Page:Hubert Howe Bancroft His Work and His Method.djvu/9

166 dustrial history, and the ethnology, geography, and literature of the Pacific Coast of America, and the publication of monographs, historical documents, and other historical material relating thereto.

Standing before the 39 rather sumptuous volumes of the Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, after eliminating the Biographical section and later volumes, occupying some yards of shelving and weighing some hundreds of pounds, one is apt to inquire, How has this been done ? and, What in truth is this, once done ? The name Bancroft on each and every volume inspires a wholesome respect for this same Bancroft; but how is this respect transformed into worship when we open the volumes and are confronted with lists of authorities consulted ad infinitum! For who less than a god can accomplish such things?

How these results were accomplished can be told only in part in this paper. Given a fireproof building full of books and papers and manuscripts ; given also a man with some means and fair experience in buying and selling books - an artisan, as he early calls himself - the problem is to produce - create, manufacture, write - the complete history of the peoples of one-twelfth of the earth's surface. The heterogeneous mass of raw material must first of all be reduced to homegeneity before it can be utilized. "On my shelves (says the master) were tons of unwinnowed material for histories unwritten and sciences undeveloped. In the present shape it was of little use. . . Facts were too scattered; indeed, mingled and hidden as they were in huge masses of débris, the more one had of them the worse one was off." (231) After some failures and frequent discussions, he determined "to have the whole library indexed as one would index a book." More expensive failures. In the perfected system forty or fifty leading subjects were selected, such as Antiquities, Biography, Mining, etc., which should em- brace all relevant knowledge, and these formed the basis of the index.

By this simple device, carried out to three or more sub-topics, the student gains access at once to all sources of information on the given subject. "The cost of this index was about $35,000, but its value is not to be measured by money." (241) It went a great way in bringing the entire library completely under the command of the author and his corps of assistants. Instead of "toiling through a thousand folios in search of possible information," the student finds the title and page and each authority ready. It was found "that by constant application, eight hours a day, it would