St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-06-12
A LIBRARIANS PESTS.
Curious Questions Leveled at
Public Library Assist
ants.
A Woman's Persistent Quest
for an Unknown Vol
ume.
Fiction Does Not Take the
Usual Standing in st.
Paul,
Probably Because the Men
Almost Equal the Women
Readers.


revolted from it as an infant would
from paregoric doses. But, between
you and me, the public (Which is every
one but you and mel is a baby. 1t has
10 be petted, careSSed and |eoSsetted; if
it doesn't get what it wants a howl goes
up, enough to waken the inanimate dust
of the author of "RasselaS" himself,
and the nurses of this great bundle,
which hasn't vet kicked off its swaddling
clothes, must labor day and night to
produce new soothing doses, CaStOria,
Or Mellin's baby food.
No part of the public is more ineon-
sIderate or mUre Of an Interrogation
point than a public library public. and
the corps of assistants is expected to be
a walking Encyclopedia and intelligence
office. Up in the top loft of the
court house, where the city fathers
have stored the st. Paul library, a GER
tain goes once a week to find a
story. She has been at it two years
with the regularity of clock work. As
SiStantS may come and go. but they pass
her wOeful story from N to another.
and the Woman goes on forever. She
doesn't know in what magazine.
doesn't know the author and but a
slight skeleton of the story which
an intimate friend related. but she
m with a hopeful face, and conf
IDENTIFY expects that the wheel of fort
une may turn her story on top. She is
like the Oma who declared she would
be ashamed to go to heaven aud say she
had not seen Paris. for it seems the OBJ
Ject of this woman'S life to read that
story, and her SOuI'S salvation depends
on it. At last accounts the woman was
still coming.
Equalling this in definiteness was the
man who sought a poem. He didn't
know the author, didn't know in what
collection it wa to be found indeed, he
hardly remembered a fragment of the
verse, but his heart was set upon get
ting that poem. You ought to know
what it is" he declared to the attend
ant. Perhaps she ought, but living in a
finite world. she had found her knOwl-
edge bore the same limitations. The
poem was not very old; at least he
thought it had been written
since Chaucer's time. Finally he
remembered a tiny fragment. and
the assistant having had an
attack of sea fever in younger days, re-
membered it in the Rhyme of the
Nancy Bell" And the man went away
meditating on the ignorance of women
in general and public library wOmen in
particular, sublimely unconscious of his
own
Col IOssaI Stupidity.
A library assis tant does know a heap
of things. and you may be sure she will
ferret out what you want if You give
her the slightest clue, but to calmly tell
her you don't know what you want, and
then say, You ought to know" isn't
the greatest compliment to your own
condition.
A little girl came to the library one
day and inquired for a book on "What
l dreamed about" When questioned
as to the exact stuff that dreams are
madeO which she wanted, she frankly
confessed that her teacher had told her
she should write OF what she dreamed
about, and she wanted to read up on it.
If it weren't for her tender years |
should recommend Dreams" by the
radical author of the story of an Afri-
al farm, OF dreams From the Dead"
but her extreme practical turf was too
gulleiess to be shattered by such grue-
some visionary meditatIOns.
The small boy is a jewel in a public
library. He knows just what he wants,
for it is his business in life to know
everything. He makes out his slip with
the c~arefulneSs of a boss when stating
candidates, and if a book isn't in
doesn't look at you as if you were to
evolve the desired volume from your
Own inner consciousness. To be sure, a
large proportion of the books which go
10 the bindery are Jules Verne
and Trowbridge, for Young America
handles what he uses without gloves,
but If 1t saves him from dreaming by
day and night of the Wild West and
Buffalo Bill, let US have a whole library
stocked with live and wholesome books
by Trowbridge, Optic, and the host of
b%enefactOrs of youth. The only harm
they can do is TO make Young Americas
sisters wish they could do likewise and
curse the Fates. which made them
women.
Women as public library readers are
Bot as numerous as n would think.
The number of cards which they hold
now is nearly equal to that of the men,
something Over 5000 each. and perhaps
as a consequence of this the per cent Of
fiction which is issued during the year
IS 47.63. or nearly half. However,
it is to the lasting honor of the st. Paul
public library that she owns but one
copy of one novel by Mary j. Holmes,
and that one is Homestead on the Hill
side" Other libraries have from ten to
twenty copies of all those fiashy titles,
Tempest and Sunshine" Darkness
and Daylight, " and they are among those
sent oftenest to the bindery. +. 2. Roe
is the greatest faVorite of fiction writers,
and He Fell in Love With His Wife,"
the tamest, but an odd titled one. seems
to lead the rest. Strange to say, Lies
MiserabIes' has a very large circulation,
almost never sleeping in its own nook
over night.
There are women who take a book
from the library and then return it in
an hour, saying they had it out a week
or two ago but had forgotten it. They
sometimes ask o if you know of a
servant girl thew could get, and would
you let them know if you hear of one.
Even dressmakers are inquired for at
this general intelligence office, ahd the
greatest surprise is manifested when
they are told the DelineatOr or La
Mode are not taken. But the
Percentage ofFoOls
isn't on the women's side. A clergy
mar from one of the suburban districts
asked for the mammoth repository, in
which was contained all the things men
had said about wOmen from about the
time of Aristotle down. The benighted
gentleman evidently thought he had
eternity to read it in. and then he would
need another eternity to digest and ap-
ply his vague information.
The way in which titles are associated
is sometimes very incongruOuS and
amusing. Cats teeth and missionary
work were the subjects of one searclIer
after wisdom. Astrology, the servant
girl question. and woman's suffrage an
other. Fashions, free trade and French
literature were three which might have
a hidden element of harmony, but the
omnibus bill, roads and the printing
press seem as far removed from brother
hood as the Twins.
New York. Philadelphia. Brooklyn
and St. Louis have not free circulating
libraries. Perhaps they remember SIT
Anthony Absolute's remarks to Mrs.
Malap1op, "A circulating library in a
town is an evergreen tree of diabolical
knowledge" and well he might, II
G.dinp lief contained SuCl