Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-08
Crowds Besiege
Library to Solve
BeeQuestionnaire
Reference Works in Demand
Seekers After knowledge
Find Orange in Berry and
Onion Related to Lily.

Did you know the onion and lily
were related? Well they are. The
lily spends most OF its time in high
society and church. thus characteriz,
ing itself as plutocrat. The onion
is usually found in some sort Of stew
and being poor. the lily has nothing
10 do with il. Each is noted for its
perfume. The one of sweet penetrat-
ing odor reminding one OF church
chors and surpices. the other OF
stevedores and bull fighters.
This is only one of the many
things that are found out every day
in the reference room OF the public
library by hundreds OF men. wom-
en- and children. from every walk in
life who are seeking answers TO the
questions propounded in The Bees
QUESTIONABLE.
Ministers, engineers. coal beavers,
stenographers, school girls and in
surancc men are congregating in the
room each evening With The Bees
QUESTIONABLE spread before them
they dig into the encyclopedia Brit
tanica or Americana and host Of
other reference works getting the an
swers TO questions.
Not Edison Product.
The questionnaire did not originate
with Edison. Many OF the boys who
heaved a mean hand grenade in the
4Argonne knew what it was. Edison
merely converted it TO his own use.
The Bee is making it popular for
hundreds OF persons who never
knew there was public library with
books inside n everything, are find
ing it out now and are learning to
find their way about through maze
of reference works with intelligence.
1t isn't altogether a search after
knowledge, librarians say. For
those who answer 81 OF the questions
correctly know they will receive a
financial reward. Even at that, in
searching for the answers to the ques-
tons a great deal OF knowledge is
gained.
One OF the questions is: What is
spectrum? Looking up spectrum
in the encyclopedia one learns that it
has souething to do with spectro-
graphy. After spectrum is says: See,
dispersion, light. spectroscope. The
search continues and in time the
searcher learns what spectrum is.
Concerns Geography.
One Of the questions has to do
with the geography of Nebraska.
Consequently new map Of the state
showing everything connected with it
geographically has been hung up in
the library hall for easy access.
What is an orange, appears to be
an easy question. The answer is
probably written, fruit. Brother
YOU never was so wrong. An orange
is the fruit of certain plant of the
citrus family and in reality is a
berry.
Did you know that the horse once
had FIVE toes and was known to our
forefathers as the cohippus? 1t did,
and was. II took five periods OF
time for the horse to evolute into
what it is today.
Husbands Come Too.
Husbands come to the reference
room and look up the questions for
their wives. Hired girls look up the
answers after they have done the
dishes at night.
The Librarians at first thought they
would compile answers to all the
questions and pass them out to all
colners. Then the idea came to then,
that it would be more educational
for each person seeking the answers
to look them up himself. Only when
a seeker is really stuck and in trou-
bic will the librarians aid This was
the idea The Bee had i'll mind when
the contest was launched. To spread
knowledge among its readrs and pay
them while they we're being educated
The contest closes August 81. All
answers to the questionnaire must be
L..E *