The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-04-10
OURFRIENDST HEBO0KS

I tainty involved in the struggles by
| which the people of the Independent
! colonies learned how to govern them
selves. After all, the best thing about
prophesy such as Mr.. Foster makes is
| the splendid falsity Of it in the light
of events that have followed it, We
can bear 1t all now, with an easy phi
| losophy.
| For Hopkinson Smiths new novel,
| 'Caleb West" success is anticipated.
| Mr.. Smith knows the usual road to
success, and he has travelled more than
| one of them to good purpose. Besides
| success in literature he has won sue
cess in art, In the lecture field and in
| another profession, that, least of all
| professions, is dependent for success on
| the Imagination. Mr.. Smith has built
| lighthouses, and how we'll he knows
| that business readers of Caleb West"
| will learn. The building of that kind
of edifice dominates the story, and
the hero is a man familiar with the
heaviest toll and the most thrilling
dangers incident to life spent in COM
batting the winds and waves of the
sea Mr.. Smith lives in New York,
but was born and reared in the South.
He has spent many vacations abroad,
and no European land knows him so
we'll as the shores of the Bosphorus and
the Dardanelles. From Constantine
pie he has brought home many themes
with which to beautify canVases. His
name in art is perhaps as well known
as his name in literature. The walls
of the academy have been covered
with his pictures quite as often as
the counters of book stores with MS
books.
One evening last week I heard Mr..
Smith address a company assembled
at dinner to honor Joseph Jefferson. MI.
Smith sought to define the source Of
found it in the mans heart. Il have
long had a theory" said Mr.. Smith,
that no man in literature, in paint
ing, in acting, in any kind OF artistic
production, can rise higher than the
level of his own heart" And then he
went on to show how unlovely a crea-
ture Rip Van Wrinkle was when he
confined our thoughts Of him to the
bare facts of his conduct-a drunken,
lazy fellow, who abandoned adj his re
sponsibilities in life-Wife, home and
children-and took to the mountains.
And yet out of that character Jeffer-
son had created a man whom audi
ences in two continents, or three con-
tinents, had learned to love. All this
was due to the fact that Jefferson had
put into the character his own heart
"a heart clean, honest, pure and
wholesome. And when the company
assembled in that dining hall applaud
ed the sentiment, l could not but feel
that some of the applause belonged TO
Mr. Smith for his own manly, straight
forward, sound-hearted life.
The highest price at which book
has ever sold in this country at auc-
ton is the Gutenberg Bible. In fact,
this book has made record, not only
q
Last year it was sold in London for
about $4,000, sum considerably. In
excess Of the price paid for the work
in this country; but this fact, in part is
due to the superior condition and CHAR
acter of the copy sold in London. The
American copy was first sold in the
Brinley sale Of 1880. and brought $4,000.
1t was again put up in the Ives sale Of
1891, when it brought $14,S00, the pur-
chaser being J. w. Ellsworth, of Chi 4
cago.
It is a long way down from these
figures to the next highest price. But
in these matters we are confronted
with facts which are to be we'll remem-
bered as making differences. Several
of the highest prices have been secured
for what are called Xtra-illustrated
books, in which hundreds of plates,
many Of them rare and costly, have
been inserted. But this sort Of book
establishment is somewhat in decline.
The fashion once was potent; but 1t
seems to have entered upon a certain
decline that is not to be regretted. In
order to make these books it is neces-
sary to mutilate, or destroy altogether,
many other books, and against this
practice there are heard many pro-
I tests. For copy of Irving's wash
ington," extended in this manner to
ten volumes with LOO plates, the sum
of $4,000 was paid in 1865. But the
same work would sell for far less now.
Francis "Old New York." has sold for
even more; but this book had $500
plates inserted.
After the Gutenberg Bible In point
of price comes what is known as "The
Pembroke Missal," an Illuminated
manuscript, dated 1444, and containing
267 miniatures beautifully executed in
that art Of the cloister from which the
Christian art Of Fra Angelica, Gina
bue and then Raphael was so wonder
fully evolved This book was sold in
1891 at the Ives sale for $500. In the
same sale a copy Of Virgil, printed in
Venice in 1470 by John Of Spira,
brought $4,000. 1t is now in the library
of Princeton college. Another copy of
the book was sold in London some
years ago for $4,000.
Among books OF the class called