This method was found to be wholly unsatisfactory. Frequent examination had given Edwards a fair working knowledge of his thousands of clippings, but he was often obliged to go through a dozen or more envelopes before finding the particular article whose title had escaped him.
In 1905 he bought a loose-leaf book and tried out a new system on an accumulation of several thousand magazines. This indexing was done in such a way as to suggest the character of the clipping (written in red), and the title of the article, the page number and number of the magazine (written in black). All the magazines had been numbered consecutively and placed on convenient shelves. The first page of "W," for instance, appeared as shown below:
Washington "A Job in the Senate" 771-3
Wild Animal Story "The Rebellion of a Millionaire" 477-4
Washington, Booker T. "Riddle of the Negro" 519-4
White Cross "Work of the American W. C." 129-5
Waitress "Diary of an Amateur W." 543-6
Wall Street "The Shadow of High Finance" 336-8
Woman Suffrage "Worlds Half-Citizens" 411-8
Woman "How to Make Money" 495-9
The above is only part of one of many pages of W's, and will serve to exemplify the advantages and disadvantages of the system in practical use. For instance, if it was desired to find out something about Booker T. Washington, all that was necessary was to take down old magazine No. 4 and turn to page 519.
This manifestly was an improvement over the old envelope method of indexing, but still left much to be desired. To illustrate, if Edwards wished to exhaust his material on Booker T. Washington it was necessary for him to hunt through all the pages under "W," and then examine all the magazines containing the articles in which he was mentioned. It is patent that if the indexing were properly done, every reference having to do with Booker T. Washington should follow a single reference to him in the index; and, further, the various articles should be grouped together.
Two years later, Edwards discarded the loose-leaf for the card system. This, he found, was as near perfection as could be hoped for.
His first step was to buy a number of strong box letter-files. These he numbered consecutively, just as he had numbered the manila envelopes. Articles are cut from magazines, the leaves secured together with brass fasteners, and on the first page margin at the top are marked the file number and letter of compartment where the article belongs. Thus, if the article is kept out of the file for any length of time it can be readily returned to its proper place. Newspaper clippings are handled in precisely the same way.
The card index has its divisions and sub-divisions. Cards indexing articles on various countries have a place under the general letter, and another place in the geographical section under the same letter. So with articles concerning Noted Personages, Astronomy, Antiquities, etc. Below, for the benefit of any one who may wish to use the system, is reproduced a card from the file:
ARMY, U. S.
| Hand Bill used to secure enlistments | "A" | 1 |
| Army Story "Knew It" | "K" | 1 |
| Army Story "A Philippine Romance" | "P" | 1 |
| Army Story "He is Crazy Jack" | "C" | 1 |
| Army Story "Their Very Costly Meal" | "T" | 1 |
| Army Story "Siege of Bigbag" | "S" | 1 |
| "Fighting Life in the Philippines" | "F" | 1 |
| Pay of Soldiers "Young Man—" | "Y" | 2 |