St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1910-07-30

Washingtonians and others from dis.
lance. Although perhaps 1t is not
known to every one, It is a fact OF
some interest that every member OF
the librarians force is college man.
The person whom one sees handing
out light Juvenile fiction has under
gone collegiate training, which,
though possibly of little use in! this
instance, may stand him we'll In hand
when the next reader arrives, asking
for directions for securing copy of
Justus Frederick Karl Heckers "The
Epidemics of the Middle Ages" or
some other equally rare and heavy
work These patient, faithful, obi
ging Librarians who wait upon young
girl readers seeking Gibson's 1.-THE
Passing Show" with the same polite
and thorough attention with which
they respond to the applications Of
students and men of learning. are,
many Of them. men Of considerable
learning and literary accomplishments,
Richard Johnson speaks and reads
French quite as we'll as he does Eng
lish, and if Frenchman unable to
speak or understand a word of Eng
fish were to drop into the library
reading room he would perhaps ex-
perience less difficulty in securing
what he desired than if he were in
Paris. The others are also able to
read French and German, in addition
to English, this being one of the re-
quirements under which they hold
their places. In addition to this, how
ever, Mr.. Johnson Is able to speak
French as we'll as native of Paris.
Frank Reynolds speaks excellent
Spanish and usually attends to the
wants of visitors from the republics
Of Latin America.
Louis Solyom, however, Is perhaps
the most accomplished linguist in the
library.
He is one of the few Americans who
are able to read and speak the Chi
nese, Japanese, Turkish, Hungarian
and Polish languages, and, among 9TH
er duties, attends to the cataloguing
of works in the Chinese, Turkish and
other oriental languages.
Mr.. Babine speaks and reads the
Russian and Slavic languages as we'll
as he does English, cataloguing all
works printed In these tongues which
come to the library. for, although the
number of Washington people who
read Russian, Chinese, ETC., is rather
limited, still there are enough of them
to render the purchase and keeping on
hand Of a number of works in the
languages Just mentioned, as we'll as
in Turkish, Japanese, Hungarian and
Finnic, necessity. Among those who
patronize the library reading room,
and who read in Chinese as well as
in English, may be mentioned Will
liam Woodville Rockhill, and several
others who have served in the navy
and diplomatic service. OF the total
number Of patrons who read in Ian
guages other than English. those who
have mastered French and German
are in a decided majority. Time was
when the number of people fAnnert-
cansl who could read in Russian, the
most difficult Of all European lam
guages, amounted to very few. in
deed, but owing to the growing i'm
portance OF the Russian empire and
people interest in this peculiar tongue
Is on the increase.
In the matter Of preference, history
has the greatest number Of devotees
among the readers at the Congress
sional library, fiction coming second.
Now, and for some time past, nearly
one-half of the number OF readers in
the library reading room come here
to read town histories, genealogies
and that class of works which during
the past two years have appeared in
such numbers, and which deal with
historic towns. families, etc, of the
different groups Of states Of the
Union. Such subjects have become