Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-11-24
A BooK.rRADs SECRET.

What becomes of all the books ia
question almost as hard to answer a. 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 becomes of many volumes
before they find their way to destruction
to 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 well understood, for dictionaries 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? Hun.
dreds of copies are published in this coun.
try every day and thousands of different
books every year. OF course, only small
proportion of these books are read or
meant to be read. II authorship or pub-
fishing depended entirely upon the patron.
age of readers, the number OF writers and
publishers would be very small.
''Of course" said the smiling manager
of one of the large uptown retail book.
stores, "there is a notion that books are
made to be read, but really that is 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that ought to be out of date.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 book that
has been given to him. You see that ia
ble l count on selling every book on it
for presentation within ten days. You see
the birthdays of wives and daughters and
sweethearts and preachers come all the year
round"
"This article" said worldly. minded
salesman in religious bookstore, is got
ten up especially for the country preacher
and Sunday school men. l don't know
whether they read them or not, but this
style suits the trade; and we know that
precisely as dealers in calico know the
tastes Of women in Texas. We make a spe-
cialty of country Bibles. This make of
Holy Scriptures is sure go at country
weddings. No rural couple ever gets mar
ried but somebody presents such family
Bible to them.
This design is trife more costly,
more snowy, too. 1t is made purposely
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 a man has set his heart on
making present to a church, be don't
stand on price. Sometimes this article is
made to order. I'll give you an example.
a Hebrew clothing house, which does a
considerable trade with Methodist elder
in North Carolina. got solid with his GUS
toner and with the whole church by pre-
senting a big Bible. We got the order,
and l nope 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 book
jobber, lyon 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 public, and the public don't
buy EN-. Whether anybody ever reads
them or not have no means of knowing.
Bat there are other ways by which the
book market is kept moving besides the
disposition of books as presents and stor-
ing them away in country libraries. They
are used, as everybody knows, largely as
furniture. Then they are sold by the yard
All retail book. dealers receive orders from
rich people for libraries of such and such
dimensions that is to say, enough books
to fill 30 many shelves. In filling such or
ders as those more attention, OF course, is
paid to bindings than to literary qualities
of books. Many people order uniform
bindings for the most heterogeneous col
lections of books, and others order differ
ent bindings for different volumes of the
same work. Books are simply merchandise,
and handled without reference to literary
appreciation. a. Exchange.