills, and floors were piled the sorry remnants. Under suitable direction, over thirty willing workers, ladies and gentlemen, began the task of drying books. The June phere, instead of lending aid, grew more- and more humid, so that the last resort was to put on heat. This materially hastened the process of drying, although much to the discomfiture of those working, as well as to the annoyance of the Chancellor in his rooms above stairs. The law lecture room and the law library were utilized and possible was done to save what money may never 11