Since that time the library has suffered with the rest of the world. No European periodicals and no new books have come to replace the old and the worn ones. That the books must wear out is indicated by the fact that the Bohemian circulation for a single year has been over 42,000, some of the best liked romány and povídky having been issued more than thirty times in a single year. This means that such a book was read in that year, not by thirty persons only, but by from three to five times thirty, since the child who draws a Bohemian book from the library usually reports that it was read by “my father”, “my mother”, “my grandma”, and one or two of the following: “my aunt”, “the neighbor lady”, “the boarder”, and “the lady up stairs”.
Winter Afternon in Children’s Room.
Assistants who speak Bohemian and who know the Bohemian literature are always at hand to assist the stranger or the English speaking child who wants a Bohemian book for his mother. The library staff consider the library, not merely as a place of business, but also as a place of hospitality, and their duty first to act as hostesses. With this feeling toward their work they are quick to extend courtesy to the stranger, the new comer, and the “foreigner” who wavers on the doorstep uncertain whether he dares to enter. Such a one is addressed in his own language, invited to enter, shown the Bohemian books and newspapers, and is made free to look about for himself. He sees on the walls a large framed picture of “Golden Prague” and the beautiful Czechoslovak recruiting posters, and on the bulletin board news in his own tongue from the wonderful new Československá Republika. Immediately he feels at home and at ease and desires to “join” the library. This formality is made as simple as possible, the only requirement being adequate identification as a responsible resident of the city. Often the would-be borrower volunteers his bankbook as the needed evidence. It is very pleasing to see how often the stranger, who has found his own way in, becomes sponsor to friends who were greater strangers than he.
It is to these strangers and to the old people that the Bohemian books mean the most. For them the library books take the place of living friends, and are thus a priceless boon. The young people, on the contrary, seldom read anything but English. They were born to the heritage of a distinctive culture, which crystallizes in Bohemian literature the efforts of centuries of struggle for freedom and free ex-
