Evening star., 1898-04-09
THE GEklJ$ BOOK WORM

"You could make most interesting
story about the queer characters that
haunt seconf hand book stores and make a
nvins out OF them.'' said an old dealer to a
star reporter II have seen all kinds of
the genus boSk5dfm and know their ways
to dot. Bu4 ksRt caught by one of them
this morningA fellow who has come
| IN mere every br over ten years to look
ior books Aha Second Advent did the
| thing. He p4aA led at the door at the
usual time. 4td booking as he has every
oay Tor yeassSNe said Good morning" "
20 which 1 tresp6nded, and then edged
along to the, sSecond Advent shelf-a
space 4 had selected for such books as
got IN from time to time with bearing
on MS hne of study. in a few minutes he
stepped outside land little later came in
with novel in his hand, which he offered
for sale. WITHOUT d suspicion, 1 Tipped
oGt dime end tossed the book back on
the ZEE, end Of the counter
me old FELLOW went of, and a bit later
my cierk came m
HIS eye caught sight of the novel. and
ne called out. WeH, this 'Romola" has
SoMe BACK Quick. I.put it In the ten-cent
stnr. DUx iast night Just before closed the
The old Second adventist had picked up
one . OF my own books and sold 1t to me-
nhefe are dozen old soakerss that buy
AaAA6 uTau W1Ia SeCenQ>han0
books They win go to one store and steal
d q tWenty-hve-cent book, which five min
utes later they will sell for dime at some
other store.
There Is one poor old chap whose game
was mystery to me for years. He was
aI"aSs very feeble and evidently extreme
poor. He had very little money, and
bought as rule the largest books he could
find in the five. and ten-cent boxes. The
SUBJECT or character of the volumes he
selected seemed to be of no concern what
% ever TO him. One time he got an odd first
Voiume OF the reprint Encyclopedia Brit
tanfca. an old King James octave Bible,
worn-out medical work and an agricul-
tural report. At another his purchase in
cluded mutilated Pope's Homer
Junkin on Prophecy, Byron's poems,
Shakespeare's Sonnets and Youatt's 'Horse
Book. 1 more than once saw him buy an
armful of books out of that box without
looking at the titles on the back or open
ing a cover. Size and dlnginess seemed to
be the only things he considered.
1T was long time before l discovered
MS game One day l was up town at
certain senator's house, where I had been
called to lcok over lot Of old books which
the lady of the house wanted to sell. l
was busy looking over the stuff when the
bell rang and ine moment the servant
an old man at the door with books. She
went out and soon came back with my old
friend of the big volumes. Under his arm
was lot he had that morning bought Of
/ me- LAC Aao tOiu the WOtnSiu plLlIuI story
OF his poverty. and begged her to keep him
from starving by buying the few books he
had left Of a once large and fine library.
He said he had parted with furniture,
clothes and other things before he could
make UP his mind to sell his books. The
game would have worked spiendidly if l
mad not been In the house. Mrs. Senator
at once thought she would do me a favor
and give me a chance to possess myself
of the ole mans rare books. So she
brought him in to where I was getting
ready as fast as 1 could to skin her on a
hundred or more rare and scarce geologi-
cal survey reportsI The old chap turned
pale and dropped his books whan he saw
me- I laughed. fqr 1 saw through the
whole thing at once. After he had gone
Mrs. Senator told HE his story. He never
came to this store 1aEain.' -