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Show oo FINDING BOOKS IN BRITISH MUSEUM. One of the mysteries of London was cleared up on Saturday A vocal explanation was given by a member of the British Museum staff of tho way to make use of the reading-room reading-room of the British Museum. Thoro are in the British Museum library 4,000,000 volumes, and thousands thous-ands perhaps millions of innocent persons no doubt Imagine that the way to obtain the book you want Is to walk in and ask for It But the explanation which was given on Saturday shatters this pleasant delusion. de-lusion. That does not moan that It Is difficult dif-ficult to obtain a book at the British Museum. On the contrary, it is easier than finding a needle In a haystack, and there are rules for doing It Tho only difficulty is to remember the rules. The lecturer took his seat smilingly smiling-ly held up a map of tho great reading read-ing room, and pointed to the circle where the incredible printed catalogue cata-logue a cataloguo which has 'no rival, much less an equal in the world stands arrayed In alphabetical profusion. It might be Imagined that the simple sim-ple thing to do is to take the volume vol-ume of the cntalogue with the required re-quired initial letter on the back and pick out the book desired But that is where the rules come In. For if a book Is written by James Obadiah Smith, and James Obadlah Smith has trlod to hide his baptismal baptis-mal misfortune by putting the name of James Smith without the Obadlah Oba-dlah on the title page, and If, as Is likely, the museum librarians know the horrid truth about him then, In those unsuspected circumstnnces, the book is catalogued under the true names of James Obodlah Smith, and the simple person who seeks it under the name of James Smith will fail to find it, although it is there all the time. And if a book is published by the Camberwell Society for the Incorporation Incor-poration of tho North Pole, or any other learned or political or scientific or Blmilar society, It Is catalogued under the name of that society and bo on. For three-quarters of an hour the smiling lecturer expounded the unsuspected un-suspected mystories of tho printed catalogue, the muBic catalogue, the subject catalogue, the map cataloguo und the 20,000 volumes of reference books which the reader may take down at his will from the shelves, and aB he proceeded the old gon-tleman gon-tleman with gray hair became a trifle grayer with anxiety as to whether , they would remember It all, and the young persons with long pencils put tho ends of their pencils In tholr mouths and listened with looks of awe as If they were trying to mas-tor mas-tor an easy guide to Hampton Court mazo or a short account of the Milky j Way. I But -the -end -of tho lecture made everyone happy, for, In reply to a nervous question from a woman, the lecturer gavo a complete assurance that when all other efforts have failed thoro is still one way of finding find-ing tho required book. That is to walk up to the superintendent of the library, who sits Jn the very center cen-ter of tho great circle, and ask him tho correct way to do It London Express. |