New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-16
WESTERN PHOTOGRAPHY.

-HUMORS OF BOOhSELLlNU.
CHICAGO, Oct. 4-There are still persons who
expect reaching the prairies or the mountains 10
behind culture and taste and the quick pulse OF
fashion, They are Just as intelligent the notqnte-ex-
tnct Engishman who thinks to encounter bualoes you
know In walking up Broadway and 10 be nred on Dy III
dams, my boy while sailing down the HUDSON new
Yorker, visit to mining camp III Colorado, poughta
pair Of excellent shoes at rdiculousy low ngure After
the purchase he asked GLOW in the world can you sell
such shoes q sol" "we, Sir" replied the dealer,
"squaretoes went out of fashion month ago, and
now my customers won't take them at any pricep Re
turning few weeks later the purchaser found nine
tentbs Of his city friends still wearing the shape which
was too antiquated for the Rocky Mountains.
Calfornans, restrained perhaps by their proverbal
modesty, do not hint that San Francisco is the
Athens Of America; but while yet isolated she produced
The Overland Mon,ly conspcuously the best Of all
magazines and The Ne1, Letter. irreverent and some
times coarse, but Of all humorous Journals In the IAN
guage the keenes the wittest and the most genuinely
American AS for Chicago the stay home world knows
Of gra!nelevators and railroads. her porkpackng
establishments and real estate miracles. Old visitors
NAV have heard also feeble and daident hint or two
that city with future and little faint and in
direct disparagement Of st. Louis and Cincinnati! Some
have encountered that dreadful rrepressble omni
present who years ago, was offered GAO acres on
the South Side for " and like fool dd MT take
it, and today SIR you can't buy single house lot there
for less than $500 front footl"
But there is quite another aspect with which we ought
to grow familiar now the fast train can bring u.s. as
handbis here announce From Metropolis to Metropolis
In 80 Hoursl The people OF the orth.West-largely
from New York and wEnglandare ravenous readers,
and the bOok.trade Of Chicago Is exceedingly heaVy
The Western News Company, s. G. Griggs d Co., W. b.
Keen & Cooke G. & c. Sherwood, and Cobb, Prtchard d
Co.. are the leading houses The first three are all SIDE Dy
side in ve-story marble block on state-st and their
premises form the finest group OF book stores In the
world They for from $4,000 to $4,000 apiece Each
is $50 feet deep by wde with shelves and showcases
crowded. and stacks OF books often twice as
high as head rising from every available square
foot of the floor One firm occupies three stories aud the
others two each.
In 1852 there was single periodical depot Chicago,
and it did business OF per annum Several years
later an enterprsng lad named Walsh began TO sell morn
ing papers on the His capital lay IN the
fact that he could toni terribly" Now while yet 30
youthful.ooking that n stranger instinctvey gances
around the store to whether the old gentleman is
n he Is the superintendent and largest stakeholder OF
the Western News Company which owned half In New
York and half In Chicago employs 90 men and boys, and
distributes annually throughout the West-cear 10
the sierras and 10 Northern Texaabout 81 900 900 worth
OF current literature from the morning newspaper to the
newest book and the latest quarterly Periodical stock
is so pershabe that rule IL snot even sold for cash
on delivery, but only upon the safe plan OF requiring
customers 10 deposit the money before IL leaves the
store asked an enployt: "Haye ST. Louis and Cinein
natl any establishments similar In plan and magntudsP
"No" he answered Cincinnati 10 too near Nowiork,
and st. Louis has back country This line OF trade ID
created and sustained only by railroads"
Here is estimate OF the respective sales or period
calls from Chicago through this channel II affords the
usual melancholy exhibit OF the popular taste. though
the really valuable publications gain steadily upon the
milk toast and the blood thunder varieties: Ledger
5000 copies; Nep.York Weekly, 10000; Saturday Ni0hh
$4,000; Hupers Weekly, $500; Chimney Corner 1900;
Western World $500 Preside Companion, 1900 Harpds
Bazaar 1900; Days Doigs 1900; Frank Leses Ne"spd'
per- 1900; Police Sers $500; Appetons Journal, 2'oo;
Warerey Ma0dsne 23oo; Sporting Times. 1850; Hearth
and Home Spirit Of The Times 5OO Nation, 200; Ca
zen Round. Table 20; Harpers Monthly 1000; Cooley 5000
Atlantic. 1900; Peterson, 20OO Our Young Folks l5oo;
Putnam 100; GALAXY TOO; Our Boys and Girls 600; Ore-
iand 2O Lppineo 200 Riverside 200 Itisno fair index
Of aggregate crcuaons for OF these publications
send almost their entire editions 10 mail subscribers,
whiio others are sold exclusively through periodical
dealers.
The general book trade Chicago began In sIs when
Mark ii. Newman. old New York publisher. sent an
agent here 20 establish branch house. In four years
the agent up TO his eyes In real estate specuaons
and during little panic he became frightened, and took
TO his heels closing out his lots for next to nothing and
abandoning book store altogether The joke OF the ar
fair proved be that he right IN his original impulse
and the aarmlsts whom he listened wrong Had
enable him to carry the rest, he would have become
one OF tho richest men In the West The Charybds
which sank him was lack OF faith in the future OF the
city, Few Chicago ships OF the present era seem to be in
danger OF going pieces that side OF the channel
From the germ which he left has sprung the leading
house Of s. c. Grggs & Company. Mr. Griggs was the
pioneer and Messrs. Jansen, McCurg Ia brigadiergen.
era OF repute in the War for the Union and Smith,
clerks who have grown into partners 1t is not great
many years since the firm proud to find that their
annual sales reached $4,000 When they first took 900
copies Of the Sanders Speer for aWnter stock goods
had TO be hauled In wagons one or two hundred miles
from the railway terminus at Ann Arbor Michigan, while
the lake rozen they felt that they we're doing an
enormous business. Now they consider any year In
which they do not sell 100000 copies Of the speller duh
ono and their annual trade Is not far from 100000
Two things are noteworthy. ]. The relative demand
for fine bindings for full and half calf and morocco edi
tons OF all sta ndard works, is apparently greater in
Chicago than In any other book market In the world
so is the special demand for DID, and choice books
1t TO have $4,000 worth on hand-many
of them imported direct from Europeand in this line
fancy no other American house the general book trade
does 30 large business The store Is paradise Tor dbl
omanacs Miss Phelps should provide some such celes'
ta nook for that large class OF enthusiasts In the next
edition OF The Gates Ajar" note one folio volume OF
63 artsproOf before letter. engravings from Turner,
with accompanying text large paper marked at s26o
Ave folio volumes OF the Musee Royal" and Musee
Francois at 5000 three folio volumes OF the Galere
du Palas Pitt at $780, and large paper copy OF
"Irvng's Washington" made up Into ten volumes ana
with many illustrative engravings inserted, at $500.
Then there are other treasures from old mssas on vel
um to Dore's Bible" from black letter and hand iu'
limitations to latest triumph OF chromolthography-
treasures Of Dibdn, Pickering Audubon, Rogers. owen
Jones' and OF volumes on India paper
or in Turkey and Levant morocco and tree and polished
calf which sell at from so TO slG0
Not many persons ask for these works In cold blood