though the meaning of “Christening” and “The christening” is slightly different, and “Kiss in the dark” might be taken for an injunction, whereas “A kiss in the dark” is evidently only a title. Still neither Short nor Medium should hesitate to omit even in these cases. Besides the economy, the alphabetical order is brought out more clearly by this omission. That can also be done awkwardly by transposing the article; as,
— Breach of promise, The; com.
— Christening, The; farce.
— Dead shot, The; farce.
— Dream at sea, The.
152. Short omits articles in the title.
Ex. “Observations upon an alteration of the charter of the Bank of England” is abridged: “Alteration of charter of Bank of England,” which is certainly not euphonious, but is as intelligible as if it were. Medium usually indulges in the luxury of good English. Perhaps in time a catalogue style will be adopted in which these elisions shall be not merely allowed, but required. It may be possible to increase the number of cataloguing signs. We have now 8º where we once had octavo, then 8vo. Why not insist upon N. Y. for New York, L. for London, P. for Paris, etc., as a few adventurous libraries have done? Why not make free substitution of commas for words, and leave out articles and prepositions in titles wherever the sense will still remain gleanable?
153. Omit puffs [51] and many descriptive words which are implied either by the rest of the title [52] or by the custom of books of the class {69} under treatment, [53] and those descriptive phrases which, though they add to the significance of the title, do not give enough information to pay for their retention. [54]
[51] Ex. A (plain) treatise on; an (exact and full) account.
[52] In “Compendious pocket dictionary,” either compendious or pocket is superfluous.