124                     HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

with a bell tower, which at the time was considered a first—class building,
and which is still used as one of the grade schools. A bond issue of
$13,000 provided the money for this building. A few years later the
Jackson street school was built (afterwards remodeled). Since then the
south addition has been placed on the Meridian school, the Pinckley street
school has been built, and in 1906 the Alabama street four-room grade
school and the handsome high school on North Washington street were
completed. The high school building is one of the best examples of
public and business buildings in the city, costing, with equipment, $47,000.
    Within the last few years the Brazil high school has attained a place
of credit among similar institutions throughout the state. It is among
the accredited and commissioned high schools of the state, has a faculty
of thirteen instructors and an enrollment of 308 scholars. The cost of
instruction and of apparatus and equipment for the year closing in 1908
was $9,230. The entire teaching force in the Brazil city schools num-
bers 53, besides the superintendent, Mr. C. C. Coleman, who has been at
the head of the school system for the past two years.
    Closely allied to the schools in its influence upon the intellectual and
esthetic life of the community is the Public Library, which was built in
1903 as a result of the co-operation of the tax-payers of the city with
the wide-spread philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie. The latter provided
the money for the erection of the building after those interested in the
library had raised the necessary funds by private subscription and the
city council had voted the tax prescribed by the Library law, enacted a
few years previously.
    The donation of $25,000 was secured from Mr. Carnegie in 1902, on
condition that the city should provide a suitable site and raise by annual
levy two thousand dollars a year for the support of the library. The city
authorities accepted this gift, and in order to secure the proper site
vacated a portion of Methodist street, at the intersection of Walnut, and
also bought ground on the north side of the former street, paying twenty-
five hundred dollars for the site. The annual levy for library purposes is
six cents on the hundred dollars, this being the limit of such taxation, as
fixed by law.
    A word should also be said of the old City Library Association, which
for many years supplied the only library advantages available except to
those who possessed generous private collections of books. The City
Library Association, which was in the nature of a joint stock company, a
sort of co-operative book society, was organized in February, 1879, begin-
ning with forty stockholders. The original sum expended for books was
$107, with which 81 volumes were purchased. At a very early day in
the history of Brazil had existed a McClure Library and Mechanics Insti-
tute, a practical benevolence that has been almost forgotten. Mr. McClure
was a wealthy resident of the old Harmony community, in southern
Indiana, who had left a considerable sum of money to be used in found-
ing these institutes. The bequest was conditioned upon each local society’s
establishing a library for the benefit of the members, the money given
by Mr. McClure being expended for lectures. It was thus in the nature
of a lecture course and study club. Such an institution was maintained
at Brazil for some years, and after it had ceased to exist the collection of
books had remained, and was eventually turned over to the Library Asso-
ciation. By these means the Association’s library grew and numbered
over a thousand volumes at one time.