New-York tribune., 1875-12-04
ROCKS AND BOOK-BUYERS.

branch OF trade WIN cNcly OtucI h"o Wv"
dull, but more than any other it quickens at
Christmas time. People who look upon
literary taste az "the correct thing" buy for
gifts volumes like themselves, snowy without
and weak within good church-going folk iind
devotional books suitable for the same purpose
in the holy season, while your true bookworn,
who has fingered mOtb-eaten folio and yellow
pamphlet hopelessly all the year round, IL
ant to treat his resolution in this genial
time and steal home with some precious
old tome with "a guilty delight as Ella ND
ing his folio Beaumont and Fletcher under his
shabby cloak. There is ample preparation
made for every class. Nobody can look at tho
bales. boxes, literal wagon-loads of books sent
out each day from the houses of the great
publishers without remembering that little
brown pamphlet, Americas Messenger, an
" Almynack for 1856, printed by VIM. Brad
" ford in the 9TH year of the government OF
aye Lord PENN There is one priceless copy
Of it existing, but there is ample record OF
how We Lord Penn forbade Bradford to have
aught TO do with the dangerous business OF
"priptinc. which would cost him and the
"country DEAR Instead of the little pamphlet we
have swarms of books with every year to waich
the flights of lOcusts in Egypt were thin and
meager. Nothing more sharply defines the
change in our intellectual and social life IN
tho last two hundred years than the growth OF
The miserable astrOOgic almanac into the
volumes which heap the publishers shelves to-
day. Especially is this marked by the enormous
demand during tho last five years for popular
scientific works, and books OF travel which
give, not the picturesque aspect of country,
but facts concerning it from which deductions
can be made. The wide-awake, nimble-witted
American is past the age when books confer
the simple pleasure OF wonder which falry
story does to q staring child: to satisfy him
they must serve as grist to his always
working brain-grist which he can bring
into the market. Besides this range of read
ing there i, an active, increasing demand
in this country for unique copies and rare and
valuable editions. A large proportion of the
treasures of the French libraries which were
thrown into tho market a year or two ago
found their way to the shelves OF American
hook collectors. In a word, we have class
among us grown old enough in wisdom to be
scholarly. There is another class, numbering
legions, who are only old enough to wish for
scholarship; their Importance and numbers can
be guessed from the demand for books of ref
erence and the classics of our own tongue.
There is curious Indication, too, OF the
Americans desire to catch knowledge by
snatches, between station and station, as he
rushes along in the train, In the sudden success
of the miniature classics and other diminutive
half f-hOur or ten minutes doses of science fiction,
or poesy. The New Yorker or Chicagoan,
shrewd, well-informed, brilliant though he may
be. has no time to WOO the Muse, or Learning,
as his grandfather did. He wants no cOyness
on her part either if she will cOndense her
science or research into magazine article, he
will bolt it as he does pill.
Outside, however, of the scholars, students,
OF clever men of the world indicated by diff
fcring classes of publications, there must exist
q vast outer mass of people, an Ultima Thule
of intelligence, whose mental condition is appall-
ing to consider, Judging Of it from the books
provided for its use. These books constitute the
majority Of the issues of English and Ameri-
can publishers, and consist of weak, vapid
novels or made" books of plattudes in his
tory, science, or art. Sometimes the novels are
weighted with mOdicum of sentimental re-
lgion and thus insure a larger sale; these
books are supplemented. as destructive army
by It's rabble, by the disorderly crowd of flash
magazines and newspapers. Seeing these sue
cessors to the Objectionable pamphlet increase
with every year, we are tempted to wish for tho
rule of the Proprietor Penn again and to acknOw-
ledge that printing is a royalty dangerous
"practice." No parent, it is certain, can long
busy himself in protecting his children from
the food of mischievOus or mawlish juvenile
books and periodicals (Which set in Mt high
tide about this season), without remembering
with regret the days of his own bOyhOOd, when
Robinson Crisoe, The Arabian Nights, and
Tales of Grandfather constituted his library.
The books were conned until they were
learned by heart; they were Incorporated into
his character they were good wholesome
meat his boys brain, If he allow him TO read
n 1.-THE of the countless books offered, becomes
a mere sponge, soaked with commonplace Sen
timent and bathOs.
There ia no better index, too, 30 the idiOsyn-
crasies of the individual man than the man
ner in which he receive, this friend, a book,
and the kind of welcome he~ gives it. We
remember library" in the house of sue
cessful iron-founder, furnished as were draw
ing-rooms chambers, and kitchen, after the
latest style. The bookcases were antique
with worm-eaten marks done by the chise
fresh upon them; the lower shelves filled
with English classics in russia and encyclo-
pedias in calf, the upper with red and gilt
wooden dummies, rs "nobody would be likely
" to reach so high"
Weremember, too, a little room in the house of
ono of Americas greatest poets, lined with
shelves built by the village carpenter. They
were filed with old dilapidated volumes, which
his wife had covered with calico. :" All scraps
"of my own dresses" she said " always
I" try to put myself between my husband and