Q. They  were  on  the  floor  in  the  cellar  in  the  State  House?
A. Yes,  sir;  like  so  many  bushels  of  potatoes;  and  he  said
"  couldn't  these  be  arranged  ?  "  I  said  "  I  should  be  delighted  to
arrange  them  ;  it  would  be  the  delight  of  my  ambition  to  arrange
these  papers,"  and  he  said,  "  what  would  it  cost  ?  "  I  said,  "  I  don't
know  what  it  would  cost ;  "  "  what  would  I  do  it  for  ?  "     I  said  I


BENJAMIN    P. LEE. 943

would  do  it  for  nothing ;  if  the  State  would  pay  the  cost  of  the
clerical  labor,  I  would  superintend  it  and  would  be  very  glad  to
do  it ;  he  said,  "  shall  we  vote  you  $3,000  "  ?  I  said,  "  as  you  like ;
I  will  use  it  all,  or  as  much  of  it  as  may  be  necessary  " ;  so  they
voted  the  $2,000  and  I  employed  the  clerks ;  I  took  one  side  of
my  vault  and  made  26  compartments  for  the  initial  letters,  and
as  I  picked  up  these  papers  I  threw  into  each  compartment  the
plaintifl'a  name  with  the  initial  indicated  by  that  box,  threw  it  in
there  until  I  would  have  four  or  five  bushels  of  Ws  and  as  many
bushels  of  S's ;  then  when  I  had  completed  this  I  went  on  the
other  side  of  the  vault  and  made  26  other  compartments,  in
which  I  subdivided  all  my  A's;  then  I  vowelized  them  so  as  to
make  them  convenient  to  discover  in  my  index,  and  indexed
them  conveniently  for  the  public  ;  then  I  commenced  my  index,
and  after  two  years  and  a  half  I  think  I  ran  out  of  money ;  the
Attorney-General  and  Mr. Barker  Gummere  and  the  Chief  Jus-
tice had  expressed  themselves  that  they  were  very  desirous  that
this  work  should  continue,  and  a  further  appropriation  was  made
by  the  Legislature  upon  a  little  bill  which  Mr. 