The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-25

z Ao-- s
ara ing beauty q Il Is that
il can acquired. aDd &C
quired- too. without Ire least hazard Ct
oody y limb All the great historians
lzFs g0t cFeli- az ore tine ana ano-ler
f3- Their vIFld1ezs IN deDicting battles
Carlyle I remember especially as having
had this praise Yet Carlyle never saT a
oaIr-e. Re never I fancy, say even tns
autumn rnsneuvers, and a majority Of the
historians are n the same case A for
tae novslis-s-Eell, the amount Of 1gntlns
they have never seen Is simply prodigious1
3Ir. Crockett himself. who Is 80 especially
az home in il with MS pen. vas minis
ter confined 70 plzcld country charge
untl quite lately, when he resigned HIM
self completely 10 literature. Il Tea-E
must y comparatively easy, even for men
whose personal experience mas been only
Of F@ace. 70 put up a frst-class dgnt'' IN
the study. If they are given plenty Of time
ana quiet And yet there have been half
dozen uoveIlsts who have come INTO fame
within the last three or four years SIN
pig on the strength OF their '9attle pc
lures And this Simply among these
VINO write in English; 20 into the foreign
tongues and you viii double or triple the
number. What number Of short stores,
within the ike term. have been accepted
and published for no other grace than
that Of pOrtraying good fight no one
can sav. but il IS certainly large So Il
ore were supplying tips" to literary as
piranrs one would say: Whatever else
you GO or fail 10 90. don't fail 70 emOody
in your tale real. red fight infer,
however. from my own manuscript reading
that a good three-fOUTths Of the literary
aspirants are alredy 'on to- IT,
There IS now under trial new meth
Oh Of selling books that may yet work
! something very near 10 a revolution il
the publishing and booksslling trades A
year or two ago a new firm Of publishers
in this city, seeking a means Of making
an original and sure impression on the
reading public. hit upon the plan o. send
ing books on approval TO whoever request
ed il. the intention and expectation being
that If the books thus submitted proved 20
be as represented they would be kept, and
the price Of them sent TO the publishers
They have followed this policy ever since
ard now other publishers are showing
disposition to make a trial OF it. I was
"a king the other day with the man who
originated the idea. and I asked him how
il had worked out He said:
]
on approval was issued early IN the
spring. and il apparently made little i'm
preston; discouTagingly small number
Of people answered our first advertisement.
I The selling season in books grows worse,
as rue, with the approach of warm
weather; but our new venture grew better
! and better as the season advanced, and in
/ May June and July the individual orders
| went far toward making up for the lack
! vrhra Inv cr
that time Of the year only for definite or
ders."
And where and from whom did your
responses Gomez asked.
our expectation was that the offer
/ would appeal primarily to readers far from
/ towns and cities, where bookstores were
unavaila bic; il was no part OF the idea 10
/ enter into competition with the local book
/ seller. Yet for several months the ma
/ jority Of the requests for new books came
/ from the larger towns and cities. Later,
/ however. the smaller PAGES, in remote
parts of the country began TO be heard
/ from; but even now about one-hah the
/ orders come from the cities and large
| towns At first the eastern and middle
| states sent The larger proportion of re-
! quests; but later the distribution became
! more general. As fall approached, the plan
| grew stin more in favor. Book lovers came
to know that there was no trick behind
! il; and before the end of the year we
| found that we could count upon selling
! from 800 to 600 copies of a popular book
/ through this means afone-all that seemed
to be required was that the book Itself
! should be exactly what we claimed for it.
And how about losses-of books or
money!" 1 asked.
when The business had grown to pro-
! portions large enough to make it interest
! ing, several friends in and out of the book
trade. after studying the matter, assured
us that We were on the wrong track. They
/ said: People will write TO you for books.
read them all through, and return them;
/ and moreover, you vii. become a "soft
mark for all the book thieves from Maine
to California. But the best answer to
this. and to your own question, is the fact
1 that We are still in the business and are
/ charging the on-approval plan every
month It is true we found some book
| thieves. and We have spent some money
/ and a great deal of study over a system
which shall follow the unrighteous ones
to the bitter end; but We can testify that
no more honest class of people live under
the sun than that great company, who.
as Franklin said, wish to empty Their
purses into their heads.
All Of which seemed 10 me extremely in
teresting; and on more accounts than the
strictly commercial considerable of The
/ trade.
A reviewer the other day, began his sur
vey of DR.. S. Weir Mitchels latest novel
with the exclamation, "A romancist at the
age of 79.' That is putting it just len
years too strong for DR.. Mitchell-he is
only 60. Still, even al 60, considering that
| DR.. Mitchell has been most of his life
one of the busiest Of practicing physicians
and "A Voluminous and authoritative writer
on strictly professional and scientic sub
jects, the writing Of The Adventures or
| Francois" is no less an extraordinary
! achievement. For a man whose Inherit
| ance Q)r. Mitchell is the son of a physi-
cian) and education were for something
/ else and whose main business had been
in an entirely different field to come for
ward rather late in life and beat the pro-
! fcssiOnal romancers on their own ground