In closing this subject, I feel that too great honour cannot be done to the memory of W. F. Poole, who placed the world under great obligations by the production of his Index of Periodical Literature. As far back as 1848, when a student at Yale College, he published an Index to Subjects treated in the Reviews and other Periodicals (New York). In 1853 an improved edition was published as the Index to Periodical Literature. When Mr. Poole attended the Library Conference at London in 1877 he expressed publicly his pleasure in seeing on the shelves of the British Museum Library a copy of his first index, which he had not seen for some years elsewhere. He realised that the work, if it were to be continued, was too great an undertaking for one man, and he succeeded in arranging for a co-operative index, which is continued now in several supplements under the able superintendence of Mr. William I. Fletcher.
An Index to the "Times" was started by J. Giddings in 1862-63, but not continued. Later, Mr. S. Palmer commenced a Quarterly Index, which has been continued forward to the present time, and also backward. In 1899 Bailey's Annual Index to the "Times" came into being.
The indexing of a paper such as the Times is a very arduous and difficult undertaking. In consequence, these indexes cannot be considered as models of what such works should be.
Mr. Corrie Leonard Thompson criticises in Notes and Queries (7th S., x. 345) the arrangement of the headings of Palmer's Index to the "Times" severely, but not unfairly. He writes:
"The following are instances of the absurdities which appear in the volume just issued (Oct.-Dec. 1842), and will serve to illustrate the system which has been adopted throughout the index:
"In November, 1842, a floating chapel on the Severn was loosed from its moorings; this occurrence appears in the index under the heading, 'Disgraceful Act.' Again, referring to the dry weather that was prevailing at the time, the entry is, 'Present Dry Season.' Other references to the same subject are, however, to be found under the heading 'Weather,' which of course is correct.
"A more marked example of carelessness or ignorance of the art of indexing, or both, is that of two women who were committed to Ruthin prison—one, Amelia Home for firing a pistol at a man named Roberts; the other, Jane Williams, for stealing a mare belonging to Robert Owen. This occurrence is entered under the letter R—'Rather uncommon for Females.' The chance of any one looking under Rather for an occurrence of this kind must be infinitesimal, to say the least of it; and so on. A storm at Saone-et-Loire is indexed under 'Fatal Storm,' and an account of the trial of a small boy for stealing a twopenny pie will be found under 'Atrocious Criminal.' A certain Jane Thomas was so overjoyed at seeing her mother waiting at the stage-door of a theatre that she died in her arms. The employment of capitals is most remarkable, as is also the arrangement of the words, 'Death of Jane Thomas in her Mother's Arms in Holborn at Joy in Seeing her parent at the Stage Door to Receive her.'
"The errors pointed out in these examples, omitting the last instance, as well as the additional fault of indexing under adjectives which have no distinctive feature in them to guide the searcher, evidently arise from the fact that the simple heading of the newspaper article has been taken, without any attempt being made to discover the actual contents of such article."
As already stated on a previous page, it is most important to index the articles in periodicals afresh, and not always to follow the heading of the original. This is of course more particularly the case in respect to newspapers, where the headings are drawn up to catch the reader's eye. The same rule may be insisted on in respect to all indexing, and this is so important that the restatement of it may well conclude this little volume.
In making a general index of several volumes, always index the volumes afresh, and do not be contented with using what has been done before. It is always wiser to put 'new wine into new bottles.'
