Page 66 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

.64 \YISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

warriors would flock to his standard, of 'the bccursed Brant,'of
Washington, Greene, Schuyler, Jefferson, Old Put, Ethan Allen
and Molly Stark, and many others-nrtrratives of our own Wis-
consin pioneers-historical curiosities from both vorlds-all
these, and many more, are every moment more or less exposed
to the danger of fire. A fire-proof Library building is the
pressing want of the Society. The New York Historical
Society was ten years from the oornmencement of raising funds
for a fire-proof edifice until it fully succeeded in its object. If
we have to wait patiently ten years, or even the half of that
period, is it not high time we had comnlenced the work of plan-
ning and devising? We oGght to do far better in making
collections during the next five years than we have during the
five that are past; if so, it is not reasonable to suppose, that we
can find temporary quarters sufficiently commodious to contain
our collections, to say nothing of the di~ngers to which they
would be constantly exposed.
Under these circumstances, the Executive Committee would
respectively recommend that subscriptions for a building fund
be solicited, to be paid in five ycars in yearly installments,
without interest, if paid when due; and as paid in, to be inves-
ted, in the best and safest manner, until wanted for building
purposes, or for the purchase of a lot. A circular could be
sent to public-spirited men throughout the State soliciting sub-
scriptions; and we could thus, hard as the times are, secure
more pledges for such an object, than the most sanguine would
dare hope.
Encouraged by past success, let the Society, in the spirit of
true progress, adopt the motto of Wisconsin-FORWARD !
WM. R. SMITH, L. J. FARWELL,
JAMES DUANE DOTY, SIMEON MILLS,
I. A. LAPHAM, F. G. TIBBITS,
ALBERT G. ELLIS, EDWABD ILSLEY,
MORGAN L. MARTIN, HIRAM C. BULL,
CYRUS WOODMAN, D. J. POIVERB,