The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-09-11
Old Volumes.

Boston G.ODe.
There are some peculiarities in our
business not generally known re-
marked a certain secondhand book
dealer. 'Of about 5000 volumes re-
Gently sold at auction in this city, there
wore no less than 400 odd volumes.
TIL suggests the interesting question;
What has become of the missing vol.
urnes? Allowing that a portion OF
them have been borrowed and never
returned. / have come to the conclu'
Senator handling from $4,000 to
So 900 odd volumes-that the balance
are principally accounted for in Two
ways. There is a class of people who
mean we'll. no doubt, but who, finding
anything in a book which s directly
in opposition to their religious or
polit cal belief, deem it their duty to
destroy it. AS an illustration of this.
two gentlemen came into our store
some time ego and bought two copies
OF Thomas Paine's age of Reason"
and Immediately threw them into the
stove.
They were theological students, and
probably believed they were doing a
Righteous act. Speaking OF Paine's
Age of Reason" there are now at
least ten times as many copies OF it
sold as there We're ten years ago. Then
there are what you may cal! prurient
moralistS who see nothing but vulgarity
and immortality in many books pub
l;shed during the eighteenth century,
as Fielding's, Smollett's and Stearne's.
To p%articularlze, port ons of Tom
JONES' ''Pcregrinc Pickle, and ''Tri-
STAN Shandy" seem to be particularly
objected to. In Il %four.volume edition
of s'rrist m Shandy," the second vol
ume is almost invariably missing; and
this is true of the volume containing
Tom Jones' most startling amours
In sets of Shakespeare, the volumes
missing almost invariably contain
these plays: Hamlet" "Othcllo,"
and ''komco and Juliet The reason
for their absence. without douAt, is
that they are generally cons dcred the
poets master pieces. In Gibbons
Rome the volume mis- sing is the
one that contains his famous chapters
on Christ anity, and in Hume it is the
one containing an account of the
Reformation and remarks on Catholi-
cism. In the Spectator it is usually
the matter contained in the third vol
M of IN eight volume edition. which
includes Add,son's famous Vision of
Mira, and several of the Roger do
Coverley ESSAYS"
How about American books:?'
In Mrs. Stoves Uncle Toms Cab.
i'm the first volume is always gone.
l now have OH hand no less than ten
copies of the second volume and none
of the first. Then there are a great
many books. as, for example, Benton's
THIRTY Years in the Senate Gree
lev's History of the War" and
Blaine's Twenty Years in Congress-"
which are publ shed one volume at a
time; and many people, after buying
the first volume. conclude, for some
reason or other, that they will not
take the balance; and in that way a
great many first volumes are thrown
on the market. This is especially
true of encyclopedias, as Appleton's
and the Britannica. The first volumes
of these can be bought much cheaper
than later ones. could give o any
number of similar examples if YOU
wished them. There is in Paris a
bookstore-thc only one of the kind,
| believe, in the world-which deals
exclusively in odd volumes.