The morning times., 1895-08-04

them / get at auction or private sale.
That means they are the whole or part OF
a library when taken in such lots"
The old gentleman reached TO the shelf
behind him and took down q morOcCo-clad
Hume.
''There are often stories connected with
these sales," he half soliloquiZed, as he
fondled the book with a kindly hand.
''This volume was one of many that graced
the library shelves of a Southern gentle
| man who held office here. When its
former owner first came to Washington
he was young, ambitious, and handsome,
am told and unmarried.
His prominence and winning personality
| of course left him Benedict short time
only, and with the riches that came with
a pretty wife he fitted palatial home.
He acquired q taste for high living that
| would probably have amounted to nothing
| had not his young wife died in little more
| than year after the marriage. He evil
| dently did not marry her for her wealth
| and beauty alone and the blow was too
| much for him.
| DROWNED GRIEF IN DISSIPATION.
HE sought refuge in his taste for high
| life and tried to drown his grief in the
whirlpool of the worlds moving stream
His own resources were speedily exhausted
1 ut ldutu 10 ItBdiu HIS lfpoliiOb but
\ the home the wife had willed him was
| left. He sold il aud everything in it.
| This book was part of the library bought
| for q song almost.
II am told that the man went abroad
| where his money OF course evapOrated like
| water on a warm summer day, and If he
has not already taken his own life is living
| somewhere across the pond in almost
| certain poverty
WHO are your best customers?"
Everybody aud nobody" epigramrnati-
| cally answered the old man with smile.
That means that the buyers OF old books
| are confined to no class, rich or poor, polite
| or common. You most understand that
the trade IN secondhand books Is not what
it used to be. Books are too cheap. A
| couple OF centuries ago book cost small
| farm which to-day can be bought, with
| five more like it. fora quarter.
''Our chief customers are among those
people that want book and want 1t
| badly The value in money IS not such
an object to them. 1 might ask one nan
81 for a book and he would insist on
taking no change from a flve-dOllar bill,
while the next conner would think
should~be arrested for robbery You see,
the first man would want the partiC-
ular book
CURIOSITY THEIR MOTIVE.
Then, again, il occurs that many people
just happen in the store, as they say, out
OF mere idle Curosity. That pleases
the average BOOKSELLER, and he tells the
guest to feel at home.
Not long ago Virginia Judge stopped
in my store.
&" 1 am on the way TO the train he
said, aud want to Kill half an hours
time, but don't want TO buy anything.
II told him to go ahead and own the
store while he was there. He began pTowl
ing around, and it Is a fact that before
he left for his train he had bought $40
worth of books
There are ever fads in the field OF
books, ana some particular line of works
; or some author, becomes for the moment
the craze. But the dealer in new bOcoks
, is the one most familiar with these ever
changing whims
just at present. old histories Of States
and counties are in demand. The old his
tories or the Southern states are rare
The purchasers OF the volumes want 10 hum
up mention OF their relatives. Why, al
old history Of a Virginia county or family
is worth its weight in gold 10 some Oni
who wants to prove that his great-great
grandfather lunched with George Wash
ingtOn -
PAINTINGS AND PRINTS
Though books, OF cOurse,-are the prin
cipal contents of an old bookstore, they ar,
not all that are marketed there. Not infre
queftly an OLD oil painting tnat was pos
/ sibly thrown in for good measure wheI
the library went, is put, as likely upside
down as otherwise, on the top shelf =
the room or placed in the window. Some
I times, but rarely, mentOriOus worl
finds its way nysteriously into the anti
| qUated volume realm
Old photographs and prints are NOR
common. just at this tine the latter ar
of particular value, and American ones
at that. These, of course, depict in mos
instances revolutionary scenes and pic
ture the generals Of the nations early days
The reason, the old dealers say, is easil!
traCeable To the prominence that is jus
. at present given to the societies of tht
| Sons and Daughters of the Revolution.