on; let us be intelligent cogs, and help the movement on
instead of hindering it.

CLUBWOMEN'S READING

I--_The Malady_

A well-dressed woman entered the Art Department of a large public library.
"Have you any material on the Medici?" she asked the custodian. "Yes; just
what kind of material do you want?" "Stop a minute," cried the woman,
extending a detaining hand; "before you get me anything, just tell me what
they are!" Librarians are trained not to laugh. No one could have detected
the ghost of a smile on this one's face as she lifted the "M" volume of a
cyclopedia from a shelf and placed it on the table before the seeker after
knowledge. "There; that will tell you," she said, and returned to her
work.

Not long afterward she was summoned by a beckoning finger. "I can't tell
from this book," said the perplexed student, "whether the Medici were a
family or a race of people." The Art Librarian tried to untie this knot,
but it was not long before another presented itself. "This book doesn't
explain," said the troubled investigator, "whether the Medici were
Florentines or Italians." Still without a quiver, the art assistant
emitted the required drop of information. "Shan't I get you something more
now?" she asked. "Oh, no; this will be quite sufficient," and taking out
pencil and paper the inquirer began to write rapidly with the cyclopedia
propped before her. Presently, when the Art Librarian looked up, her guest
had disappeared. But she was on hand the next morning. "May I see that
book again?" she asked sweetly. "There are some words here in my copy that
I can't quite make out."

On another occasion a reader, of the same sex, wandered into the
reading-room and began to gaze about her with that peculiar sort of
perplexed aimlessness that librarians have come to recognise instinctively
as an index to the wearer's state of mind. "Have you anything on American
travels?" she asked.

"Do you mean travels in America, or travels by Americans in foreign
countries?"

"Well; I don't know--exactly."

"Do you want books like Dickens's _American Notes_, that give a
foreigner's impression of this country?"

"Ye-es--possibly."

"Or books like Hawthorne's _Note Book_, telling how a foreign country
appears to an American?"

"We-ell; perhaps."

"Are you following a programme of reading?"

"Yes."

"May I see it? That may give me a clue."

"I haven't a copy here."

"Can you give me the name of the person or