The morning times., 1896-04-19

Girl IL AT least is leaving its impress on the
trade aspect of literature. The book manu-
facturer and the book seller will tell you
this with 40 kindly light in their eyes But
the author was heretofore supposed TO sit
screnely by and watch the sales. Not so.
it seems. For said James l.. Ford
OF Literary Shop fame. at din
ner. recently: There is one thought that
brings terror 10 an authors mind. and
that is that his works Will faH
into the hands OF that commercial
cuttle-fish. the department store, which
grasps literature in one of it's tentacics ana
in another the knitted undershirt. In one
OF these places we wander through bushy
bowers of ingram carpets and behold litera-
ture crowned with a garland of red sus-
panders. The presiding genius of this fairy
dell of commerce is a tail young man with
24ayonaise whislleTS and a long lead peucil.
lie doesn't know whether You have come for
literature or for HeCker's Self-Raising Flour,
IT YOU buy a book OF him il will be sent
home with dried Goldfish in the same pack
age. If you ask him for The Red Badge OF
Courage he will very likely give you a
red flannel undershirt.'
Although of every book published in this
country and OF many published abroad n
copy lis filed in the Library of Congress,
this is not the largest library in the world
Oy nearly 2.000 900 volumes. There are
about CSC, 900 volumes up at the Capitol,
exclusive of law books and pamphlets,
ghich do not enter into this classification.
Dur national library ranks sixth OF the
ibraries of the world. While there is Il
disparity of nearly 100000 between
he Congressional Library and the largest,
.he collection of books ranking twenty
iourth has only four hundred odd thousand
csS. A carefully compiled list shows a
1unber of surprises 10 popular conception
Of relative values. The Vatican library
s one of the most famous and one OF the
oldest in the world, but il ranks twenty
fourth. with only 225, GOO volumes, while
the National Library AT Parishas ., ,50o,0 900,
which is ten for one. IL Is the largest in
The world. The public library at Boston
has nearly as many as the Congressional.
It's figure is $50, 900.
The famous Astor library OF New York
city has only 100000, ranking twenty
third, and Harvard stands two points above
il, with 100000. The library of Com
gress has only 10000 pamphlets, and
Harvard has 27s, 900. The twenty-four
largest libraries in the world are: l.,
National Library, Paris, 2,50O.CC0 2.
British Museum, 1000 200: 8. Imperial,
st. Petersburg, 100000; 4, Munich. J.
COO ,GSS; 5, Berlin, SEQ 900; 6, Con
gressTonal, Washington, $4,000: Z, Pos
ten Public, 100000; :. DarmsIadt, &c.,
0Oo; 8, Lcipsic, $50, 900; 10. Strasburg,
525, 900; L, Copenhagen Royal, 5C0, 0,OC0;
L., Imperial, Vienna, $50, ,O00; 3, Pod
leian, oxford, 45O, 900; IL st. Petersburg.
Public, 100000: 10. Stuttgart. 10000:
I6, Gottmgea, 425 900; II, National
Florence, 425.00o; Is, Madrid. 100000;
19, Budapest, 400 900; 20, Univers ity
of Chicago, 3S0,O0O; 2l, Harvard Univer-
sity, 100000; %, Heidelburg, 100000;
23, Astor, New York, 240, 900, and "a, the
Vatican, Rome, 225,00o.
The supremacy of culture is sometimes
not apparent in the remarks OF supposedly
cultivated people. For instance, it was
not very long ago that two Washington
women in street car were discussing
boasfully their breadth of learning. APP
parenUIy each had read everything OH earth.
One of them bit her lip i moment, then
asked: Have you been reading 'Pickwick
tlv-pss n,
other replied: YES, indeed, my husband
brings them home every Saturday night
In st. Louis recently, according TO the
Critic, a customer asked bookseller for a
dc luxe "TriIby.' The sapient gentle
ment replied that the only ''Irilby" he had
was Du Maurer's, and believed that was
tie only one published. A malapropisn
was committed in Kansas City by a would
be purchaser, who wanted al epidemic
(aCademic) dictionary. 1t was here in
Washington, however. that a secondhand
bookseller was approached for copy OF
Hume's England. Il haven't got one il
the house." lac said. But here's David
Cope rrield'' and I3rowning's poems in
cushion back. Won't they do"
Cusnlopnls is magazine Which prints
articles of German. French and Englisl
authors in their respective languages. 1t bal
preCipitated the critical wrath of Count Lee
Tolstoi upon Dumas and ZoIa. As is wei
known the French geutlemen's ideas o
social and moral obligations are some W hat
al variance with conventional standards
especially in their remedial aspect. Hav
ing scared up The vision OF an uncertain
future the faCile Frenchmen delve int
speculation as 10 how best 10 avoid the
nightmare. Zola secs in work the Danish
ment Of vain thoughts on the future; Dumas
panacea was fraternal love.
Tolstoi. however, says of Zola'S s PROPOSE
ton that work is one of the perils Of tn,
age, thus apparently putting himself oil
record as q kind of Russian Coxey. in bi
ewes work is a drug that enables US to forge
our duties and the disasters which lie before
us. BE believes that work makes us bad
Without speaking OF selfish labor. alway,
bad of which the aim is the comfort o
Tenown OF the doer, conscientious work
thepride Of the worker, makes not only ants
but men. cruel.
Who does not know them inaccessible Il
truth or goodness, who are always so occu
pied that they have never the time, not onl,
to do good, but even TO ask themselves i
their work is harmful? You say to them
your work is useless; perhaps even pei
nicious. Here are the reasons" They wi
notlistent to you and reply withirony: ''Yol
take pleasure in reasoning, but | have no
time for talk. ] have worked all my life
anu "oAh NbSS hON " ehAs l4u " W NhiN
newspaper with a half-million of subscri
bers daily;I am to organize the army; an
to construct the Eiffel Tower, to organic
the Chicago Exposition, to dig the Panam
Canal, TO make researches in heredity o
in telcpathy, or on the number of times tia
such and such a classical author has uset
such and such word"
TolStois answer to Dumas is ueithe
forceful nor characteristic. His conclu
sion however rgpd with rrutT
is The conservative advice of a geuuin
philosopher and friend OF man: IF / wer
called on 10 give a single COUNSEL h
...I.lcL, I .n.lII.l