At the annual meeting Jan. 10, Ex-Chief Justice Stiness paid a glowing
tribute to the character and ability of the late Judge Horatio Rogers,
formerly President of the Society. Prof. Albert Harkness of Brown
University, the present president delivered a valuable address on “Some
Phases in the Development of History.” The librarian, Mr. Brigham, in
the course of his report on the accessions to the library during 1904,
made this remark, which may be commended to the attention of those who
have accumulations of such material which seem to them only fit to be
burnt, as occupying space, and not even worth offering for the
acceptance of any library of reference: “In many cases these gifts have
been made with the apology that they were too trivial, and hardly worth
the acceptance. But it is the ephemeral pamphlet and the unimportant
report that is likely to be asked for by the next generation, just as we
to-day are searching, too often in vain, for the transitory publication
of a half century ago.”