? LOUHRHLLE FREE PUBLKJIJBRARY
pleasure-loving reader. Polite attend-
`¤ ants wait upon his wants, and cozy, com-
» fortable rooms, carpeted, furnished and
lighted, invite his presence.
The fourth of the concerts in aid of
\ the grand library is to take place in
December under the same wise and honor-
able management as its predecessors.
` The trustees of the library also issue
? a weekly literary paper of a high charac-
l ter, eminently aesthetic in tone, and
Y greatly admired by its patrons. In fine,
F the Public Library of Kentucky is the
i germ of one of the great libraries of the
{ , world.
l Sometime in 1872 one Paul Allen Towne, edu-
L_ T cator and bibliophile, encountered a friend, B.
B. Huntoon, in downtown Louisville. Their con-
T versation turned to the gift concerts then in _.
’ progress, and Towne remarked that he knew of no .
A position he would rather hold than that of li- 4.
T brarian of the proposed institution. In 1870 ~
he had spent some time oataloguing the library
of the Young Men’s Association of Buffalo, ·New
R York. ln the intervening year or two he had
conducted teachers’ institutes throughout Ken-
° tucky; hehad engagements to hold similar insti-
i ‘ tutes in the next few months.(l8)
~ I Exactly what transpired immediately after t
// this meeting of the two men is not quite clear.
/ Huntoon had no connection whatever with the ,
A Public Library of Kentucky;butit islikelythat
he passed Towne’s remark on to Durrett. At all
events, it is evident that Durrett and Towne,
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