The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-22
THE BOOK AGENT.
His Rise and Fall Within the Memory
of Men.

OF Men,
New York Evening Post.
All above a certain age, which we confess
with sigh that we have reached. can re-
member when the book agent a well
come visitor. He was pleasantly greeted
even in those best circles in which, it is
needless to say we and all our readers
moved. His affable and insinuating address.
his stores of literary knowledge, his earn
estness and singleness of purpose as an
apostle of culture ingratiated him with old
and young. Those were the days when col
lege students able, in vacations, to
earn enough as book agents to pay their
expenses for the year. Their favorite lures
were Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias
of universal knowledge and various forms
of domesticated learning. 1t is sufficient to
mark the era we refer to when we say that
it was the day when the Household Book
of Poetry was largely sold. That volume.
with it's Il remember, l remember" and
BE patient, OH be patient" not only es-
tablished the literary reputation of its edi-
tor, the late Charles A. Dana, so securely
that he never needed to do anything to JUS
tify it. but was the means of causing many
a humble peripatetic book agent to burst
into song.
there lOIlOWeu, HOWcNcIs oil cpOCu VI uO-
cline and fall Cold looks met the book
agent in the very doorways where he once
found smiles The world began to show
itself averse to his CHEEKY ways. People
caught the trick of saying, I'VE never buy
of agents. In vain to tell them that the
offered masterpiece was 'sold only by sub
scription.' That only provoked the further
retort, 1--WE never buy subscription books"
Whothor w increase of luxury and
its attendant dislike of pure literature,
whether it was that people grew tired of
books, or simply of book agents. we are
not wise enough to decide, but the good
old times of the book agent passed away
and his lot became an unhappy one. For
a time he took arms against his sea Of
troubles, and resorted to those ingenious
lodges by which he endeavOred TO pro-
pitiate his victim by flrst deceiying MN. ne
quence. Gladstone could never have felt
surer that if he could only get an opponent
to listen to him for two or three hours he
could win him over. So for good while
the book agent bent all his ingenuity to the
task of getting into the presence or MS
would-not-be purchaser, on false pretenses.
He would say that your name had been
given to him on "a special list; he would
conceal his folio in a secret pocket in the
back of his coat. or in her skirts women
eycelled in this art. as In smugglng), and
draw it on you only after getting you at
close range-in short, move heaven ana
There would have been no end to these
''dodges' had not their practitioners at
last found out that their very victory
was their defeat; that the more craftily
they had secured an audience. the shorter
and more unpleasant that audience
certain to be. OF what avail to compass
sea and land to be shown up stairs if the
only result was to be kicked down? In
these circumstances, the book agent had
either to adjust himself to his environment
succumb No one who had real knowl-
edge of him doubted which he would do.
He was eminently adjustable, and he pro-
ceeded to adjust himself. The times changed
and he changed in them. If the Jews re-
fused to listen to him, he shook off the
them and turned to the gentiles.
The gentiles he found in the kitchen
Many of the book agents old acquaintance
may not be aware of it. and may think
he has disappeared entirely. but it is to the
area door he now goes instead of to the
main entrance, and it is in the kitchen he
now finds the welcome which once warmed
his heart in the parlor. We believe we are
quite within bounds when we say that the
most lucrative book agency business is now
drlven IN the Kitchen. Thus does culture
move outwards and downwards. Family
Bibles. sold on the installment plan and
huge pluSh-covered albums find favor and
a ready market with cooks and sclllIerv
maids. Any man might have the expert
ence of friend of ours whose cook sent
IN 10 ask for 81 advance wages Please she
mao an instailment to pay on book she
was buying. What was the book? 1t was
Love; Marriage and Maternity; or Wom-
But the book agent is not only thus ex
alting the humble. he is bringing low the
proud In the process of adjusting himself
ne mas invented a way of making his
victims come TO him. instead of playing de-
tectlve tricks to reach them If book agency
mas mas oeen degraded by STOPPING to the
Kitchen 1t has also been glorified by INSTALL
ing itself in the most expensive rooms at
the most expensive hotels You get a neatly
engraved card. informing you that you are
known Of fho
city. rms pleases you, and you are also
expected to be pleased to learn that Mr.
Gaxton Grolier will be for ten days in
Parlor r. ID. at the Hotel Magnificent
where he will have on display 500 900 worth
OF rare books, including the finest exam
pies OF the bibliopegic art" You may not
pc quite sure what the bbIiopegic art is
put, as you are given to understand that It
Is altogether the correct thing to go, you
90 go, or send your wife. to see the exam
pies, and you soon find yourself in possess
sion specimens of the bibliopegic art while
| Mr.. Caxton Grolier is rejoicing In fine
example of the bank check e1gravers art
| Which you have left with him. This is the
true sublime of book agency.
The evolution of the book agent as we
have now hastily limited at it, would make
a most interesting chapter of social and
moral history if it were to be written at
| large. Let some enterprising author take
| the subjective freely make over all rights
in 1T. Let him document himself by secur-
ing the concessions of one or more har-
dened book agents. now perhaps happily
married ard living n community ali I'M
suspicious Of their former lives: let him OBJ
tain the full testimony of the oldest clergy
man of his acquaintance, who has passed
long life withstanding the wiles of his adj
versary. the book agent let him gather up
the strange tales of persistent siege and
defense and final capture, or else repulse
which would go to make up the history of
book agency, and he could write a most in
structive and fascinating story In book
form ii would be sure to have a wide sale
If sold py subscription only and put into the