The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-01-28
rRIALs oF A eooKsELLER.
TIE Frequent Mistakes Made In Givin
tho Title of "a Book.

viz AAhAN "a ~ AhuoAs
"To be n successful bookseller" =" said q
dealer in books, ono must almost be a
mind reader. People come in and ask for
the most generally known novels by the
most distorted names you can imagine. In
fact, it is only a novel or a book which
has had a great run that stands in fear of
having its title mutilated. When book
becomes popular, some one hears another
person talking about it and perhaps only
gets a vague idea of the import of the title
Yi.hout remembering the exact words.
Then they como with no sign that they
are in the least doubtful and ask the book
dealer for it, who is supposed TO know 10y
intuition what is wanted. One of tho
most mutilated titles is that of The
Heavenly Twins. You can expect to have
this book called for under almost any
name. If you are in doubt as to what
person MEANS The Heavenly Twins usu-
ally fills the bill. For instance it is com
mon to have it called The Twin Angels.
Then another popular style of the title is
The Heavenly Prodigals, or again, Tho
Blue Angels or The Heavenly Angels. >
The other day man came in and asked
for The Travelling Hebrew When 1 told
him ] thought he meant The Wandering
jew he hogan to laugh and said, Well,
was sure he was on the go anyway.
Not long ago lady came in and quiet
ly asked if we had Two Boats Which
Went BY In the Dark She was not the
least abashed when 1 handed her Ships
That Pass In the Night, nor did she refer
to her mistake. One of the most common
bulls in book store is that which people
make when they ask for a vest pocket edi-
tion of Webster's Unabridged, or the Bi-
BILE with both the Old and New Testaments
in it,
81 had to retire to the office to have a
| good laugh the other day when a young
lady came tripping in and carelessly asked
me as she handled some books, Have you
the Mill on the Slush" She explained
J that she had made slip of the tongue
| when gave her the Mill on the Floss.
| 1t is most common for people to ask for
Lew Wallace, by Ben Hur. Not long
| ago a young man came In and asked for
that horse book We named over lot
of treatises on horses, but he said, 1t
wasn't them. We were then compelled to
confess our ignorance, when he explained,
Well, my boss didn't exactly tell me II
was horse book, but he said to ask fo1
1.-The Horse With Seven Stables. - We
| told him that we thought his boss meant
| The House of the Seven Gables and gave
him the book with the privilege of return
ing it if it was not the right one. The
book never came back. A gentleman who
wanted a set of the works of Shakespeare
was very particular to get AN authorized
| edition He said to us, Now, I want you
to give me copy revised by the author
himself. But l suppose we have no more
| trials than merchants in other lines have
and we should be thankful that we have
customers, even If they-do make bulls. BY
the way, you may not know that the bool
trade this season is larger than it has eve
been before in the history of the business
People are becoming more literary in
olined, so books, especially good ones, arr
in demand. "-Pittsburg Dispatch