, there is little money in it. No one who looks upon
the acquisition of money as one of the chief aims of life, should think
for a moment of entering on a librarian's career. The prizes in the
profession are few--so few indeed, as to be quite out of the question for
most aspirants. The salaries paid in subordinate positions are very low
in most libraries, and even those of head-librarians are not such that
one can lay up money on them. A lady assistant librarian in one city said
she had found that one of a librarian's proper qualifications was to be
able to live on two meals a day. This doubtless was a humorous
exaggeration, but it is true that the average salaries hitherto paid in
our public libraries, with few exceptions, do not quite come up to those
of public school teachers, taking the various grades into account. Most
of the newly formed libraries are poor, and have to be economical. But
there is some reason to hope that as libraries multiply and their
unspeakable advantages become more fully appreciated, the standard of
compensation for all skilled librarians will rise. I say skilled, because
training and experience are the leading elements which command the better
salaries, in this, as in other professions.

Another drawback to be recognized in the librarian's calling, is that
there are peculiar trials and vexations connected with it. There are
almost no limits to the demands made upon the knowledge and the time of
the librarian. In other professions, teaching for example, there are
prescribed and well-defined routines of the instruction to be given, and
the teacher who thoroughly masters this course, and brings the pupils
through it creditably, has nothing to do beyond. The librarian, on the
other hand, must be, as it were, a teacher of all sciences and
literatures at once. The field to be covered by the wants of readers, and
the inquiries that he is expected to answer, are literally illimitable.
He cannot rest satisfied with what he has already learned, however expert
or learned he may have become; but he must keep on learning forevermore.
The new books that are continually flooding him, the new sciences or new
developments of old ones that arise, must be so far assimilated that he
can give some account of the scope of all of them to inquiring readers.

In the third place, there are special annoyances in the service of a
public, which includes always some inconsiderate and many ignorant
persons, and these will