The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-06-28
THE RooKs THAT pER1sH.

Are All the Books OF Our Time Destined
to Decay Utterly Within a Century?
New York World
The late Robert Carter, the author and edi-
tor, used to say that If all the books in the
language except Rartletts "Familiar Quota
tions'' could be destroyed he would undertake
to produce some excellent literature. And l
once heard Charles Edwards Lester, brilliant
man of letters in his day, who died last year
In Detroit make plausible argument to prove
that the world really lost nothing by the burn
ing of the Alexandrian Library.
These elaborate jests must soon give place
to serious alarm for the books that are
being made to-day will perish in few years.
They are brought into the world with ,prin-
ciple of decay In every leaf, aud he cycle that
the materials must travel before they reach
again the dust from which they came has
been greatly reduced. Walk past any paper
mill, and you may observe round billets of
wood, about two feet in length, neatly corded
Up in great piles like firewood. These are the
billets with which permanent literature Is
being knocked in the head. They are carried
into the mill, torn into shreds by powerful
machine, reduced to pulp and manufactured
into paper. Thirty years ago paper was
made from cotton or linen rags.
The constantly increasing demand for paper
and the never-ceasing rage for cheapness
stimulated the ingenuity OF the einventor to try
every possible substitute. The civil war,
with it's blockade OF Southern ports, made
cotton so dear that in the second year 1882
common book paper rose to twenty-five cents
pound. Straw, which had long been used
for coarse wrapping paper, was at first mixed
with the rags. Then wood was tried-the
softer kinds--and the pulp produced from 1t
was mixed with the cotton pulp, and the
quality Of the paper began to deteriorate.
Lager and larger proportions or wood pulp
were used, until now the paper is almost en-
tirey composed of It.. 1t is no longer profit
able to keep rag-bsg. A dealer in second
hand books tells me that he used to reduce
his unstable stock occasionally by stripping
off the covers and selling the bodies of the
books for several cents pound, to be ground
up and made into new paper Now he can
get but quarter of cent pound, and as
that is the price of coal he considers it more
economical to use the old books as fuel to
warm his stove.
The pity Of it is that this new paper, made
from wood is persishable OF course all paper
is destructbe, but the old cotton paper
would not perish from the mere action OF
time. Place n book made OF wood paper on
your library shelf, and let is remain there un-
handled for twenty years. Then take it down
and open it, and you will see what is going to
happen in the next twenty or forty years
The outer edges of every leaf for depth vary
ing from half an inch to an inch, has turned
yellow, and at the very edge it is brittle, so
that you can break off fragrants with your
fingers as you would break an egg-shel. The
tooth of time bites deeper every year, and,
unless you seal up your book in some air tlgnt
sarcophagus, in less than century it Will
literally return to dust. The author whose
works are not such as to command constant
reprinting must depend for immortality upon
the boxes that are placed under the corner
stones of churches and monuments.