The growth of free libraries in number and equipment has been very rapid in the last few years; several unlooked for features have been added, says the Boston Transcript. Noticeable among these have been the portfolios of photographs and engravings – reproductions from old masters and scenes from foreign lands. Some of this fine material is restricted to use within the library walls, but in the Forbes Library at Northhampton, Mass., the portfolios are circulated as freely as the books, and are a large factor in interesting and educating the public. There is in many of our public libraries as a great privilege accorded in another branch of art. The students in music are profiting by the comparatively new departure of placing at public pleasure many of the great masterpieces of vocal and instrumental music.

50 Years Ago, 1956

Harley Stevens of South Paris has a hound he’s trained to be a motorized coon sniffer – with results featured in Outdoor Life for March. It’s a four-page photo story by Charles G. Hall of South Paris, entitled “Up a Tree Down East.” The hound, Blazer, has learned to poke his head out a car window, sniff the roadside as he’s driven along at 20 miles an hour, and yelp when the car cuts the fresh trail of a coon that has crossed the road. Dim dirt roads or hard-surfaced highways with heavy traffic make little difference to Blazer. The other dogs ride in a trailer and are released for the chase after Blazer picks up a scent and leaps out of the window from his seat of honor.

25 Years Ago, 1981

Just because it’s April in February is no reason for Maine ski resort owners and ski equipment salesmen to be singing the blues, says the president of Sunday River ski resort in Bethel. Leslie B. Otten admitted that business at Sunday River and other resorts was down during the school vacation period last week. “But there’s a heck of a lot of winter left,” said Otten, predicting optimistically that March will maintain its record for being the snowiest month.