OcTOBEB 29, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



395 



The periods indicated on it differ from those on 

 the great market-stone, and seem to furnish a 

 solution to the perplexing complementary calendar 

 system mentioned by Spanish writers as ' the lords 

 of the night accompanying the days.' 



In conclusion, I would state, that, in my opinion, 

 many of the large stone receptacles that are gen- 

 erally called ' vessels for containing the hearts and 

 blood of human victims' are no other than the 

 standard measures, preserved for reference in the 

 market-place. 



Before publishing my final results, I shall sub- 

 mit them to a searching and prolonged investiga- 

 tion. An examination of the originals of many 

 of the codices reproduced in Lord Kingsborough's 

 ' Mexican antiquities ' will be necessary to de- 

 termine important points, and during the forth- 

 coming year my line of researches will be in this 

 direction. Zelia Nuttall. 



HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF A SMALL 

 LIBRARY. ' 



The question is not what to do with a library of 

 five hundred thousand, or a hundred thousand, or 

 fifty thousand volumes. It has nothing to do with 

 Ubraries which can afford to buy manuscripts or 

 incunabula, black-letter tracts, or early American 

 sermons. It is not for libraries whose collections 

 of original authorities took away, many years ago, 

 the cause of John Adams's reproach that in his 

 time the books from which Gibbon's statements 

 might be proved true or false cojild not be found 

 in the United States. A student may go to the 

 libraries in the great cities and read at his will, 

 order from abroad books relating to his specialty, 

 or, if he can show just cause for his request, may 

 even have books sent to his distant home. The 

 libraries which concern us are those of thirty, or 

 ten, or five, or even of one thousand volumes, iu 

 towns and villages, open, perhaps, all day six days 

 in the week, or two or three hours on one day. I 

 mean this for you, whose library spends a thou- 

 sand dollars a year ; and you, who have but five 

 hundred for books, periodicals, and binding ; and 

 you, who struggle along with fifty dollars' worth 

 of new books twice a year. It is for you, too, 

 whose library has existed in a half -alive state with 

 poor American reprints of English books, novels 

 in wretched condition, antiquated volumes of 

 science, biographies of the dreariest, incomplete 

 volumes of magazines. How can such libraries be 

 made centres of sweetness and light in country 

 towns ? 



' Your house is not large enough to swing a cat 

 in,' said a man to his friend, ' But I don't wish 



1 Bead before the Milwaukee meeting of the Library 

 association by Miss C. M. Hewins, July 7, 1886. 



to swing a cat,' answered the friend. This bit of 

 homely wisdom, and another, ' When you can't 

 have what you like, you must like what you have,' 

 are as useful in libraries as anywhere else. 



But they do not mean that you are to be satisfied 

 with the present use of many of the books which 

 are now gathering dust upon your shelves. Some 

 of them may easily be made to answer the ques- 

 tions of your readers. Spend the next money that 

 you have in a few books of reference, a new 

 edition of an encyclopaedia, a good atlas, ' Lip- 

 pincott's biographical dictionary,' ' Poole's index,' 

 and its co-operative supplement the Brooklyn cata- 

 logue, and the Providence reference-lists. If you 

 can get also, or if you have already, all the volumes 

 of Harper^s magazine, Scribner's monthly, and 

 the Century, the Popular science monthly, and 

 Littell's living age, with the separate indexes, in- 

 cluding articles and poems too short to be indexed 

 in Poole, yoii are ready to meet the wants of most 

 of your readers. If you have time, index St. 

 Nicholas, Wide awake, and Harper's young people. 

 A librarian of a small library can often satisfy a 

 reader by showing him an article written osten- 

 sibly for children, bxit told in the clear, simple 

 style which appeals to many older persons. The 

 thinking powers of many boys and girls never 

 develop after they leave school at fifteen ; and 

 knowledge, in order to be attractive to them in 

 their later years, must be set forth as attractively 

 as in their school-days. If you can overcome the 

 repugnance of many persons to books which they 

 think childish and beneath them, you can often 

 give them just what they are able to enjoy. I 

 sometimes say, " The best article that I know is 

 in the Wide awake [or St. Nicholas, or Harper's 

 young people], and, if you have no objection to 

 reading a boys' and gkls' magazine, I think that 

 you wlU find in it just what you need." 



A magazine which has a department of ' Answers 

 to correspondents ' asked, in a late number, for no 

 questions which might be answered by referring 

 to an encyclopaedia or biographical dictionary. 

 In the next number a correspondent begged the 

 editor to remember that many persons had no 

 access to such books, and their only way of learn- 

 ing what they wished to know was through the 

 magazine. The library in every town or village 

 should supply this want, and should also contain 

 Brewer's ' Reader's hand-book ' and ' Dictionary 

 of phrase and fable' (which, though often inaccu- 

 rate, are much better than nothing), and "Wheeler's 

 ' Dictionary of noted names of fiction,' and 

 'Familiar allusions.' As soon as you can afford 

 it, buy all the volumes of ' Notes and queries ; ' 

 but until then you can answer many questions 

 from the books of reference already named. 



