ogswell's, bringing the work down to the end of 1880, has been
prepared, and is being printed at the Riverside Press, Boston. The
current card catalogue is arranged on the dictionary plan, giving author
and subject under one alphabet. Opposite each title is written the
number of the alcove and the letter designating the shelf. By the
regulations the reader is required to find the title of the book desired
in the catalogue, write it with the number and letter on a slip of paper
provided for the purpose, and give it to the distributing librarian, who
despatches one of his boy Mercuries to the shelf designated for the
work. More often than not, however, the reader asks directly for the
book desired, without consulting the catalogue, and it is rarely that
the librarian cannot from memory direct his messenger to the section and
shelf containing it. In the matter of theft and mutilation of books the
library depends largely on the honor of readers, although some
safeguards are provided. All readers are required to enter their names
and addresses in a book, and the volume on being given out is charged to
them, to be checked off on its return: it would be difficult, too, for a
thief to purloin books without being detected by the employees or the
porter in the vestibule. Yet books are stolen occasionally. In June,
1881, a four-volume work by Bentley on "Medicinal Plants," valued at
sixty dollars, was taken from the library. It was soon missed, and
search made for it without avail. A few weeks later, however, it was
discovered by the principal librarian in a Broadway book-stall and
recovered.

Few strangers in the city depart without paying a visit to the Astor
Library, and it is one of the few lions of the city that do not
disappoint. The main entrance is approached by two flights of stone
steps, from the north and south, leading to a brownstone platform
enclosed by the same material. From this, broad door-ways give entrance
to the vestibule, sixty feet by forty, paved in black and white marble,
and wainscoted four feet above the floor with beautifully variegated
marble from Vermont. The panelled ceiling is elaborately frescoed, as
well as the upper part of the walls. Busts of the sages and heroes of
antiquity adorn the hall. From the vestibule a stairway of white marble,
with massive newels of variegated marble, leads up to the library
proper. The visitor enters this in the centre of Middle Hall. Before
him, separated by a balus