LIBRARIES

The Power-House

Every day I go past the Library on Ludlow Street

I look in the open windows and see the great dynamos.

They have power enough to jazz the earth and throw the planets out of step, but they make no sound.

I saw a girl with shell goggles dusting some of them,

Unterrified by her proximity to such dangerous engines.

Look out, child, look out, don't get too near the Bernard Shaw rheostat or the Walt Whitman fly-wheel.—Christopher Morley.

"May I take this book home please, or isn't it a running book? Oh, I'm so glad, I thought it might be 'for reference only.'"

MAN—"I'd like a book on dramatic expression."

LIBRARIAN—"Oral, of course?"

MAN—"Yes, I don't like poetry."