New York 122 878,665 942,292 Boston 68 735,900 250,526 Philadelphia 101 706,447 674,022 Baltimore 38 237,934 53,180 Cincinnati 30 200,890 216,239 St. Louis 32 172,875 310,864 Brooklyn 21 165,192 396,099 San Francisco 28 162,716 149,473 Chicago 24 144,680 298,979 Charleston 6 26,600 48,956 --- --------- --------- 500 3,431,899 3,340,628 In these ten cities, therefore, are collected 7.3 per cent. of the public libraries, 28 per cent. of the books, and 8.66 per cent. of the population in this country. If Washington had been included instead of Charleston, the concentration of books in cities would have been more strikingly marked. A proper conception of American libraries cannot be obtained without assorting them according to size, which is done in the following table: _Number._ _Volumes_. 500- 1,000 Volumes 925 592,510 1,000- 2,000 " 762 983,953 2,000- 3,000 " 362 816,928 3,000- 4,000 " 236 765,010 4,000- 5,000 " 156 667,874 5,000- 10,000 " 264 1,703,271 10,000- 20,000 " 152 2,013,660 20,000- 50,000 " 82 2,329,305 50,000-100,000 " 10 640,617 100,000-200,000 " 7 926,727 Over 200,000 " 2 599,869 What is to be the future of American libraries? The most obvious discernible facts are that the popular energies are likely to be given to the support of free town libraries, and that the aggregate of book accumulations will be enormous, though no individual collection now presents the likelihood of rising to extreme proportions; the increase will come by the growth of the numerous small libraries. The mercantile institutions have done and are continuing a good work, but they have prepared the way for a step beyond. Free town libraries are quite in sympathy with American ideas, and will be supported. They are capable of being made good means of disseminating information. It is fortunate that in this country novels belong to the cheapest publications, most of the good ones appearing in fifty-cent and dollar editions. More solid works are also costlier, so that a popular library can with good reason give its energies to the collection of really good works, leaving the people to supply themselves with the cheaper novels.