LOOKING BACK

It's Labor Day weekend once again - the end of summer holidays. For those of you who are feeling a bit of regret that another vacation season has passed, we offer you this photo of Fourth Lake in the Adirondacks as a way of easing that loss a bit.

We also suggest that you look back in this blog to these previous postings: October 23, 2008 and January 22, 2009.  These postings list Bullis books about the Adirondack area.

And please remember - there's always another season to enjoy the outdoors ... and the Bullis books. Volunteers are hoping to see you soon.

FROM THE FLOOR

How often do we look at the bottom shelf of books in a library? Speaking for myself, the answer is: "Not often enough." So last week I plopped myself down in front of the History section and began pulling books at random from the lower shelves. These books may be low, location-wise, but they are high in interest to those of us who love local history. Thus I was rewarded well for my time, effort and the occasional "twinge" from my lumbar region as I made the acquaintance of these books:

Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins, and Schuyler Counties, New York

Niagara and other Famous Cataracts of the World

Landmarks of Wayne County Landmarks of Monroe County

Warriors of the Genesee Political History of New York

Topographical Survey, Adirondack Region, New York

Hotchkins History of Western New York Annals and Recollections of Oneida County

Exhibit of State of New York at World's Columbia Exposition

All these books are over a hundred years old and they do show their age. A book evaluator would use words like "loose boards, warping, yellowing," or "brittle" to describe some of their conditions. In addition to natural aging, many of these books sustained additional damage from the heat and water of the 2001 library fire. Despite the toll taken by the storms of life, however, they keep on keeping on, their contents enhancing our knowledge and appreciation of the past as well as the present. Today, they sit in their assigned places, ready to serve yet another generation of readers. Let's not disappoint them.

(As the title states, this viewpoint comes from the floor...The Bullis Room floor. Hope to see you there one of these Thursdays.)

Adirondack wilderness

A few weeks ago, we found a neat little book about the Adirondacks: Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness, subtitled Camp-life in the Adirondacks (Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co. successors to Tuchman and Fields, 1869). William H. H. Murray, author of this book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._H._Murray), "dedicated to O. H. Platt, of Meriden Connecticut...in memory of many a tramp and midnight bivouac."

Today, we took another look at this book, which begins with "Why I go to the Wilderness." Magnificent scenery is one of Murray's reasons and another is "to restore impaired health." In expounding on the second reason, Murray writes on page 12:

The spruce, hemlock, balsam, and pine, which largely compose this Wilderness,

yield upon the air, and especially at night, all their curative qualities.

Murray also lists the cost of the trip:

Guide - $2.50 per day

Board for self and guide while in the woods - $2.00 each per week

Miscellanies, "here is where the ten-dollar green-backs come in" $25.00

$50 pays one's traveling expenses both ways from Boston to Lower Saranac Lake

(from New York the expense is about the same)

"It's safe to say that $125 will pay all the expense of a trip of a month's duration in the Wilderness."

Murray adds, "I know of no other excursion in which such a small sum of money will return such percent of health, pleasure, and profit."

Ahhh, those good ole days. We can't bring them back but, thanks to authors like William H. H. Murray, we can still enjoy them through books.

This week in the Bullis Library

Monday we found a neat little book about the Adirondacks titled "Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness ". The subtitle is "Camp-life in the Adirondacks". We can't wait to explore more in this book. It has advertisements, etchings, photos, and a newspaper article pasted in the back entailing the"Other Side of the Story - The Horrors of the Adirondacks".

Tuesday our volunteers continued their work on Increase Lapham's semi-circular genealogy. It was a good idea in theory but is not quite practical for our reading.

Wednesday we had more volunteers making cards for books (maybe more about this later) and
choosing books to review. Another volunteer worked on transcribing Dr. Abram Bullis' notebook.

And Thursday here we are updating the blog.