Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-08

Opera Company, despite its intricate
liquidation, has bobbed up serenely at
the Academy OF Music, although the
ghost does not walk with the stipulated
punctuality. The singers come and the
singers go, but the manager goes on for
ever.
An event looked forward 10 with much
interest is the first American production
of Verdis "OtellC," which takes place at
the New York Academy on April 18th.
The company is headed by Signor Cam
PAM, and includes Signora Tetrazzini
and sSignor Marconi.
understand that Manager Duff is ne
cotiating for the Broadway Theatre, with
ducats with light operaafter La Tosce
moves out. With the opposition Of the
McCaull Company at Wallack's and the
Casino, Duff must needs be on mettle to
suit the patrons of comic opera.
THE BOOB. scALPER
"I suppose there are 'scalpers' in
every trade, said prominent book pub
Usher, "but | think there are more in
our trade than in any other. But at last We
have got them In our own hanCs. never
thought we could do it. but, thanks to
the simplest invention in the world, we
now can trace every book that we turn
out from our presses. The story Is a
curious one, and ono that has never
been printed. You see we publish
first-class work which we sell on sub
scription for five dollars. We advertise
it in the daily and weekly press and
engage canvassers or agents in every
town and city in the Union. All of a
sudden we find the book in some dry
goods store or emporium in New York,
Philadelphia, or other large city offered
for sale at three or four dollars. That,
of course, ruins the trade OF the can
vasser in that place, and he naturally
makes q row. We can do nothing.
The dry goods man will not tell us who
sold the books to him and we have, or
rather had, no means Of identifying any
particular volume. The result was that
the book dropped in value and none
would buy it, so that in many cases we
are put to dead loss.
at was John Wannamaker's method
that so largely hurt the sale OF Grants
Memoirs in Philadelphia, and wal
ling's Recollections were injured in Chi
cago in the same manner, and so on
through the long list. OF course, if we
could find out who the little foxes were
we could remedy the evil, but how could
we fad out? We tried all sorts Of
schemes to detect the scalpers, but with
little or no success. One was to break
the letters on the back of the bound
volume. Suppose the title read, Grants
Memoirs, We would disfgure the q of
the title for the first one hundred copies,
the K for the second hundred, the \ for
the third, and 80 on. When we had
gone through all the letters we would
distigure two or three up to the last
volume. Upon this basis, if l found
book whose back showed the q
and the O disfgured | would know
that the number was 300, and by
referring to our books could learn the
name Of the agent who had sold the work
surreptitiously. But the scalpers were
as wary as ourselves. They perceived
the broken letters from the first, and
hired some poor book-bindcr to correct
the fault we had purposely made. Then,
when found such book in some store
where il had no business to be, | could
not tell in anywise from whom it came or
how the shop-keeper had managed to
get it.
THE NEXT MOVE.
"Our next move was to put fancy
figures on the corners of the back and
varying lines under the title. But the
scalper perceived the point almost as
soon as we invented the system. He
merely called in the book-binder and
erased the corner figures, and changed
or increased the lines. Things kept on
this way until an ingenious New Yorker
devised a system which many of the
knowing ones have adopted. 1t consists
OF q duplicate stamp, engraved and mum
bered from one up indefinitely. One hall
/ is bound into concealed portion OF
| the cover, and cannot be seen or exposed
without destroying the book. The other
/ half is attached to any page you will,
Any genuine buyer tears off the attached
half and cares nothing for the unseen
buried half. The scalper however, il
blocked. He can tear off the loose half
/ but he can't remove the other without sc
disGguring the book that it would become
valueless. If he leaves it there the
publisher can come around, buy
volume, open the binding, find ont
who sold it crooked and not only
stop supplies, but also bring suit against
both agent and tradesman. The new
system has already worked wonders. The
/ book-scalper, as we will call him, vii
grow less numerous every day, and the
stores where subscription books are sole
at cut rates will be less and less in mum
Der. l cannot suggest any improve
ment in the present system unless the
Government give it official sanction. As
it stands, it practically gives each bool
an individuality OF of its own, and Sc
enables the publisher to know the
! history of every volume he issues anC
of every agent he employs. If the sys
tenn is adopted by the National Govern
ment it gives every book legal statu!
as good and binding rs any one note o
the currency. The chief beauty Of The
new system is its inexpensiveness. The
duplicate stamps cost next to nothing
The expense of binding one half in anC
of attaching the other half is 80 irfinites
sinai that it is hard to estimate. 1t may
seem a trihing matter to outsiders, bu
to US publishers it is a very big thing
And to the book-scalpers and cut-rat
booksellers it is wall higher than the.
can ever overcome or break through.
Watterson on Haistead.
April Forum.l
IL 10 ,rnrsn than q Wnste Of words I