43 



ago or more Punch used to make jokes as to the number of 

 years it would take to finish the letter A. 



Q. Is that letter yet complete ? 



A. It is. The printing of it cost £770. . 



Q. How many men are employed upon you ? 



A. About twenty-five men devote their whole time to me 

 from year to year. 



Q. Is any attempt made to divide the work among these 

 in a regular way, with a view to systematic arrangement ? 



A. No. There are men specially employed in Chinese, 

 Hebrew, and Oriental languages, but no other specialists. 



Q. Is there any general inspection of the work done ? 



A. No. 



Q. Whose business would that be ? 



A. Mr. Rye's ; but he is always so busily engaged with 

 the intricacies of English orthography and the " Mother 

 Country as seen by Foreigners " that he can seldom spare 

 the time to show himself out of his room. 



Q. From the time and labour spent on you [I suppose 

 that you must have cost a good deal of money ? 



A. Yes, up to this year I have cost ^200,000. The 

 cost alone of pasting new slips in is ^2,500 a year ! 



Q. Two hundred thousand pounds, and not half finished ! 

 You must think yourself a very valuable work ? 



A. I am afraid not. I am at present only an unfinished 

 list of authors named, and that is of comparatively little 

 use. 



Q. Explain your meaning more fully. 



A. If you want a book and know the name of your 1 

 author I am of some service, because you can refer to his 

 name and find the title of his book, but if you don't 

 know the name of the author there is no means of finding 

 it out. There is no cross index of any kind ; and there is 



