New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-08-29
A Book:Trade Secret.


question almost as hard to answer as
what becomes of all the pins? The
junkmen, being the real coroners OF
books, both good and bad, could tell
the tale better than anybody else. But
there is much wonder to know what be-
comes of many volumes before they find
their way to destruction know why
they are ever bought or sold at all.
There is no need to explain the very
few books which are written and bought
to be read; and first editions and rare
volumes have fictitious value which is
we'll understood, for bibliomaniacs gen
orally outbid the junkmen and postpone
the inevitable day of ''old paper" period
few years longer. But while books
are still new what becomes of them?
Hundreds of copies are published in this
country every day and thousands OF
different books every year. OF course,
only a small proportion of these books
are read or meant to be read. If au-
thorship or publishing depended entire
ly upon the patronage of readers the
number of writer's and publishers would
| be very small.
''Of course said the smiling mana
ger of one of the large uptown retail
| bookstores, there is notion that books
are made to be read, but really that is a
notion that ought to be out of date.
''What are they used for? Well,
largely as presents. OF course the
Christmas presents are most all of this
class, but they are by no means all that
are consumed as presents. Nobody
ever reads a book that has been given
to him. You see that table. count
on selling every book on it for presen-
tation within ten days. You see the
birthdays of wives and daughters and
sweethearts and preachers come all the
year around
''This article" said aworldly-minded
salesman in religious bookstore, sis
gotten up especially for the country
preacher and Sunday-school men. 1
don't know whether they read them or
not, but this style suits the trade; and
we know that precisely as dealers in cal
leo know the tastes OF women in Texas.
1--WE make a speciality of country
bibles. This make of Holy Scriptures
is Il sure go at country weddings. No
rural couple ever gets married but
somebody presents such a family bible
to them.
''This design is tritle more costly,
more snowy, too 1t is made purpose
ly for the southern and western pulpits.
Now pulpit bibles are a capital article.
They are almost always presented to
the church by somebody, and the more
it costs the donor the more blessed he
feels to give it. And when q man has
set his heart on making present to a
church, he don t stand on price. Some
times this article is made to order.
"Il give you an example. A He
brew clothing house, which does con-
siderable trade with Methodist elder
in North Carolina, got solid with his
customer and with the whole church by
presenting q big bible. We got the Or
der, and | hope the people will get as
much profit from that bible as we got. :"
"What becomes of the books that are
put on the market? Well,' said a
book-jobber, ''you know there is the
Sunday-school trade. put my worst
books off on them very often-I mean
my worst selling books. They are all
good, you know, too good for the pub
lie, and the public don't buy 'em.
Whether anybody ever reads them or
not have no means of knowing
But there are other ways by which
the book market is kept moving besides
the disposition of books as presents and
storing them away in country libraries.
They are used, everybody knows, very
largely as furniture. Then they are
sold by the yard. All retail book-deal-
ers receive orders from rich people for
libraries of such and such dimensions;
that is to say, enough books to fill so
many feet OF shelves. In filling such
orders as these more attention, of course,
is paid to bindings than to literary
qualities of books. Many people order
uniform bindings for the most hetero-
geneous collections of books, and others
order different bindings for different
volumes of the same work Books are
simply merchandise, and handled with
out reference to literary appreciation.