Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-06-12
MR.. CABLES BoOKMANIA

Field. OF the Chicago 'News,- Talks
Further ON the subject. and Tells
About the Rock Island BARRIERS In
depreciation OF His Affection.
In his "Sharps and Flats" column of
yesterdays Chicago Daily Ne,os. '.Gene"
Field has the following concerning Mr..
3. T. Cables bibliomania and the Rock
Island BARRIERS Interpretation of the
word:
A number of weeks ago we printed an
interesting article upon the subject of
bibliomana and dictionaries. In the
course of this article we spoke at length
of the curious case of Mr.. Ben IT, Cable
of Rock Island. who, having secured
George Washington's own copy of the
first American edition of Burns poems
17SS) was after the other only known
copy of the same edition, intending to
buy it at any price and to destroy it in
order to make his Washington copy a
unique. We cited this instance to Illus
| trate a certain phase of bookmania. and
At the time all our local bibliomaniacs en-
Enthusiastically approved both our remarks
l anu thC phdSc WHICH
inspired them. 1t appears, however. that
Mr.. Gable has suffered a good deal by
that publication, and he came to Chicago
| yesterday fully determined not to return
to Rock Island until the unpleasantness
blew over"
when the Daily Neacs containing that
story reached our town" said Mr.. Gable,
every copy to be had was snapped up by
my friends. l was nightly pleased
even got up in the night to read it over
again and laugh. But day or two
one of my friends. Adair Peasants. hap
pened to be shaving in at one of the city
barber shops, and the barber (a loqua>
cious fellow, of course remarked: TOO
bad about Mr.. Cable. amt it2"
whats wrong with Cable?' asked
Peasants.
"'Wby, hain't you heerd about it?'
says the barber. He's gone crazy; there
wuz piece in the Chicago papers about
him, and it said that he wuZ bibles
m maniac.
IA whatY asked Mr. Peasants.
| "a bible-maniac,' repeated the bar
Der. That means a maniac as has got so
OF account Nv religion Never reckoned
he'd 60 crazy bout religion. but it wuz
al in the papers; and, what is more, it
tod how he wuz goin' to burn a book
that cost him $500 or S400-yes SIR,
goin' TO give a party or swarry nd burn
book--Ill allow that anybody that in
the first place would pay $500 for book
must be off his nut, and when it comes
to burnin' the same, Nv course he's
craZyr
| peasants came right to me with this
conversation" said Mr.. Cable. land we
both laughed at it as good joke. But
that fool barber kept right on talking to
everybody that came into his shop, and
it wasn't long before q great many of my
OLD ac9uaintances began to act very
strangely toward me. Folks whom
had known from childhood would meet
me on the street and regard me with a
curious stare; they'd act as if they were
afraid of me and | couldn't help noticing
that their voices sort of quavered when
they asked me how was feeling today.
| really began to get alarmed when the
little children fell victims to the popular
dellsion and ran shrieking away when>
ever came down the street and hap>
pene upon them in the midst of their
| Dlhl DItS bIu otntT pays
ut was useless" continued Mr.. Ca
BILE with weary sigh. lit was useless for
me to say that | was not crazy, for that's
Whist insane people always say-in fact,
a sturdy denial of insanity is regarded as
# prima-facie evidence that the patient is
off his base. SO | was helpless Know
ing that he was an intimate friend. peo-
pie began to advise Mr.. Peasants to
have me taken away to some quiet re
treaJ where repose and medical treatment
would restore me. Keepers of homes,
institutions private asylums, refugees
and all that sort of thing began sending
circulars-oh, the torture became uu
bearable, and | haye fed. | am going tC
New York, the Mecca of manIacs;
shall gather my autograph and my large
paper first editions around me, and Nc
ribald misrepresentation of my malady
shall interrupt our sweet communion -
DR.. William F. Poole expressed deep
interest in this curious case; he said that
a similar Misrepresentation had undoubt
eddy led to the famous wItchcraft agita
ton in New England two centuries ago
Other local biblomaniacs were properly
excited by Mr.. Cables recital, and at one
time it looked as if fund would be
started to erect a monument to the mem,
/, DRY of their esteemed brothers martyr
dom. But presently the conversation
switched off upon the subject of the larg,
paper edition of the Philobiblion, and tn,
painful experiences of the Rock IslanC
saint were temporarily forgotten.