The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-07-02
IMAM OLD BOOKSTORE.
Some OF the Cranks, Male and Fee.
male, who Love Musty Old
Tones.

In the gallery of large old book
store recently, sat man who had
clerical look. A volume was open be-
fore him, from which he seemed to be
making copious extracts, entering them
in bulky note book. Above the we'll
filled shelves behind him was the sion
''Relgious. He had the air of a man
who was feeling thoroughly at home.
What is he doingP" asked a re-
porter.
making up his Sermon" replied
the bookseller. That's very COM
mon thing. You see, they can come
in here and hunt up some musty old
forgotten book of sermons and copy
out of it without giving themselves
away. Yes, it's piracy, | suppose, but
it's of genteel kind. What's the
difference, anyhow, if the sermons they
steal are good, and nobody finds them
outP 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 n reading-room and
study of your store?"
mo, no, | don't mind that They
are out of the way up there, and they
bring more or less trade. One of them,
by the way brought me a little too much.
He made the store a regular lounging-
place, bought book occasionally, and
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 transactions, and / had him
arrested. He was the only black sheep
ever found among them, however"
"Do you lose many books by theft?"
"a great many, no doubt, but it's
hard to catch them all. Sometimes we
miss one volume of Il set, and that wor-
ries us more than if they had taken the
whole set. There's another petty piece
of thievery that is sometimes practiced
on US, and it's done very neatly, too.
The thief wants an engraving from
some book, and while he is apparently
looking at it he slips in wet string
against the engraving, closes the book,
replaces it on the shelf, and goes on
from shelf to shelf examining other
books. After little while he goes
back to the book in which he put the
string, finds the engraving loose, and
removes it. l caught up with that
trick by finding the string in the book.
q "Who is the queerlooking old GUS
toner over there, twirling his thumbs
and gazing at the shelvesP"
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 reading the titles of the books"
'Does he ever buyP'
81 asked one of the young men the
other day if old 'thum b-twirler, as we
call him, ever bought a book, and he
said never, except once, and then he
invested in 'ten-center.' 1t seems 10
make him perfectly happy to wander
around the store just as you see him
now"
A lady now came in and bought o
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 whof she
is; she has never given us her name,
although this 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 crank, guess.
Lots of them come here. There's one
now, looking at 'Hogarth.' He comes
in two or three times week, picks up
the volume, handles it tenderly, asks
the price, shakes his head sadly, and,
after gazing on the engravings for half
an hour, lays the book down gently
and shutlles out I'd give it to him very
cheerfully but really think I'd de-
prive him of more pleasure than I'd
give him. Coming here to look at it
seems to be an occupation for him, y
Philndel3Jhtn Times