Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-05-10
BOOK STORES IN THE WEST.
How Literature is Mixed up With
Other Fancy Goods.
THarper's Magazine.

THarpers Magazine
Madison is not only an educational CEN
ter, but an intelligent city the people
read and no doubt buy books, but they do
not support book stores. The shops where
books are sold are variety shops, dealing in
stationary, artists materials, cheap pictures,
brio a bIac Books are of minor import
ance and but few are keep in stock. In
deed book selling is not profitable part
of the business 1T does not pay to handle
books or keep the run of new publications,
or to keep a supply of standard works. In
this the shops of Madison are not pc culiar.
1t is true all over the West except in two
or thee large cities, aud true perhaps not
quite so generally in the East; the book
shops are not the literary and intellectual
ceDters they used to De.
There are several reasons given for this
discouraging state of the book trade. Per
haps it is true that people accustomed to
newspapers full of selections" to the
flimsy publications found on the cheap
counters and to the magazines do not buy
''books that are books" except for furnish
ing that they depend more and more upon
the circulating Libraries for any
thing that costs more than an
The local dealers say that the system of
the great publishing houses is unsatisfact-
ory as to prices and discounts. Private
persons can get the same discounts as the
dealers, and can very likely, by ordering a
list, buy more cheaply tnan OF the local
bookseller, and therefore as matter OF
business, he says that it does not pay to
keep books; he gives UP trying to sell them
and turns his attention to varieties. An
other reason for the decline in the trade
may be in the fact that comparatively few
booksellers are men of taste in letters, men
who read or keep the run of new publlca-
tions. If a retail grocer knew no more Of
his business than many booksellers know
of theirs he would certainly fail. 1t is a
pity on all accounts that the book trade is
in this condition. A bookseller in any
community, if he IS a man of literary cul
ture and has love of books and knOwl-
edge of them, can do great deal for the
cultivation of the public taste. His shop
becomes a sort of intellectual center Of
the town. If the public finds there
an atmosphere of books, and are
likely to have their wants. met for publica-
tions, new OF rare, they will generally sus-
tain the shop At least this Is my observa'
tion. Still | should not like to attempt to
say whether the falling off in the retail
book trade is due to want of skill in the
sAilA-s tn the nuhlishinp naehinAry or to
public indifference. The subject is worthy
the attention of experts. 1t is undeniably
important to maintain everywhere these
little depots of intellectual supply. In a
town new to him the visitor is apt to esti-
mate the taste the culture, the refinement
as well as the wealth of the town by its
shops. The stock in the dry goods and
fancy stores tells one thing, that in the art
stores another thing, that in the book
stores another thing about the inhabitants.
The West, even on the remote frontiers, is
full of magnificent stores of goods, telling
of taste as well as luxury; the book shops
are poorest of all.