Page:The small library. A guide to the collection and care of books (IA smalllibraryguid00browiala).pdf/41

of quack medicines, and there is no doubt that the gullible British householder will accept almost anything which is sufficiently advertised and boomed, provided it is free. But of good, general reference books, which answer nearly every question likely to arise in an ordinary household, either from arguments in the family, the suggestions of friends, or the discussions of newspapers, the majority of British families do not possess many. It is chiefly because of this, and an extraordinary failure to make intelligent use of the reference departments of Public Libraries, that so much ignorance is manifested by the average British citizen, on nearly every subject under the sun. He addresses queries to the newspapers on topics which he could answer for himself by using his own home library, if he had one; or inquiring at the nearest Public Library. But, instead of equipping himself with the tools of knowledge for the benefit of himself or his family, he prefers to grope blindly along in his own pigheaded way, like his fathers before him, a prey to every intelligent American or German who cares to take advantage of his blunt indifference to the power and value of book-learning. It is laughable, though it is also pitiful, to observe such foolish persons asking the same old questions in the same old way, over and over again, as if answers to them had not been placed on permanent record time after time. The value of a small Home Reference Library is simply enormous, and its possessor is rendered superior to the little perplexities and difficulties of life, which constantly occur to embarrass