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.
98 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
ernment to appreciate the need of a
library, and the people to
the use of it. He succeeded in both
because of the transparent
sincerity of all his appeals. Thus the
library sentiment grew
steadily until finally Mr. Carnegie,
convinced by Mr. Randall of
the needs of an adequate building, and
charmed by his winning
personality, gave more generously than
his wont toward the
erection of our splendid library
structure.
Every nook and corner of the library was
dear to Mr. Ran-
dall, but none so dear as the Children's
department. He took
especial delight in visiting with the
juvenile readers, fellow-
shipping with them and listening with
genuine boyish interest as
they recounted the story of some boy-hero
in the book they had
just read. He often quoted this from
Garfield: - "I feel a pro-
founder reverence for a boy than for a
man. I never meet a
ragged boy on the street without feeling
that I may owe him a
salute, for I know not what
possibilities may be buttoned up
under his coat."
The ideals which he sought to make real
in our local library,
he carried into the larger field of
state-wide library development,
and the present progressive Ohio library
laws bear the impress
of his thought.
A lover of books, -himself a writer of
books, E. O. Ran-
dall's life is after all his finest
book. Its pages abound in lessons
of love and loyalty which will ever be
an inspiration to those
who contemplate them.
By the lovers of love and light, he
lifted those about him to
"that mountain where the Lord
commandeth blessings, even life
forevermore."
Mr. Williams then said:
Mr. Randall is a fine example of the
truth of the philosophy
of Oliver Wendell Holmes, who declared
that the best way to
train children, so as to produce the
highest and best in character
and equipment, is to begin with the
grandparents. Mr. Randall
was fortunate in his ancestry. His
Americanism and devotion to
country were exemplified in his
forbears, who, on both sides in
his ancestral line, bore arms in the
cause of liberty in the Revo-
lutionary War. Mr. Randall was justly
proud of this heritage.
He was a member of the Ohio Society of
the Sons of the Amer-