The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-07-06
A PUBLISHERS TALK.
WHAT HE SAID ABOUT BOOKS AND
THEIR BUYERS.
What Killed the Cook Book-Oid Stand
Sermons and Books on Art and

What Killed the Cook Book-Old Stand
ard Works That Are in GOOD Demand
Sermons and Books on Art and
Wusic-Cheap Trash.
Il have not particle of what is called
the literary sense. OF course ! know all
about my or our books l say my or
our books in the possessive sense, Just like
Tom Hoo1's butcher who pointing to the
sides of beef hanging from his stall, ad-
mired his halves and quarters and his fat
and his suet.' It's strange how the act of
printing book, with your name as pub
Usher, makes you think highly Of the work.
All other Peoples books have different mer
its, but our books are always good. | sup
pose editors think the same way of every
article they print Its a big, far-reaching
fraternity. looks to me represent SO many
pounds OF paper, setting up of type, press
work, biniing and advertising. | have
titles at my fingers ends What is there
strange about that. | have no use for
catalogue | know the names of all our
books, and other peoples books, and the
dates of edition. A shepherd knows the
faces OF all his sheep as a goose herder
knows his geese.
u will dig at once into the lower stratum,
and there you find the cook book All
kinds Of people make cook books We have
them offered to us in manuscript every day.
Once a very pretty little woman came with
a portable stove, basketful of eggs, but
ter, sugar, and spice and wanted to prove
| practically in the Office the excellence OF
her receipts There was time when the
| l. u. ll,.,,-a
handsome church built on the sales of re-
ligious cook book But l fancy if you
would put in the scales the cook books now
printed i'll the United States they would
outweigh, pound for pound, all the beef or
bread The quack medicine people killed
the cook book Instead of filling up their
| almanacs with meteorological improbable
Ties, as i'll the good old times, they put in
cooking receipts and that dished the cook
book. here Is hoo& that always sells,
and that is one on manners, the etiquette
thing Their are thousands of people who
want TO be toll that they ought never to
drink out of finger bowl nor pick their
teeth with a fork. ,iJet remember that
ours is a state of transition, and the, ex-
lists happy belief that good manners en-
he acquired for - cents.
ALL THE OLD STANDARD WORKS.
"AllJhe oil standard books as OF syno
nyms, sell Just as well TO day as fifty years
ago There are more Robinson Crusoes
Bunyans, Swiss Family Robinsons, 'Thad-
euses OF Warsaws, and Scottish Chiefs
soli than ever They are stock like nails
and tacks Histories of the Old fashion
Hume and Gibbon, never are out of de-
mand. Nacaulay sells we'll but shows no
increase, as it should am convinced that
people buy histories because they are cheap
and I'LL up spaces in their bookcases. They
never can real them. Strange though it
may seem We want good history of the
[ nited States from the beginning right u
to to day The last word SHOULD be the
death of Mr. Hendricks 1t must not be ad-
dressed to any particular class, but must be
a book understandable from BrazOs to Ban
gor. Some new man might make much
credit and profit out of it
| Religious books, no matter what you
may hear about the raids of agnosticism
and inidelity, are Just as good to sell as
ever The demand for sermons never ceases
The old worthies--Hooker, Taylor-are
dropping off, though studious clergymen
buy them still, and there is no knowing
what studious clergyman will not read.
Biblical histories have been the most won
derful of successes Books of this kind
thirty years old work off as well to-day as
ever--even better-but we want new one,
something fully abreast of the travel and
erudition of today. Art books, to fly off
to another quarter, are of poor sale. To
make them good you must spend an endless
amount of money in illustrations Make
an art book with bad art in it, and you
have an absurdity. The sale of such books
is limited, because the highly cultured class
Or the artistic profession is small Not one
person in 1000 really does paint or draw,
1t is the same way with books on music.
Even the biographies of great musicians
find scant readers. The musical novel had
its one great succ SIS, and has never been re-
peated A hero who blows the trombone
or plays the double bass does not fasclnate
the ordinary woman who reads
The old French novel of the Sue kind is
dead The Wandering Jew is shelved, and
no creature cares to probe the Mysteries of
Paris. Rola is not a success We would
not, If we were quite certain of selling a
million copies of lola, touch him. We may
sell goods that are garsh or not tasteful in
pattern, but nothing that we know is off
color
CHEAP BOOKS, GOOD AND TRASHY.
English stories of the very poorest kind,
with blood and murder in them, women