The Portland daily press., 1890-03-01

The Major and were crossing Congress
street the other day near Brown street. he
performing wonderful high jumps over the
rear. when he suddenly stopped between
the car tracks aud waited until came up to
him. He then grasped me by the arm.
seeming to stagger, and reached the side
walk with difficulty l have read a good
deal in the PRESS for the last few months
about the suddenness with which the influ-
enza attacks people, and feared that the Ma
j0r had become a victim to the malady.
When we were safely ashore on the side
walk, and he had recovered his equilibrium
he explained what the trouble was. 1t was
the rivers, he said, in the middle of the
street that turned his head. Later in the
day l saw horse that was afraid to cross
the street ON account Of the same flowing
streams, and still later tried the expert
ment myself. crossing slowly over the six
swift streams, one on each rail Of the horse
csr tracks and on each side beyond. 1t gave
me aqueer sensation, as IL II was standing
on a hign precipice ora bridge overlooking
rapid river instead Of being only about
five feet above the car-track. l can readily
understand how man or beast coming up
on such thing abruptly, might become
dazad for second or two and cut up strange
capers. The Major asked me not to say any
thing about 1t at the table. for Jack might
seize the opportunity to hum him a sugges-
tive and. to the Major at least. unpleasant
tune Nothing was said about keeping it
from the public at large however, so take
this opportunity to speak of the curious cir
cumstance.
II saw queer thing in paper the other
day." said Jack yesterday. "What was to"
asked the Other Lady. "a full length por-
trait of Veritas, or the Constant Read
err" mo, it wasn't" replied Jack, testify,
''nor cut of the oldest inhabitant either. 1t
was an cid proverb revised. "A book in the
hand is worth two thousand in the cata-
logue.' 1t struck me as being peculiar"
| The Other Lady cleared her throat with a
slight sound and said 81 don't know Mr..
Flint, that it is peculiar. 1t seems to me
very true; especially of public libraries.
where there are 10 people for every book on
the shelves. 1 think the writer of that SEN
tence must have stood at the delivery desk
many times and heard the words:
Those books are all out" as
a carefully prepared list was
handed back. The Schoolmistress drew her
| shoulder cape little more closely about her
and smiled in her peculiar way as she said
81 don't think people ought to complain if
the books they want are out unless, of course
something very important hangs on having
them. This it seems is not likely to happen.
as the valuable books of reference cannot be
taken from the library by anybody. The
other lady joined issue at once. 81 have
been trying she said, "for ever SO long, to
| get that Marie Basket-something or other,
book, and haven't been able to SO much as
| get look at it," Nor at the title either. 1
should say" said Jack in low but painfully
distinct tone of voice. Seeing that the peace
| of our household was again in danger I'M
dertook to calm the troubled waters.
saw that same proverb, I said, and like
| Jack l admired it for its newness. /, how
| ever, do not place just the same meaning on
| it that you do. In fact Ii did not occur to
| me that there was any slur against public
| libraries intended. have reason to believe
that the epigram was first inspired by the
| recent Barlow sale in New York city, during
| which the gems of literature we're catalogued
and sold for more money than the average
man would care to spend for his whole col
lection of books, thus placing them far out
| of "hand" for most people. l heard a man
| say most emphatically the other day that he
| would not give anything for all the books In
| the world unless he could go right in among
| the shelves and "paw the books over" as
| much as he liked.-"A good library Is a
| statesman's orkshop"-observed theSchool-
mistress in an aside. Exactly so," l re-
| piled, land that is wleie the advantage of
having your books ready at hand instead of
locked up in beautiful walnut cabinets, be-
hind plate-glass, comes in. An implement
or book to be of any value must be ready
| at hand for instant use" "Hold on a min
| ute!" exclaimed Jack, who had been strug-
| Cling for chance to get in a word-"wait
until write that down. That's good sem
timent for the use of chief engineers, that
last"
1t seems to me, Sylvester, said the Major,
before could resume the broken thread of
my remarks, that aside from black walnut
and plate glass the tenor of your remarks
might apply to public libraries as we'll as to
private collections of book. 1t might, 1 re-
piled, but it does not. The Other Lady,
here, instances her desire to procure Marie
Bashkirtseff's Journal as confirming the pro-
verb. Without desiring to throw any dis
cree dit on her literary tastes, it seems alto
gether probable that the desire to be able to
say that she had read certain much talked
of book was the actuating motive of - the
Other Lady's action. That lady shifted, but
said nothing. "Well, what of it?" asked the
Major. what the man who said book in
the hand is worth two thousand In the cata.
logue meant, according to my idea. was. that
for reference, for use in literary or other
work, book right within reach is worth
many times as much as one that is known to
be in a catalogue, but which cannot be
reached when it is wanted.
SYLVESTER.