The Cecil Whig., 1886-05-22

They intended you should open
your door to whatever book
pedler happened to pull your
bell, or go without the Personal
Memoirs of L. S. Grant.
We hold it hostile to every
sort Of interest public and pri-
vate that this constraint should
be put on the sale of book of
such a character. That is why
we put it in our bOokstore-to
give it a market without re
proach.
Nobody wants the book
pedler. With bookstores in all
the cities and a-cent-for-two
ounces postage on books all
over the country,what good can
he possibly doo
We know what he does. He
bores good-natured people till
they buy to get rid of him. But
the bulk of his work is among
non reading people. If he got
them into the way of reading,
that itself would be useful. He
doesn't. The books he sells
are not made to be read. They
are made to sell to people who
have learned to read and very
little beyond that. Big, thick
books; big letters far apart;
thick paper; pictures; plenty of
gilt on the cover; the subject
no matter; the author-no mat
ter; made to show; something
big and bright to take in your
hand. Such books are a hind
rance. The book-pedler's a
hindrancc. He takes the poor
mans money and gives him
what makes him ashamed when
the school-master comes, or the
minister calls, or his boy or girl
awayat school comes home over
night.
An American newsstand is a
shocking sight to one accus-
toned to English news-stands.
Ours are spread with barbarous
pictures and sensational head
lines. Theirs are spread with
orderly publications fit for a
civilized people. A library of
book-pedlers' books would com
pared with one of bookstore
books in about the same way.
In the main itwould be a library
of ignorance vulgarly bound.
The book-pedler's methods
are not acceptable when they
are understood. They answer
his purpose only when not un-
dcrstood. His whole efficiency
lies in being shrewd, in passing
his stuff off for literature, in
hattcry, making people believe
there's nothing between them
and wisdom but books. and
that his is one of the books.
The book-pcdler' spublishcr' $
methods are not acceptable. He
creates the pcdlcr aswell as his
books; he sets him up in busi-
ness; becomes responsible for
him. When he strikes a good
book, which happens now and
thcn,up goes theprice to double
or thcrcabout; and the pedler S
methods are none the less often
sive when he has an indispensa-
bic book that civilized people
have got to buy of him because
the publisher keeps it out of the
bookstores.
Almost the whole subscrip-
ton business is based on books
that serve no useful purpose in
the world at prices too high for
good ones. 1t seems almost as
grcata public misfortune to have
important books kept out of
theirrightful scopeb blythe double
constraint of high price and of
fensive handling as to have the
non-rcading class misled in its
first experience of book-buying.
There is legitimate use for a
subscription method in publish
ing. Great undertakings, in
volving cost too great and profit
too little for individual publish
ers, must be helped along by
those who want them accom-
plishcd. There is a cycloprdia
in preparation in Germany on
which four-hundred eminent
scholars have been writing for
many years already with many
more years before them. The
Encyclopedia Britannica is be
ING rewritten at the rate of two
volumes a year; a work of
twelve or fifteen years. The
Etymological Dictionary of the
English Language Of twenty to
thirty volumes Likewise. Such
WORKS must be helped along.
But the subscription method
they call for is directly opposed
to that of the book-pedler.
What we are saying doesn't
apply to them.
The price Of General Grants
Memoirs is unreasonably high
because of the method of pub
llcation. Nobody grudges the