Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1886-06-17
A FEATURE OF WASHINGTON.
The Big Business Done by the second
Hand Book stores of the Capital.

The Big business Done by the second
Hand Book stores of the Capital.
The secondhand book stores of Wash
ington are curious feature of the city,
writes Carp in the Celreland Leader.
There are number of them, some OF
which do business of tens of thou
sands of dollars yearly. Smaller ones
you will find in out-of-the-way places
scattered here and there. and in any
one of these you may buy many valu-
able and rare books. One near the
treasury has the rooms of a four-story
brick building lined with books. En-
tering its ground floor is like going into
a large public library, where the books
are classified by subjects, and where
you can find almost anything you want.
You may ask for n set of the congress
sional debates; from the beginning of
the government until to- day. and it will
be furnished you. 1t will comprise sew
eral hundred volumes, and its price
will be $780, You take your purchase
to your home and look over it, and
your mind goes back to the times of
the past rs you read the curious mar
ginal notes which you may find in some
OF the volumes, and look at the various
autographs inscribed on the fly-leaves
OF others. These books have been gath
cred from all quarters of the country.
One volume may have belonged to An
drew jackson, and you see his dashing
autograph on the title-page. Another
may have come from Stephen A. Doug
las library, and in many cases you will
find books from the collections of Car
roll, of Carrollton, and other men
whose autographs have now n mercan-
tile vlue.
The state department paid S22.50 at
a book auction. not long ago, for an
almanac, and it would have readily
given 500 for it. 1t was one that JEFF
ferson had used, and it con-
tanned many notes in Jefferson's hand
writing upon its pages. This almanac
was part of aVirgina collection made
by Mr.. Shouey, one OF the stenograph-
ers of the senate, and the secondhand
book man of whom Shouey bought the
almanac said he sold it to him for 81.
This man has a shop near the postoffice
department, and while / was buying n
book of him yesterday / talked with
him about his trade. Said he: "Sec-
ond-hand book selling is a curious bust
ness, and TO the careful dealer there is
money in it. Books fluctuate in value
according to the demands of the times.
and one to-day which will not bring 10
cents may tomorrow be worth as many
dollars. Anything rare comes high,
and the springing up of interest in the
old congressional questions brings the
literature of the times when they were
formerly discussed into the market.
just before the Garfield campaign be-
gan book collector named Parish, had
a room full of Credit Mobiiier reports
which he was thinking of selling TO the
waste-paper man. Garfield was NOM
mated. The. question was brought
into the canvass, and he sold them for
several dollars apiece. just now all
reports and speeches relating to the sill
yer question are of value, and some old
reports which we invoiced at nothing
bring several dollars n copy.
Here, for instance, is valuable
book" continued the antiquarian rs he
picked up volume of about one hum
dred pages bound in leather. at ~
worth $50 at auction, and it is gov
eminent document too. 1t is a report
on the Alaskan islands, by Henry W.
Elliott, and it contains many fine
sketches. Only seventy-iive of these
books were printed, and it is almost
impossible to procure them"
"What class of people collect booksp"
l asked, ''and what are their hobbiesp"
"They are mostly scholars and read
ers. though, indeed. now and then you
will find some ignorant fellow who
cares for the binding more than the
contents, and not few people buy
books for the pictures that are in them
rather than the reading. There are
many picture collectors in Washing
ton, and in some cases | find that il
pays better TO tear book TO pieces and
sell its engravings 10y the piece. Peo-
pie who would not give me so cents for
the volume will pay cents apiece for
the twenty or more engravings which it
contains. A great many men buy old
magazines for the pictures, and l have
large sale of Harper'S and Scribner's
On this account. They take the full
Gage pictures from these magazines
and cut off the white margin to where
the engraving begins. They then
mount this engraving upon cardboard
as carefully as the mounting of pho
tograph, and at very small expense
procure choice collections of engrav-
ings. The world has never surpassed
the magazine illustration of to-day, and
you may find genius lurking in many
of the pictures of an out-of-the- way pc
riodical.
"Many men collect books on special
subjects. There are number of cpl
cures in Washington. who want every
thing we can find on wines and gas
tronomy. The man to whom l sold
Jefferson almanac took, for one year,
everything on Virginia, and at another
time he made speciality of whist col
lections, and bought every book relat-
ing to whist or whist players. Old
county histories sell well here at Wash
ington, and state historical collections
bring more than when they were first
printed. All branches of Americana
sell well, and, indeed, if you keep any
kind of book for a number of years you
are sure to find n buyer in the end"
Speaking of secondhand book stores,
Washington has many book auctions
every winter, and very valuable col
lection is to be sold during the present
, season, in the shape of the books of the
late cx-Gov. Thomas BARLEY of Ohio.
! BARLEY was great collector, and had
library of choice volumes running into
1 the thousands Such book auctions are