The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-11-15
Second. Hand School Books.

1.-THE trade in secondhand school
books, Thoughts recent industry, said
q dealer, "has grown into considerable
proportions, and to-day there is not an
important city or village in the country
which has not its dealer in secondhand
school books. Here is my last cata-
logue and price list, which will give
you some idea of the magnitude of the
business
The catalogue contained q list of
more than 5000 text books, mostly
standard works, all listed at about one
half publishers prices.
''Where do you get your booksP" the
reporter asked.
There are many sources. Publish
ers frequently introduce their books
into schools by taking the text books
already in use and allowing something
for them We could formerly get
these books for little advance on pa
per-dealers' prices, but many publishers
now guard against this by having
chopping- blocks and cleavers in their
establishments, and chopping each
book in two crosswise. There is no
way in which such book can be made
saleable. The old plan of tearing off
covers, was no safeguard, since
we can recover school books OF
medium size for twelve cents
per hundred. We get great many
books most of which are unused, from
teachers in district schools, to whom
they are mailed by the publishers. But
of course majority of the books come
from the pupils themselves, who are
glad to part with them, an old school
book having no value to most of them.
And then we get an immense number
from the smaller dealers in other parts
of the country. Our larger New York
houses have men constantly out for
that purpose. 1t may be that a second
hand dealer in Omaha will be the man
to supply me with the particular text
books | need to complete my stock.
Publishers try to meet our competition
by constantly changing their editions.
But these changes react again, both
teachers and pupils in many schools
being opposed to the changes and adj
herring to the old editions. The only
text book which is not much changed
with each new edition is Webster s
Spelling Book of which a million
copies year are published, and which
has been changed in no important re-
spect since it was first published in
1900. You can buy one of the latest
editions for five cents, but one of the
first would be worth more than five dol
lars. Five years is the average life OF
school book. After that time the edi-
tons have so much changed that the
book is valueless.h
"Where do you find your purchas-
ersP''
"They are scattered all over the coun.
try. As the Board of Education fur.
nishes the text books used in the public
schools Of this city, our trade is entirely
from the select and private schools
Even then it is very large. Herei is my
mail for to-day. You see am sending
books to nearly every State in the Union
This year have sent books to Iceland
Russia, China, Turkey and Italy. The
most desirable thing we handle is the
classics, since they are less liable t.
change, and one text book is often az
good for the student as another. The
publisher who told me the other day
that New York publishers proposed t.
change their editions often enough tc
make it impossible for secondhand
dealers to handle their goods, couldn'
accomplish much with the classics
The school book trade of the principa
dealer in secondhand books in this city
exceeded S100.00 last year.
''There are ways in which second
hand school books get a value aside
from that which comes from the de
mand for their use in schools. know
several gentlemen who are making col
lections of old editions of school bosks
and very curious some of them are
Now, here is an appeal from the Brit
ish System of English Grammar to Com
mon Sense, by James Crown, published
in Philadelphia in 1886. 1t is a remark
able work, but it was SO deep that i
never came into common use. I vii
sell that book to William H. Wells
President of the Chicago Board of Edu
cation, who is making a collection o
grammars, and has, I understand, 8 ,OOl
different works. I know other men III
are collecting arithmetics or geogra
phies or spelling books or reading book
In the same way. IN Y. Sun.