Emilius Oviatt Randall. 97
RANDALL AND THE CITY LIBRARY.
BY JOHN J. PUGH, LIBRARIAN.
It is not without emotion that I
approach the subject, "Mr.
Randall and the Library." The
intimacy of my relations with
Mr. Randall during the thirty-five years
he served as Trustee of
the Public Library, was such that the
personal note cannot be
excluded. However, a Johnson can well
afford to have a Bos-
well. The estimate of Mr. Randall as a
factor of the Library
does not suffer, even though written by
a librarian who was
devotedly attached to him.
"And so I trust, tho' I perchance
may strike Love's chord with clumsy
hand,
You'll feel the melody I tried to play-
you'll understand."
To E. O. Randall the Library was more
than a trust. He
regarded it as an object of love to be
affectionately cared for.
And through all the years that he was
one of its Trustees, he
lavished upon it the best of his time
and thought. To one who
knows the relation of Mr. Randall to the
Library, there cannot
but occur the inscription that adorns
the north transept of St.
Paul's over the tomb of Sir Christopher
Wren, builder of that
famous edifice, "Si monumentum requiris circumspice"-
"Reader, if thou ask for a
monument, look around thee!" If
any one wishes to see the most enduring
monument of E. O.
Randall, he need but look at the
Library. It is his building, for
it was largely through his influence
that it was made possible. It
is his spirit that constitutes the most
precious treasure house
therrein.
Mr. Randall's love of books flowed
largely from his love of
humanity. To him, knowledge was not a
spade to dig with, nor
a crown wherewith to adorn oneself, but
power-power over
the forces of darkness and its attendant
evils and sorrows. He
wanted every one to have a chance to
better his lot and improve
his life, and that chance he saw in the
Library where all the
people might drink at the fountain head
of knowledge. He had
a Herculean task before him. He had to
educate the city gov-
Vol. XXIX- 7.