The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-13

New. York, Nov. 9.-The fact that the
largest retail bookselling establishment
in the-country has lately had to have
large fraction of it's indebtedness for
given it by its creditors and start
anew, raises again the question
whether the retail bookseller is
doomed man-whether his death war
rant has been signed and sealed by the
department store. /. OF course, no one
can answer this question with finality
as yet; we can only speculate on it.
My own speculation-based upon
rather intimate knowledge of the trade
onditions-is that the retail bookseller
still has a. very fair living chance. OF
a book of general interest the largest
independent bookseller will not handle,
ordinarily, more than half as many
copies as the large department store
will handle; but a good part OF the
| sales through the department store
represent, l believe, q new, or addi-
tional consumption. No small fraction
of the people who buy books in the de-
partment store are of a class that for
merly bought no books and rarely read
one. They have been tempted into
book buying little by little, through
seeing books displayed, at low price, in
store to which they have had to go
| often for the purchase of what they
account necessaries. The purchases of
such buyers leave the independent
bookseller no worse off than he was
| before AS for the other buyers, those
whom before the day of the department
store he had all to himself, the wants
of these are, as yet, only very imper-
| fectly supplied by the department
store. If you know just what book you
want, you can get it supplied to you
| in the department store, usually with
! out much trouble, and at the lowest
possible price. But when to make a
choice you need to look over the stock,
and get advice from the clerks as to
editions and so on, the department
store, as at present conducted, is only
a WEAKNESS and an aggraVation. In it
books are dumped into shelves with
next to no regard for classification, and
| the more or less disdainful young wo-
men who wait on you know as little as
| possible of the goods they handle. The
genuine book lover, who finds such a
| pleasure in the regular book store,
where almost any clerk he turns to
shows to be himself something of a
| book lover, too, and can answer all his
questions, must find it very sorry
pastime wandering through the book
department of an ordinary department
store. On his trade, at least, the indie
pendent bookseller still has, l fancy,
about as sure a hold as ever, especi-
ally now that he is becoming alive to
a new trade situation and making some
serious effort to meet the department
store in price.
Cutcliffe Hyne, the creator of Cap
tain Kettle and the deviser of those ro-
mantle adventures through which,
within the last few months, the cap
Ia IL
fame is almost as much of a traveller
as a writer. Europe, America, Africa,
Asia, and the Arctic sea-he has ranged
widely over all of them, and he is said
to let no year pass without covering at
least 10000 miles of; new. ground. He is
also yachtsman, and a hunter of big
game. No wonder, therefore, that his
; heroes become endowed with no ordi-
nary every day lives. Out of the wealth
of his own personal experience he has
just furnished Captain Kettle forth
, with a second set of adventures. The
new stories will appear serially through
the coming year, and then be gathered
into book. Mr. Hyne is native OF
Worcestershire, England, and is now
80 years old. His first book was 1.-The
New Eden" published in 1892
Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie's new volume
of essays brings him again pleasantly
into public notice. He has long been
one Of the editors of the Outlook, for
: merly the Christian Union, but of re-
cent years he has given about as much
time to lecturing as to editing. Then he
has been a reader and literary adviser
/ for one or two important, publishing
houses has written frequently for the
2 magazines. and is the man likeliest tc
l be called upon to preside at an authors
t reading or a literary dinner. It follows
5 almost without the saying, therefore
S that Mr. Mabie is not a man of mucf
leisure. He has pleasant home in the
S suburban town of Summit N. J., anc
E there he does a great deal of his liter
S airy work. He does not little of it
S though on the cars. l have seen hin
: myself devouring three or four book!
e almost at once in a crowded street car
t | My first view of him was typical; i
e was at an authors reading, into which
4 half q dozen luckless literary person
\ ages had been dragged in the interes
. of some mendicant charity. 1t wa!
: clear that most of them were very un
, happy in their situation; even MARI
D Twain and Frank Stockton gave little
. token of the merriment that we arr
S wont to associate with them; and thu
= man who saved the day was undenia
a bly, Mr.. Mabie. He did not read him
self. but he introduced the men whC
>
e with such vivacity and tact that thu
t awkwardness. and 1 might say heavi
t ness. of some Of the performers wal
g scarcely felt by the audience. 1 thinl
many of us who were present mus
q have felt special kindness for Mr.
v Mabie ever since that day. There ar
t not many writer's who are endowed
|. with address; Mr. Mabie is. He is wha
2 they used to name presentable man
: and he handles himself we'll. Conse
ouently he has had much success as
4 lecturer.
h 1t is rather interesting the way II
t which the Indiana man has made him
e self numerous" in the Century maya
e zine. Roswell Smith was, 1 believe,
n native of New York; but at the time o
b that memorable meeting with DR.. Johl
D G. Holland. on a steamship, that re
e suited in the founding of the frs
s Scribner's magazine, afterwards tn
d Century, he had just completed a loni
/. and successful business career at La
fayette. Ind About the time the mag
@ azlne started, a young man from tn
:. opposite quarter of the state, and quit
unknown to Mr.. Smith, came on to Ney
York in search of a business opDor
tunity, and at a mere venture apple
at the publishing house of the Serb
= ners. He made a favorable presenta
~ ton of himself and was given a place
d. not very important one, but quite a.
1t he could nave hoped for at the begin
ming. This young man was Mr.. Fran
[, Scott. who. since Roswell Smith