Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1893 — Days of Small Things. [ARTICLE]

Days of Small Things.

Long before the Revolution a young printer In Philadelphia, when he had taken off his working apron at night, used to sit poring over his dozen of old volumes by firelight. He soon knew them by heart, and hungered for more. But books were costly, and he had hut little money. He had eight or ten cronies—young men who, like himself, were eager for knowledge. Ranging his hooks on a shelf, he invited his friends to do the same, that each of them might have the benefit of them all. Ben Franklin thus laid the foundation of the first circulating library, and now one of the largest in this country. Thirty years ago a kindly German pastor, moved to pity by the condition of the homeless orphans in the city in which he lived, took three of them into his own home, appealing to Christians for aid to feed and clothe them, and to educate them into useful, good citizens. Three great orphan asylums in different cities of the West are the result of this little effort.

A good woman in Philadelphia, twenty odd years ago, asked two or three of her friends to join her in renting a little room where they could meet occasionally to drink a cup of tea, and consult together how to help other women whose lot in the world was harder than their own. Opt of that little room has grown the stately N T ew Century Club with its collateral Guilds, Classes and Clubs of workingwomen, which have helped and strengthened many thousands. Many readers who live in inland towns are bewildered when they visit the cities by the great libraries, hospitals, associations for charity, education or mutual aid, and wish hopelessly they had the same helps to broader and higher life in their own homes. Let them begin with a little effort, and persist in their good work. Some good will come from every attempt of this kind. The most firmly grounded institutions are those which grew out of poverty slowly, and were not built to order.—Youth's Companion.