How inclusive shall our list be made? Shall the Saturday Evening Post and the two Sunday magazines be indexed? Or shall we stay within the circle of the Readers' Guide and the Magazine subject index? How many of the news-stand best sellers shall be admitted? Mr. Wyer shows us the million circulation figures of the Woman's World, Comfort, the Vickery and Hill list of three (Happy Hours, Hearth and Home, and Good Stories), yet these are not taken by our libraries and if indexed could be consulted with difficulty. Where shall we draw this line? Again, how far abroad shall we go? Shall the short stories in foreign tongues fraternize with their English cousins? Or shall they be aliens and only admitted when really anglicized? Do we need an index? Let us test our present resources. How do you find in which volume of Kipling is printed "Thrawn Janet" or his "Man who would be king?" How many copies of "The necklace" can you supply? Granger tells you it is in Cody's "World's greatest short stories" and your catalog may show it in De Maupassant's works, or his "Odd number." But how would you find out that this classic is also in "Little French masterpieces," in Esenwein's book on the short story, and probably in several other places. Somebody comes in and asks for "Napoleon Jackson" and you do not find it in the volumes you have by Ruth McEnery Stuart. Perhaps it is loaned out. Would not such an index show that this story appeared in the Century for January, 1902, under the title "The gentleman of the plush rocker"? Vainly have I searched through catalogs and bibliographies and even biographies to find in which book of stories by "Adirondack" Murray may be found "A busted ex-Texan." The book itself must be in hand to find this information. Try to search down a particular title by Stockton, or Bret Harte and you will soon despair. Have we not then three distinct classes of publications which can be indexed with profit? (a) Collected stories of authors, of whom we have listed at least 4,400. (b) Periodical sets, which Poole indexed by titles only, but since 1900 the Readers' Guide has by both author and title. (c) Collections of stories, of which 73 at least are available today. Can we not characterize or classify our short story by some such terms as those used in the Philadelphia free library Catalog of Prose Fiction, published in 1904? Have you ever been disappointed in reading a story? Have you not often wished to know if it were a "good" one or "worth while" before you began it? Indeed, have you not often refrained from reading one for fear of wasting your time? How can we tell about these short stories? Are they good or bad? Detective or amorous? Psychological or mysterious? Have you ever seen a short story reviewed? Have you any way of knowing? Must we read every one to find out?