Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-11-08

You see, they can come in here and buns
up some musty, old forgotten book q
sermons and copy out of it without gIF-
ing themselves away. Yes, it's piracy.
suppose, butt ofa genteel kind. ~ hats
the difference, anyhow, Il the seImGLls
they steal are good and nobody nnla
them out2 Most of the sermons made up
In this way are better, no doubt, than
the appropriations could write, and the
hearers are the gamers"
Don't you find it troublesome to have
them make readlng-rOOm and stddy OF
your store?'
"Oh, no, don't mind that. They are
out of the way up there, and then they
bring more or less trade. One Of them
by the way, brought me anttle to0mucn.
He made the store q regular Longing
place, bought a book occasionally aad
soon began Offering to sell me books.
This went on for some time before
tumbled to his little game. he had been
stealing my books and selling them back
to me That discovery closed our trans
actions, and / had him arrested. He was
the only black sheep / ever found among
them, however"
"D0 you lose many books by theft"
ga great many, no doubt, butts hard
to catch them all. Sometimes we miss
one volume Of a set and that worries us
more than if they had taken the whole
set. There's another petty piece OF
thievery that is sometimes pIactlced on
US, and its done very neatly too. Inc
/ thief Wantsan engraving from some book
and while he is apparently looking at =
| he slips IN = wet string against the en-
craving, closes on the book, replaces il on
| the shelf and goes on from shelf to shelf
examining other books. After q while
/ he goes back to the book in which he pms
| the string, finds the engraving loose and
removes 1t. I caught up with that trick
[ by finding the string in the book"
"WhO is the queer-lOOklng old custom
| er over there, tWirlIng his thumbs and
gazing at the shelves?"
Hes one of our characters That old
/ fellow has been coming into the store for
/ the last fifteen years and he's always
/ tWirling his thumbs like that and read
/ ing the titles of the books"
docs he ever buy?"
81 asked one of the young men the
other day if old 'thumb-tWirler,' as we
call him, ever bought book, and hesaid
/ never, except once, and then he invested
in a 10 center 1t seems to make him
! perfectly happy to wander around the
| store just as you see him now"
A lady nov came in and bought a lot
of books, paid for them, and, after telling
| the clerk to put them with the others,
walked out. The bookseller said: THAT
woman is the mystery Of my store. We
/ have no idea who she is; she has never
/ given her name, although that is
/ the sixth or eighth time she has bought
! books in that way. They are done up in
! packages and stored in the basement
marked for the unknown lady She's q
crank, 1 guess. Lots of them come here.
! There's one, now, looking at 'Hogarth.'
! he comes IN two or three times week
I 7,iqlve I'M tho yclgru0n handles 81 anHavfw
! asks the price, shakes his head sadly and
/ after gazing on the engraVingsfOr half an
hour, lays the book down gently and
shuff1es out. I'd give it to him very
cheerfully, but 1 really think I'd deprive
! him of more pleasure than I'd give him.
! Coming here to look at it seems to be an
| occupation for him."