s, or a haunted chamber hung with tapestry, or the fatal
caving-in of a coal-mine, or a widely destructive flood, or a
hair-breadth escape from cannibals, or a race for life, pursued by
wolves, or a wondrous sub-marine grotto, or a terrible forest fire, or
any one of a hundred scenes or descriptions, all of which the librarian
is presumed, not only to have read, but to have retained in his memory
the author, the title, and the very chapter of the book which contained
it.

To give some idea of the extent and variety of information which a
librarian is supposed to possess, I have been asked, almost at the same
time, to refer a reader to the origin of Candlemas day, to define the
Pragmatic Sanction, to give, out of hand, the aggregate wealth of Great
Britain, compared with that of half-a-dozen other nations, to define the
limits of neutrality or belligerent rights, to explain what is meant by
the Gresham law, to tell what ship has made the quickest voyage to
Europe, when she made it, and what the time was, to elucidate the meaning
of the Carolina doctrine, to explain the character and objects of the
Knights of the Golden Circle, to tell how large are the endowments of the
British Universities, to give the origin of the custom of egg-rolling,
to tell the meaning of the cipher dispatches, to explain who was "Extra
Billy Smith," to tell the aggregate number killed on all sides during the
Napoleonic wars, to certify who wrote the "Vestiges of Creation," or,
finally, to give the author of one of those innumerable ancient proverbs,
which float about the world without a father.

The great number and variety of such inquiries as are propounded by
readers should not appal one. Nor should one too readily take refuge from
a troublesome reader by the plea, however convenient, that the library
contains nothing on that subject. While this may unquestionably be true,
especially as regards a small public library, it should never be put
forward as a certainty, until one has looked. Most inquiring readers are
very patient, and being fully sensible how much they owe to the free
enjoyment of the library treasures, and to the aid of the superintendent
of them, they are willing to wait for information. However busy you may
be at the moment, the reader can be asked to wait, or to call at a less
busy time, when you will be prepared with a more satisfactory answer than
can be given on the spur of the moment. What cannot be done to-day, may
often