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Vol. XXIV—No. 1211. ATLANTA, GA., SATURDAY, MAY 20,1899. Price $2 Per Year.
BUSINESS CHANGE
Evolution in the Method of Book-Keep
ing by the Library System.
Some of the greatest minds our age has produced have
against its will the pe not the day of small things.” Even
taught us to ‘‘despisopuiar mind has come to believe in evolu
tion and our vocabulary has enrolled the words of the scien
tist. “Heredity,” “variation" “survival of the fittest” point
ing us to laws hitherto unsuspected, till at last we are willing
to believe the hypotheses of the scientist who tells us that all
systems are the outcome of evolution.
But in this great throbbing world of education and com
merce there are about us on every side concrete examples of
evolution which are not hypotheses but the records of history.
In fact, commercial, social and educational life of the nine
teenth century are mere stages in that evolution of which her
itage variance and the survival of the fittest are the laws of
growth. A more detailed examination will show that the su
periority of the present over the past is in the
methods of administration. The economic advance
ment has been by organization and this has been possible only
through improved systems by which co-operation might be
centralized and made effective. Most evolutionary changes
require long periods of time to show results but the history of
the library bureau of less than a quarter of a century is the
history' of administrative changes almost revolutionary yet the
result of the evolutionary process: survival of the fittest.
It was in Philadelphia at the Centennial exposition in 1S76
that the first steps were takern toward the organization of the
American Library association. Its purpose was to study and
recommend the best plans and methods for thoroughly equip
ping libraries. The work of this association is well known, one
of whose presidents is Mr. Herbert Putnam, who has just
been appointed congressional librarian. Instead of the liora-
ries being dependant upon the personal equation of its libra
rians and promoters, they have had the advantage of the ex
perience and advice of the foremost librarians
of the country. This was not sufficient, for while
able men generously gave their time to study and suggestion,
■without someone to supply the articles recommended at a rea
sonable price there would be no uniformity since many couid
not afford them and all would be dependent upon the partic
ular grade of workmanship obtainable in their locality. Con
sequently' tlio secretary of the association conceived the idea
of the library bureau, an idea which seemed visionary, but
one which he'felt essential to library' progress. He under
took to develop the idea on his own responsibility and for sev
eral years even at a loss to himself carried c labor’of love.
Fiom this ' mail tCj. ,r ' g .n one porti.-.v o,. '4 desk ch'a.ver
the library bureau has grown to its present extensive propor
tions with offices in Boston. Chicago, New York. Philadel
phia, Washington, London and Paris, with large factories in
Boston and Chicago.
In the Boston factory alone over 500,COO cards arc turned
out every day.
The general offices of the library bureau in Boston at once
impress the visitor with the exemplication of the idea repre
sented by the company. The salesrooms which are located at
the very top of the building, seem to be a most impressive ex
ample of what their card system represents. The whole ar
rangement of the various floors shows the same masterly
grasp of detail and economical use of space, and advantages
quite potent in these days of fierce and uncompromising com
petition.
Such was the foundation of an organization which has
been the most active agency in fostering library work. It is
not an organization of parasitic nature which has grown fat
on the living growth, but has been nourishment to the
growth. There were two classes of young men who went west
at the advice of Horace Greely, one class which went and
grew up with the country and the other which went and pull
ed the country up after them. The latter represents the atti
tude of the library bureau in library development and where
formerly there were few towns which had their libraries sup-
GEN. JOHN B. GORDON, RE-ELECTED COMMANDER-IN=CHIEF U. C. V’s.
HIS STOJYJF LIFE
“Love, Laughter and Song’’ Are All of
Life, Says Governor Taylor.
Governor Taylor's new lecture is an old story sweetly told—
the story of life, of love and happy homes. It is not different
from his other lectures in subject matter, but the word pic
tures are even more effective than any of his previous efforts.
Bomo lecturers labor with studied themes and have sleepy
hearers. Bob Taylor simply talks of human life, its foibles,
Its fancies, its longings and love. Every life has one story,
one message. Bob Taylor’s message Is familiar to every Ten
nesseean, and with every repetition it grows more beautiful.
We are all kings, he says, but love is king of kings. Love
is the all In all of life. Every tender word we speak is a
thread of sunshine in somebody’s life. We long for sympathy
and love, and the great trouble with us is that we do not min
gle enough of love with life. Why should we fill the hands of
the dead with flowers and withhold them from the living?
Who would not rather have a tender word today than to know
that he would have a hundred flowers on his coffin.
The lecturer pictures love in the dazzling hall-room and love
keeping time with the country fiddler, the slippered and skirt
ed beauty of the city and the buxom lass of the country with
the bloom of the rose upon her cheek. The very air is drunk
with love if we will hut find it.
Turning from the happy home, the palace of love, he tells
us that the pathway of life is not easy. Some stumble, some
fall. The juice of one forbidden apple has kept the world
drunk ever since. The married man falls before the power of
King Barleycorn, and to bis little wife he makes the explana
tion that he gets drunk just because she looks so pretty that
he likes to sec two of her. The tramp, the romance of rags,
is pictured. He goes into a community, and, to show that he
is a dentist of repute, offers to put a full set of teeth into
a piece of pie. The lonely wanderer, despised by all, peers
into the window of a happy home, sees the little children en-
cireling with their dimpled arms the neck of a loving father
and the housewife busy with her work. Then, raising his
voice in eloquence, the statesman and orator exclaims: “God
pity the homeless of our race. I despise the man who does
not sympathize with the fallen.”
Uncle Rastus is at the country dance. He draws his bow,
bis head keeps time with the music and the couples flit to
and fro in the merry waltz. They ask Uncle Rastus of life
and what is love. He is a relic of old Dixie, of the good
days long ago, and his talk is quaint and pointed. He brings
out his lore and compares'men with the animals of his stories.
How alike they are! “Little- Bo Peep has lost her sheep,” but
you can always be sure that th- old man will stagger into his
home and bring with him a plausible tale.
i Go.v.-^'ior T,->vlor se„-s.„ i.ba i -. .-po'eti ■, •; • w • I-inf - .<
Ring, but a. Siave. Critics and 'slander-mongers abounded in
the realm of public life, and the slime of evil minds was in the
pathway. “I have dragged myself out of politics," he said,
“and lo! I am king again.” While in public life be had res
cued children from the penitentiary. He had seen repentant
men and had restored them to the world. He had sent fath
ers back home to take care of desolate families and to live a
new life. Critics had said it was wrong; humanity said it was
right, and the audience decided, by applause, on tno side of
humanity.
In this great world some go up and some go down. How
swiftly the shadows of sorrow follow the gleams of happi
ness. In the heyday of love all is laughter and sunshine. But
the shadows fail. The husband is taken from the wife, the
babe is wrested from the mother. But love steps in with a
tender word and soothes the wounds of sorrow.
And so it goes as only Bob Taylor can tell it. In his peri
ods of oratory he is sublime; he conjures with words and they
seem to well up with new meanings and to glow and inspire a
warmer teeling. At his characteristic wit the rippies of
laughter are made to play over the audi
ence and to break into waves of applause, and then the magic
of his eloquence crystallizes the tears of mirth into tears of
sympathy. He sings another song, a love song, and then
“Dixie,” and when the hearers have left the theatre and think
alone in their homes, they feel that the greatest blessings of
life are love, laughter and song.
REAR ADMIRAL WATSON.
He Has Been Placed in Command of Dewey’s Fleet, and Sailed for Manila on
May 16.—Admiral Dewey Comes Home for Rest.
ported by the private taxes there are to
day few of any size that have not intro
duced this method of education.
Colonel T. W. Higginson aptly remark
ed that the library movement of today
parallels the era of cathedral building in
Europe. This might well be called the
age of libraries when so many of the for
tunes made in trade and commerce have
ultimately found their way into libraries,
colleges and other institutions of learn
ing, enriching the world's re-sources in
knowledge. But the cynic insists that
this is the age of trade and trusts. On ibis
hypothesis the development of the library
bureau is an indicator of the ranid pro
gress in business life, for if system is the
symbol of the commercial spirit, and
without it no scheme or business can be
controlled, the library bureau represents
the- introduction and development of the
most successful system in all its com
pleteness and with limitless application.
The present generation has discovered
there is a literature in trade and has wit
nessed a closer alliance of literary and
business effort. Men of advanced literary
training and ability are identifying them
selves with large business concerns who
have come to realize that the exactions
of advertising, correspondence and tabu
lation, details necessary to progressive in
crease are no longer secondary considera
tions but matters which need the best
trained minds for their control. In this
lies the secret of the library bureau's suc
cess in the marvelous development of the
card system. There is no business to
which this ingenious system does not
lend itself. The library bureau is itself
primarily an idea, and it blazed a path
which has revolutionized business meth
ods. It has no ready made systems which
it sells as mere commodities but it studies
each case as a separate problem, and in
stead of adapting the business to a stereo
typed system it adapts a system to the
peculiar needs of each individual busi
ness. These are fundamental principles
upon which all systems are based, and
the more alike two concerns are the
greater the similarity of needs and of
system. Twenty years of accumulative
experience of pioneers and promoters of
this method of personal application ahs
been peculiar to the library bureau and
the foundation of its success. It is only
a little over a decade since the first vice
president of the library bureau realizing
the possibilities of the card system intro
duced it into the work of the insurance
companies.
Today the fireboard rates of many
large cities are furnished in duplicate,
having indexed cards showing rate on
any piece of property which obviates all
necessity for rate cutting and makes in
surance associations more possible than
all the “gentlemen’s agreements” of the
past. This represents one class of several
hundred indexes which the library bureau
maintains with the accuracy which only
expert management can furnish. Not
only the tariff lists but streeting lists, ex
pirations, indexes of policies and accounts
have been largely transferred from the
ponderous and clumsy books to card in
dexes of limitless expansion, convenience
in eliminations and accessibility.
One of the most radical changes has
been made in accounting. The ledger has
been aptly called the business man’s bi-
ble and he clings to its traditional form
with all the tenacity of orthodoxy and
fanatics, but it has felt the resistless ar
guments o? the higher criticism and many
of the largest as well as thesmallest ledg
ers of the country have be.-n transferred
to the card form which gives the advan
tages of perpetuity, facility and speed in
CONTENTS OF
»
Rage 1.—Business Change—History of
Life.
Page 2.—Lost Man’s Lane, serial.
Page —News Notes—Gold in Madison
County—Trucking in South Carolina—
The Sugar Industry—in t lie Grape Coun
try.
Page 4.—Our Household: Nagging School
Children—Our Letter Box—"Anna Kath
arine Green”—In the Library Corner.
Page 5.—Household Continued: From Cal
ifornia— Quiet Along the Potomac—Cu
pid's Kodak—While the Waves Rolled
High—The Card Party.
Page G.—Editorial: Our Associate Editor—
What Jackson Would Do—‘Mrs. Whitney
Dies—Why So Many People Fail—Save
THIS NUMBER.
[ the Birds—The Persecution of Dewey—
The Trouble Down South—Sidney La
ri Ur's Passion for Music—Forty-eight
j Female Lawyers—Bill Arp's Letter.
Page 7.—Three Famous Georgians,
j Page .V—Our Boys and Girls—The Puzzler
—Aunt Melindy’s Ghost—Larry the Wan-
I deror. new serial.
I Page !).—By Streams of Song—Revenge of
I Xephanis Sail.id.
Page 10.—Confederate Yets: Charleston
Reunion—Our Soldiers—Historic Charles
ton—Equestrian Statue of General R. E.
Lee.
Page 11.—With Lee in Virginia, serial—A
Mistake Righted—African Gin Trade.
Page 12.—Darkness Eternal, Dr. Talmage’s
Sermon.
posting, unlimited expansion or elimina
tion and other attributes as limitless as
ingenuity can desire.
The axiom is long established that
knowledge is power and another of the
maxims says “Know your cost and you
can make no mistake in selling.” The
card system for cost keeping saves cleri
cal work and gives accurate results.
Many firms have found by its use that
certain articles were too expensive to sell
and have ceased their manufacture to
their own gain. The correspondence sys
tem of unequalled definiteness has also
solved the way of keeping valuable let
ters both by name of correspondent anil
by subject, and with the greatest econo
my of space. Mail order business has
found that only by this system can it
keep an accurate and growing list, and by
(.Continued on Page Three.)
GENERAL STEPHEN D. LEE.
He Brought Before the Convention at Charleston President McKinley’s Prop*
osition for Government Care of Confederate Graves—It Was Rejected.
