The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-21
FREAKS IN LIBRARIES.
What and How the Visitors Read
Ancestry Seekers.
New York Mail and Express.


I'VE have some of the queerest ducks on
earth among our regular patrons" said one
of the Aston librarians. They furnish us
with no end of entertainment, and keen us
in constant guessing match at the same
time. You may have heard some astute
idiots make the remark that they can tell
pretty much what sort of book a man or
woman will want before the query is put.
Now, let's test il. Here comes a long.
haired, specialized, professor-like old ehap.
with face on him white as a rain-washcd
bone. What do you pick out for him in the
literary grah-bag?"
With rapid glance at the curious old
chap. L guessed Hegel, Kant or some solid
pabulum in science.
well. guess something on history or
international law" said the librarian. Now
for the verdict" The professor by this time
had reached the rail, and he asked for
Grimms Fairy Tales" He got it-this
bloodless old shrimp-and off he went
solemn as man on his way to execution,
to have an hours pure and childish delight
with the gnomes and the pixies and the
fairy queens who sit on tortoise-shell
thrones. Bless his young old heart his
vinegar face was a Haunting lie. after all
Couldn't have had a finer test case"
;.
would give you endless amusement. just this
phase of character reading, or nonreading
il you had time to stand guard here for a
day and conduct guessing match. Here's
one more, and up the stairs, fresh as d
mountain daisy, face of pink and cream.
and eyes like bluebells, came a dainty miss
Of eighteen. OF course, ! guessed a novel
that oozes love at every pore, as a maple
tree oozes sugary sap in March. The Ii
brarian guessed book on golf or summer
sports
IF you please, sir would like Mr. Cur
zcn's book on Problems of the Far East. +"
said this radiant peachblow human vase.
Angels and ministers of grace defend
usi was my pious outburst, as this INTEL
lectual enigma, enshrined in such lovely
piece of clay, the natural prey of laughing
summer winds and waves and whole armies
of besieging cupids. strclled off for an Au-
heavy, analytic Curzon.
Such anomalies as these" said the book
man, ARE drifting up to this rail every
treadmill so long that if a ten-year-old
schoolgirl wanted the Critique of Pure Rea-
SON. it wouldn't ruffle a hair on my head
I've quit trying to guess how far a frog
can jump by looking down his throat; some
of them. the most promising, have intellec-
leaping frog of Mark Twain so they can't
jump beyond the most primitive subjects.
while others, of no particular surface
points, will startle you with their mental
But this is only one class. There are
others Some people literally live in the Ii
otherwise what they eat. how they earn it
and wherewithal they are clothed. is a
aged old chap, between forty and fifty. who
has been q continuous habitue for three
years. He comes about 10 o'clock every
morning, sneaks out for an hour at noon
then returns till the bell sounds at p. M
a curious, sinister and secretive sort OF
duck. You can tell by his countenance that
he's of mixed Jewish blood
Now and then. through the day, odd
looking specimens will stroll in. peep around
where he sits with pile of books be-
fore him. hold few minutes very pri-
vate conversation. and then walk out. Ex-
cept these few Interruptions. he sits there
quietly the live-long day. reading in a des
ultory fashion: with no particular aim: as
our prize mystery What's his business?
Who are these people that come to consult
him? In place of this kind we always
have to be on the lookout for suspicious
characters, and we set double watch on any
attendant who appears to have private re-
haven't been able to sift this problem yet:
No, he takes no notes as he reads and
never writes a line. His only. purpose APP
pears to be to kill time, and he does it in
big chunks.
another class of chronic visitors. or
boarders, you might say. are the pedigree
hunters It's an epidemic that has seized
on all classes. of people, and there never
was time when 1t ragged with such fury.
People of small incomes and very modest
social positions seem to have the disease
In just as acute form as the carriage folks
and parVenues who are hunting crests for
their panels and seals. They have gone into
the mania with such gusto that they are
keeping their living families on oatmeal and
calico in order to trace ancestors who nave
been dust for generations. They spend time
and money in correspondence with all
branches Of their common stock. determined
to keep the trail till they strike forefather
with cerulean blood.
You will find scores Of men and women,
Well-balanced and cranks. busy here ana
at all the Libraries in turning up the ground
or axypxy ards n
tractive family bones At first they begin
in modest way to consult indexes, then
pedigrees. At this point they begin to make
life interesting for the librarians. Inc
disease assumes an acute form when they
think they have a promisingly warm tran
that will lead to Bunker Hill or valley
Forge , ,r.,,o, ~,
with renewed violence in the past rev
years. These colonial and revolutionary
societies account for it chiefly. We
are all lot of parrots in these matters
anyhow, and people. especially the womeHS
catch new fads from their neighbors II
Mrs Smith has found the roots OF vener-
able family tree Mrs. Jones must begin
to dig for hers and she'll dig half way
down to China and cut on all other eX-
penses. but she will strike blood Just as
blue as the Smiths before she gets dohS
The public he continued. has no idea
of the widespread prevalence of this mania
, the interchangeable, wild-eyed hordes wEo
come here to hunt. 1t has started up sew
eTal houriShing industries on the side
could name you hundred Libraries IN the
country which never cared fig for gene
alogy ten years ago that are swapping up
every publication under this head now 70
that books of this character not only ma
a large sale now among libraries, but are
gobbled up also by the armies Of people
everywhere who are sn1itten with this craze.
Never was new fad started. but agile
money makers appeared to nurse 1t ana
push ii along as good thing. Hence We
find the country. especially the large cities,
peppered to-day with professional pedigree
hunters. Nassau street is full of them.
They sit enthroned in dingy. musty back
offices. with the bcwitehing aroma OF an
tiquity. On the shelves around them are
moth-eaten books and pamphlets that look
as IL they had been dug out of William me
Conquerer's cold-storage vault. To heignten
the charm, the hunters manage to keep
themselves in harmony with the past. they
have a eob-webbed and widowed look about
them, and grow dust on their clothes 70
make them resemble old Mortality just
back from jaunt among the tombs. Then
they cultivate a sepulchral croak IN the
voice. Altogether. the pedigree fend feels
impressed and is sure he is In safe hancs-
Another Mills Hotel.