Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-15

ing room like this silent or mum cluo.
He again applied himself to the work
before him, but he was evidently not a
qualified member for the organization
he had named, and was subject to at
tacks of loquacity. AS he glanced
around the room over the tops of his
spectacles he observed:
over there is a man whom I have
seen. off and on. in the library for TWEEN
ty years past. Yes. mean the individual
with the bald bead and the crooked legs
whose nose seems to be always giving
him trouble and demanding attention.
There he goes-eating peppermint loZ-
enses-I know they're peppermint loz-
enges, because l once smelled them. He
was always the same, that fellow. Dur
ing the twenty years l have mentioned
I have often discontinued my visits to
the libraries in this city-the Capitol and
the Public Librarybut when / returned
to resume the old routine, as it were.
there was our friend over yonder. just as
though he were part and parcel Of the
establishment. He's bound to drop into
the reading room of either, or maybe
both, libraries every day.
when these library ficnds I call them
perhaps I'm one myself--pass over. as
the spiritualists say. believe they'll
haunt these places. That reminds me-
did you see in the paper where the read
ing room of the Capitol library was ac-
tually said to be haunted? l tell you,
there may be something in it.
Il often amuse myself. when We have
in the reading room representative gath
ering of one sort or another in naming
the particular crowd thus collected to-
sether. Sometimes the readers will be
all evidently fairly wel1-to-do. but en-
gagged in perusing somewhat frivolous
class of literature. These call the dilet-
tamil Then there's a bunch i dub the
wise buffers or deep files. These are seri-
ously engaged. to all appearance, In col
lecting material for practical use. or chas-
ing some elusive bit of information to its
lair. Sometimes l glance around and
sec that We number several individuals
whose appearance suggests hard luck,
and then 1 say were the club Of the
down and-outss. I've even composed a
ballad after the style Of kipling on the
latter theme.
'Then, I class our memyers into two
grand divisions which comprise all the
subcla s:fications. These two principal
classes are the casuals and the regulars.
Leaving the fair frequenters OF the read
generally speaking, that the casuals are
apt to be busy men and the regulars idle
men, / have in numbers OF instances
observed the transition from casual to
a regular and vice versa. / have seen a
casual dropping in at odd times, and
instinctively surmised that he was place
hunting. At first there was some hope
and briskness in Hrs manner. and he
would glance at the clock every row and
then anxiously Then he got limper and
limper. and his stays in the reading room
grew longer, and he seemed TO devote
himself more to his book or maya zine
evidently selected initially for the purpose
of killing time-and less to the clock He
grew careless i'm his attire, and finally
he became a regular.
Sometimes I have lost sight of a reg
ular. to see him show up again in the even
ing occasionally or on a holiday, with
quite smart and swagger air in COM
parison with his previous Iistlessness.
Perhaps. however. he would lose his job
and become a regular again. All these
incidents in life's changing phantasma-
goria are to be seen by a regular fire.
quenter of a reading room like myself.
Ordinarily. the regular is a solitary and
silent individual like rpvSolf,s (@i,a ar