"Inda-ade,' says Hogan, dhroppin' his gin'ral sooavity iv manner; 'I think it is a dom sha-ame an' it ought to be stopped.'"

"I thank ye kindly for your inthristin' an' hilpful suggistion,' says the Chief Rif'rince Libraarian. 'It will give me play-sure to rayporrt it to th' Diricthor, who, I am sure, will be glad to intrajuce it at th' nix' meetin iv th' Honorable Boar-rd of Thrustees to be recor-rded in the min-yits.'"

"Does Hogan think they will do annythin' to sthop the crimin'ls?" asked Mr. Hennessy.

"Sure, he does not know if they will," replied Mr. Dooley. "Perha-aps they are afraaid that they might check the spread of fine ar-rt among the popylaace. It wad be a pity if the lovers of ar-rt for ar-rt's saake had to contint thimsilves with the ba-athin' girrls an' asthetic dancers in the rottygrivoor supplimints, whin there is betther to be had."

W. H. C.

"VIKINGS OF THE ICE."

A NEW BOOK BY GEORGE ALLAN ENGLAND.

In our business we are taught to respect a book. But when it happens that the author of a particular book was once a library worker, was once "one of ourselves," our feelings of respect amount to little less than thrills. We look at the name on the title-page and are reminded again that working in a public library is no bar to further achievement, that we, too, may attain the distinction of authorship, to the edification of the Catalogue Department and the general reader. We fall to wondering about the author, Mr. Allan England, formerly of the Boston Public Library, more recently of "Vikings of the Ice," and before we know it we are reading his book and with him are well toward the North Pole.

For he has gone a long way from the Library. He tells how with deliberate intent he sought out first-hand information on the details of the leastknown, the most highly-adventurous sport of the world, namely, the seal hunt of the northern Atlantic. A traveller, but one with a feeling for the steam-heated apartment of our

American cities, he cast in his lot with a crew of native Newfoundlanders, men who all their lives had known nothing but the cruelest kind of hard, dangerous work, and whose only evidence of a response to the refinements of life was a tendency to borrow freely from the author's store of personal equipment, such as pipes, clothing, and tobacco. At the opening of the hunting season, with a head full of misgivings, he sailed from Newfoundland on a veteran sealer, blackened with soot, with snow frozen to the decks, and with the poorest quarters for officers and men. The reality was even worse than he expected, but it gave Mr. England what he in turn gives his readers, the fullest information about seal hunting. Everything that one could need to know of seals is set forth in abundance, their habits, breeding, killing, the profits of the business, the uses of seal oil, and then, for those of us who love to read a book of travel just for its own sake, the descriptions of the always magical northland. We are told how an iceberg looks (it is here that we find out why the author is no longer in the library. but spends all his time writing, this description alone justifies it) and how marvellous it was, after weeks of almost unendurable hardships in these ice-clogged seas, to glimpse blue water which meant home and civilization again. The author concluded his experiences on board the sailing vessel with an attack of grippe, but was not too ill to describe this culminating misery of his adventure in the words of Josh Billings, as being "2 mutch."

C. H.

MUSIC WEEK AT THE LIBRARY.

The active participation of the Library in "Music Week" was distributed through the seven allotted days, but passive co-operation has been going on for many weeks. Since February Mrs. William Arms Fisher, the able executive chairman of the Boston Music Week Committee, has had her headquarters in the anteroom of the Trustees' Room, and there, with her cohorts of secretaries and publicity agents, and

her countless committees, she has evolved the program which was keenly anticipated and deeply enjoyed.

The Catalogue Department collaborated by issuing a brief reading listNo. 28, "Landmarks in Music, Boston 1630-1924." This was distributed at the opening event in Tremont Temple on Sunday afternoon, May 4, where, after the usual congratulatory telegrams and messages, the Mayor read a fervid speech, and the People's Symphony Orchestra gave a popular pro

gram.

In the Library Mr. Appel had arranged an exhibition of unusual interest to Bostonians. Musical manuscripts, publications, diaries and books. by persons intimately connected with Boston illustrated the musical history of the city.

On Monday, May 5, at 3.30, Mr. Stuart Mason lectured at the Library on "How Music came to be as it is," and in the evening a large audience. enjoyed a concert given in the Lecture Hall by the Footlight Orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Thompson Stone.

Miss Rose Ella Cunningham lectured on Tuesday morning to a group (ten women and a boy) who were interested in "Music for Mothers."

The next meeting in the Library was the lecture by Mr. John B. Archer, on the Historical Development of Music, under the auspices of the Division of University Extension. This was followed immediately by a concert given. by the Lincoln House Orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Jacques Hoffman.

Many members of the Library Staff are grateful to Mrs. Fisher for her generous distribution of tickets for concerts and lectures given outside the Library.

ITALIAN.

H. S.

"Language," said Mr. Micawber (or somebody else), "is the art of concealing thought." The more thoughts, the more is a thorough knowledge of language necessary for their concealment. If for no other reason, it is at once evident how important are words in the existence of all proper librarians. Further, not only do they work with.

books, but the public which they are expected to assist has a fearful and wonderful vocabulary. Has not the Mayor himself pointed out the babel of tongues to be heard in Boston? Forty-three languages and dialects, we understand His Honor said (though the Mayor may not always be correctly quoted). It has been calculated by the Statistical Department that, on the theory of probabilities, an attendant at the Library may on the average expect to be addressed in eight different tongues besides our own every twentyfour hours. Fortunately many of the foreigners speak English, and the eight-hour day further reduces the above average to about one-third. But there is no guarantee that this low percentage will be maintained, and besides, the conscientious librarian wants - like the Boy Scouts-to be prepared. A knowledge of Chinese, for instance, would not only greatly facilitate the redemption of shirts and unmentionables from the local laundry, but would also enable the possessor to make authoritative recommendations of original works on Chinese vases of the Ninth Dynasty, or the financial standing of the Third Republican Government. Even an acquaintance with Spanish would enable one to order chile con carne for the first time with some slight assurance as to what the result would be in itself no small comfort. As for Italian, no one who had studied that language could have made the mistake of the young lady who wrote: "Andante-the wife of the poet Dante; after marrying her, he wrote the "Inferno."

To be sure we are likewise reminded

that:

There was an old maid of Peru
Who thirty-two languages knew.
With one pair of lungs

She worked thirty-two tongues, I don't wonder she's single, do you? There must be a happy medium always. When the Director decided, about the first of December last, to establish a precedent and an Italian course, some doubt was expressed as to the feasibility of the scheme. For to give oneself a course is not unlike lifting oneself by one's book-straps a proposition which, like achieving perpetual

motion, has always been regarded as possessing certain mechanical difficulties. When confronted with a similar dilemma, Archimedes is said to have exclaimed, "Give me a fulcrum on which to rest my lever, and I will move the world." As his opponents were unable to provide the required point of support, he was adjudged to have won the argument. The Library, however, was not so easily disposed of; the Extension Division of the Department of Education at the State House was selected as the fulcrum around which the course was to move. With the essential violation of the laws of mechanics thus successfully disguised, the movement began at once and has proceeded quietly ever since.

For, unlike the course of true love, the course in Italian has from the first run with remarkable smoothness. Miss Colleton, whom a beneficent Providence was so gracious as to provide for our instruction, grasped the peculiar problem of library workers with rare insight and designed her own methods accordingly. Realizing that much of our work would be of an oral nature, she decided to conduct the course viva voce, illustrating the principles of grammar as they arose with a blackboard outline, and emphasising particularly those verb forms which most often occur in conversation. Thus it was that we were first of all introduced to "I am" and "I have" — two little words no less important in Italian, it appears, than in publicity-mad and "dollar-chasing" America. "If I were," "Would that I might be." and other appurtenances of poetic flight followed in due course. We have come more or less to comprehend what is written in the Italian newspapers and periodicals, both as Miss Colleton reads them to us, and "on our own." We have learned to ask for a pound and a half of butter with fair nonchalance and some degree of accuracy. We are likewise able to state quite freely that we did not go out last night because the train on which our brother came was two hours

late. Our vocabulary contains almost. all the useful words, except the swearwords, that we are likely to need. We have learned to count from one to a thousand as rapidly as if we used our

NEWS FROM THE BRANCHES.

ANDREW SQUARE: Children four deep watched the setting up of a vegetable and flower garden exhibit in one of the windows of the Andrew Square Branch Library on Tuesday, May 6. In the centre stands a man with a hoe, in the midst of a luxuriant lettuce bed, on one side of him a tulip garden, on the other a border of irises. Three children are seen picking flowers, without being told to keep off the grass! A poster behind the exhibit encourages people of Andrew Square to start window-box gardens; in front are displayed piles of Farmer's Bulletin No. 1171, "Growing Annual Flowering Plants," an attractive booklet of 83 pages, of which one hundred were kindly sent, on request, by Congressman Tinkham. Every child or grown person who agrees to start a window box will receive one of these attractive pamphlets as a gift.

BOYLSTON STATION: The entrance to Boylston Station Branch has been made more pleasing by the laying of a new sidewalk in front of the building.

CITY POINT: An amusing article appeared in one of South Boston's local newspapers for May 3, in regard to the new fence in process of construction around the Municipal Building at City Point, in which the library is situated. The article is headed "It Came at Last," and goes on to describe the erection of a fence for which the contract was made eleven years ago. But "Better late than never," and City Point is looking forward this summer to the enjoyment of a really green lawn.

CODMAN SQUARE: Miss Sybil Murphy recently took a prominent part in a minstrel show given by the students of the Boston Teachers' College, in the High School of Practical Arts.

MATTAPAN: Look in the Mattapan windows if you want to see Japanese cherry trees in full blossom. On the branches of these trees birds of all feathers have flocked together.

NORTH END: A beautiful doll, dressed in the costume of an Austrian peasant bride, has been added to the collection of dolls at North End. It is the gift of Dr. Zoltán Haraszti, of the Special Libraries Department, and was sent to him from Matyo, Austria, by his sister. A bride, when dressed in this costume in Matyo, is known as Magyar Menyecske. The costume of the doll is all hand-made and has a most elaborate head-dress. The collection of dolls at the North End Branch now numbers about thirty, and the joy that these dolls will bring to the children when they are displayed will be good to see.

WEST ROXBURY: On April 17 the West Roxbury Woman's Club had its second book review meeting. The review dealt with several recent biographies.

The West Roxbury library has lately been the recipient of two busts. One, a bust of Charles Dickens, was presented by Mrs. Laurence W. Baker in behalf of the West Roxbury Dickens. Club. The other, of, Shakespeare, is the gift of the Shakespeare Classes of West Roxbury.

LIBRARY PUBLICATIONS.

Boston's book-tree has put forth, this spring, a number of leaflets, signs of life which will, we hope, survive the heat of summer. The earliest, "Some Useful Reference Books of 1923," was compiled by Mr. Chase in connection with his address at the last meeting of the Massachusetts Library Club. The list includes, with comments and prices, twenty-nine general reference books, with fourteen others of interest for special subjects.

For Boston Music Week, May 4-10, Mr. Appel prepared "Landmarks in Music, Boston, 1630-1924," a compilation of the titles of books and music used or composed by persons intimately connected with Boston, and of works illustrating the musical history of the city. The titles are given in chronological

order, ranging from the first edition of the Bay Psalm Book (1640) to the autograph scores of modern composers in the Brown Music Collection.

In the same week the New England Health Institute was held. For this, the "Health and Hygiene" list, prepared for the Boston Health Show of last October, was brought to date with. a supplement of selected titles.

Mr. Pierce E. Buckley, Custodian Bates Hall Centre Desk, has compiled "Advertising," in 14 pages, including among its headings, besides general works, a number of specialties, such as motion picture advertising, show cards, show windows and signs.

The four lists named are Brief Read

ing Lists nos. 25, 27, 28, 29.

A new series, called "Lists for Branch Use," has run to three numbers. They are: No. 1, "One Hundred Books of Travel"; No. 2, "One Hundred Biographies"; and No. 3, "Gardens and gardening." Nos. 2 and 3 were prepared by Miss Ethel M. Hazlewood, of the Branch Department. All these lists have been distributed at the book-review meetings held at the West Roxbury Branch Library.

As a corollary to the film-play, “The Ten Commandments," pictures of scenes in the play were posted in the Central Library and the branches, with "A short list of books on Egypt; its past civilization and present state," which was prepared by Mary A. Tenney of the Catalogue Department.

It

It is appropriate to mention here a pamphlet entitled "Public Library of the City of Boston: an inspiration in its architecture, sculpture, and murals, and a great resource for the study of the art and technique of printing. was published this month by the Society of Printers, with notes by Henry Lewis Johnson. Mr. Johnson writes: "The immediate occasion for this publication has been the course in Typographic Expression at the Massachusetts Normal Art School in the spring of 1924." The book contains a general description of the Library and a selected list of books on printing, divided as follows: Historical, Technical, Design and lettering, Bookbindings, Type specimens, Engraving, Printers' devices, Famous presses.

The work that counts is not always the work that shows. Conspicuous results almost invariably depend on work done behind the scenes, by persons of whom too often we know little or nothing. The so-called "lime-light" in which some of us move is frequently merely reflected from a background of which no one guesses. In fact, it may be truly said that a foreground presupposes a background, and that one is impossible without the other.

The Library is divided into open and closed departments. Those of us who work in the open have the pleasure and the stimulus of meeting the public and are often profusely thanked for the service which we are able to give. But our service would fall to pieces in an instant if it were deprived of the support of the closed departments of which the public seldom thinks. Careful, patient, scholarly work on the part of the Ordering and Catalogue Departments; prompt and accurate service in the stacks; tubes and elevators and other machinery in good order; - all these and many other factors are essential to the showy effectiveness of the public attendants in the reference and issue work of the Library. We are too

apt to forget our dependence on the men and women in the background.

Many an employee of the Library might easily be singled out as an illustration. The engineers in the boiler room, the drivers of the trucks which carry books to the Branches, those who bind our periodicals and print our catalogue cards, the janitors who wash the windows, the electrician who keeps the fans and lights in order, to say nothing of more "regular" Library attendants, are all cases in point. We and our public take all these people-or the results of their labors for granted, yet they are all of essential importance; the service would break down without any one of them. At the moment, however, it seems specially in order to speak of two conspicuous examples of important work done in the background by members of the staff who have recently been retired.

Early in its first year of publication, LIBRARY LIFE was called on to sum up the career of Lindsay Swift, whose distinguished work as the Library's Editor was brought to a sudden close in the fall of 1921. Mr. Swift's place was taken by Miss Mary H. Rollins, who has now in turn left the institution which she has served long and ably. No better person could have been found to carry on Mr. Swift's task. Miss Rollins had long been associated with him in various forms of literary work, she had assisted him in his official duties as Editor, and shared his standards and his point of view to a remarkable degree. A scholar by temperament and training, a devoted and efficient servant of the Library through many years of fluctuating health, editor of a number of important bibliographical works, she conferred distinction upon the Library by everything that she did. Her touch gave to all her work an assured value. Her place will be hard to fill. Mr. Swift, in spite of the nature of his duties and the seclusion of his quarters in the Library, was always more or less of a public personage; but Miss Rollins has been essentially a part of the backgroundone of those who best illustrate its importance and its quality. We shall think of her as applying to her farm the