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              INTRODUCTORY.
T HE making of a I)irectory is a thankless task, at best. The
       unlucky comnpilcr, while reviled for the mistakes which
occur, rarely receives credit for that which is good. The man
who discovers an error, allows that fact to outweigh, in his
mind, any positive benefit which lie has received, and the book
is incontinently "dal'ned,"-and not with " faint prulise,"
either.
And yet, how many ever stop to think of the difliculties in the
way of accuracy which are actually overcome ? Did you, reader,
never find yourself thinking one thing, and actually doing the
opposite of what you intended ? l)id you never become con-
scious of the fact that the members which give expression to
thought, do not obey readily and itmlplicitly tile directing force,
-the brain? l)id you never find your tongue speaking, or
your hand w iting, the contrary of that which was in your
mind ? If you are so fortunately constituted as never to have
experienced this failing, you can not duly estimate the difficul-
ties under which the ")irectory-man " labors. To this one
constitutional defect is due nine-tenths of the mistakes in l)irect-
ories ; and long experience has not yet found a means of over-
coming it. To illustrate the process by which a name and
address i'an be transformiel, say that we have
      Clason Leora, teacher 2d district school, res. 155 Spring.'
   The man who takes the name starts the mischief by getting
the surname " (Clausen," and turning the somewhat unusual
given name into what seenis to be more in keeping, " Lena ; '
the lady who keeps the boarding house, with her mind on a pos-
sibly burning dinner, assenting to all his suggestive inquiries.
Yet each would he willing to declar'e that the utuiost pains had
been taken. Then the intelligent comapositor takes a hand.
The handwriting is a trifle "mixed," and "2d" becomes
"12th," while absent-iiuidedly the figures of the address are
transposed, and become " 5,54.  The proof-reader should cor-