The computer-generated transcript of this page:
W. Slauson, a member of the building committee, told his
assembled audience that everything inside the building was a
product of Mrs. Thrall's gift except for a palm given to the
11brary by Mrs. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, (an early Middletown
journalist, school board member, and feminist) and a clock over
the 11brarian's desk given by Judson K. Wiggins. The building was equipped with circuits for both gas and electric lights. 42
The principal speaker that evening was the Honorable W111iam
Vanamee, who delivered an address on "The True Uses of a
Library." His address, reported apparently in total in the
Middletown Daily Press, was delivered in a flowery oratorical
style. "The opening of this library," he told the assembled
group, "is the beginning of a new intellectual impulse in
Middletown." Mr. Vanamee said that the "tendency to make a
public library a vehicle for the distribution of current fiction
ought to be frowned upon... I would not buy one novel that is not at least a year old. If after that time a healthy demand for it
persists I would recognize it. But I would make the 11brary
stand for the cultivation of solid, useful and improving
literature." He concluded his address, no doubt solemnly in deep
base tones, "citizens of Middletown,..cherish this precious gift,
appreciate its sacred privileges, improve its blessed