The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-06-04

bank-clerks, and other persons who have
much continuous writing to do. L allude
to the Protean Pen, invented by Rev. NJ.
Prince, whose name it bears. The main
recommendatory feature of the Protean
Pen is that no inkstand is necessary, as
the holder contains the ink, which flows
easily into the pen, and thence to the
paper, when the pen is subjected to the
usual downward pressure given to it in
writing. When the pen is not in use it
is impossible for the ink to flow out
neither does it evaporate. I can fill a
Protean Pen, or rather the holder, with
ink, carry it in my pocket six months
without using it, be suddenly called to
report a speech, and write steadily for
ten hours, if necessary 4; the ink flowing
as freely at my last line as at my first.
The Protean Pen will soon be consider
ed an indispensable article, not only by
professional litteraturS but by all who
have to write more or less every day.
T. G. Stearus of 900 Broadway is the
general agent for these pens, and mails
them to all parts of the Union. There
are, of course, many shops but the pen
for general use costs 81.
Among the few books really worthy of
notice, the Appletons announce the Sec
ond Volume of Col. Benton's Thirty
Years. View" However people may
differ at to Col. Benton's political phi
losophy, heis acknowledged on all hands
to be an acute observer, and a terse and
vigorous writer. He entered Congress
ional life as one of the Senators from
Missouri, on the admission of that State
into the Union, in 1921, and retired
from that grave body in 1851, having
held his seat for 80 successive years.
Who, therefore, SO we'll qualified to write
a history, " all ofwhich he saw, and part
of which he WASP"
The book-market is dull, as far as
sterling works OF fiction are concerned
People buy books, it is true; but rot
because they really Ike the quality of
them. The majority of readers are
neither stupid nor vicious. They buy
pointlcss or lascivious books, for the rea
son that they don't know how to get 9TH
ers, or that they are deceived by the bare
faced, swindling advertisements of pub
fishers. L will give you a history, one
of these days, of the means employed by
publishes to get their trash into the
market, and thence into the hands of the
rising generation. Trash is too mild a
term to use in connection with many of
these works, as it conveys the idea that
they are merely useless, while they witt
ate the taste and corrupt the morals.
The history Of the publication, advertise
mcnts, and favorable notices of "The
Monk-Knight of st. john" the indigna-
ton of the public and subsequently of
the press, the pcnitence of the publish
ers, their temporary suppression of the
work. and then their u~uderhanded sale
of it, would be a wholesome warning to
parents to abstain from introducing into
their families, the works of publishers of
ycllow-covered literatures, who are do
ing more to injure the rising generation
than all the other " coufidcace-mcu " in
the Uuion put together. NJ reason for
chasing these vampires of literature as
20 conGdeuce-men" is that the more
worthless or grossly sensual their books
are, the more careful are they to secure
for them editorial notices from clergy
men, the editors of religious papers, and
other persons Of repute, who, | am sorry
to say are often induced to give favora-
bic notices of works before reading them.
The way these notices are got, and many
other moral, if not criminal swindles of
the book-trade, I will detail to you at
some other time. Meanwhile, the only
safe course for 4 mar to pursue is never
to buy another bookissued by a publish
ing-house that has once deceived, or at
tempted to deceive, him into the pur
chase of a bad one. No matter how
highly, or by whom, a book seems to be
extolled, don't buy it, unless it is pub
lished by a house that won't publish a
bad book.
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