The young library assistant comes to Crunden branch graciously to teach--she stays humbly to learn. Full of new theories and with a desire to uplift--a really sincere desire--she finds in a short time much to uplift her own spirit. Since ours is a polygot neighborhood consisting mostly of Russians, Jews, Poles, and Italians, with a light sprinkling of Irish, it brings us into contact with such different temperaments that before we can attempt to satisfy them we must needs go to school to them. We know to some extent the life of our American child and with a little thought we can usually find the way best to appeal to him. But the peoples who have come from across the water have brought with them their traditions and their customs, and have each their own point of view; and it is with these traditions and customs that we must become familiar and sympathetic in order to understand the little strangers. There is the eager, often fearful Jewish child; the slower, stolid Pole; the impulsive Italian; each must be approached from a different angle and each with a different inducement. At first this task is rather appalling, but gradually it becomes so interesting that from trying to learn from the child in the library we listen to the mother in the home, and often to the father from the factory; and from these gleanings of their life in the home and their habits of thought we try to understand the nature of the strange child and grope about for what he most needs and how to make the greatest appeal to him. In the last two or three years the children's librarian has herself gone after each book long overdue, and with each visit she has seized the opportunity not only to recover the book, but to become acquainted with the mother and to gain her often reluctant confidence. Most of the readers live in tenements, many of which open into one common yard. The appearance of the library assistant usually causes much commotion, and she is received often not only by the mother of the negligent child but also the mothers of several other children as well--and, the center of a friendly group, she holds conversation with them. By this time the library assistant is well known in the neighborhood, and unlike the collector and the curious social uplifter who are often treated with sullenness and defiance, she receives every consideration and assistance. Now at Yom Kipper, Rosh Hashana, Pasach and other holidays, we are invited to break matzos and eat rare native dishes with the families of the children. We find the home visit invaluable. The Jewish, the Italian, and even the Polish mother gains confidence in us, tells us all the family details--and feels finally that we are fit persons to whom she may entrust her children.