Daily Kennebec journal., 1900-10-13

Y
ATIHSll business has the power
/ %aN>IAE\ - to stimulate or depress
nN44N5I | the sale of any particu-
! N%ANNW( | lar book TO a marked de-
l--AAAAAAAl gree, and it is needless
to say that il is frequently used to ad-
vance the fortunes of the firms publi-
cations. The opposite proceeding is,
of course. less often adopted. We
won't go so far as to refuse to sell
customer any book he may want" said
a member of one such house lately.
but it makes great difference to our
sale of a book whether we have il on
our counters and are continually urg-
ing il on our customers or whether we
keep il in bins and only bring it out
when called for The same gentleman
by the way, speaks of Kipling's two
Jungle Books" as leading that au-
thors works. in his shop. so far as a
constant live sale" is concerned. The
others have more of what is termed
"a moderate library demand and this
fact he had noted for more than
year past. This statement was COR
roborated by another publisher. who
declared that he thought the Jungle
Books" We're the ones that would de-
scend to posterity. He showed a curl
Gus testimony to the plausiblity of
his view by producing a letter from a
large Western concern incidentally
stating that the jungle Books" con-
stituted the bulk of their sales of Kip
ling's works.
The bread line" is well known to
;,.l,, .,,tyn
tered company that waits at the door
of a downtown bakery for an early
morning gift of stale bread. The name
of The Bread Line" has been chosen
by Albert Bigelow Paine for his story
that The Century Company is getting
out. Mr.. Paine is one of the editors
of st. Nicholas" and was at one
time a newspaper man; his story
treats Of the experiences of two writ
erS and two artists in attempting to
found a weekly paper in New York
city. which he treats in a humorous
manner.
Michael Il. Farrelly, late legal ad
wiser to President Kruger. from whose
pen is announced a work on the Set
tlement in South Africa After the
War is an Irishman who commenced
his, career at Trinity College, Dublin,
where he gained many honors.
1t is question whether ii is the
proper thing to write a mans biosra-
ply while he is yet living, there are so
many things a writer would like to say
about his subject that he would hard
ly feel like saying until after ne was
beyond reach of answering. But here
comes Mr.. J. NJ. Hammerton with j.
NJ Barrie and His Books soon to
make its appearance on this side the
water, in which he tells d good many
pleasant anecdotes about the author of
The Little Minister" 1t seems that
! Mr. Barrie and Mr.. Hammerton We're
| colleagues for a year at Nottingham.
| on the strength of this acquaintance
ship Mr.. Hammerton has collected
these stories about Mr. Barrie, and re-
publishes extracts from that authors
earlier writings-extracts which Mr..
Barrie himself has had the good sense
| to leave in oblivion. Mr.. Hammerton
tells one story about Mr.. Barrie which
| is worth repeating. The commander
| in-chief of the kailyarders was once
at a banquet given by a college pro
fessor to his private lady students.
| When" says Mr.. Barrie, II know that
| am expected TO talk to young ladies,
I prepare some half-dozen suitable re-
marks to fire off al intervals, and /
was on the point of commencing num-
Der one, which was. no doubt. of
frivolous nature. to the genius who
vas placed by my side, when she
1 and asked
eagerly whether 1 did not think that
Berkeley's 'Immaterahsm was founded
on an ontological misconception.
contriyed to whisper that such had al
wavs been my secret impression. then
quietly tainted, and was sent home to
bed" In his early days he had con-
siderable local vogue as a humorlst,
and anent this period Mr.. Hammerton
has the following story, which has
faint odor of special manufacture.
| There was a certain countess, says
| Mr.. Hammerton, who gave dinner on
one occasion, and sent for the novelist
in the expectation that he would en-
liyen her party with his wit But,
hating TO be either lionized or used as
Ian instrument of drawing g-room
lamusement, he went with plan OF
faction already determined upon. lie
drove to the castle on the box seat ana
put the footman inside the carriage.
Silently he dined with the great ones
present, and in the drawing-room ne
skunk into a corner. where he twlried
his thumbs in silence.
Novelists have hard time hunting
for titles for their books, and it not I'M
frequently happens that the publlShei
is called upon TO supply them. Ahd
then, too, it just as often happens tha'
when an author has hit upon Wha'
seems to be a particularly happy utie
! il turns out that somebody else has al
ready used it. At the very last mo-
ment Messrs Henry Holt 4 Co nave
} had to change the title of Miss Marior
Bowers novel The Puppet Show tt
John Thisselton." since 1t appears
I that novel by the former title nae
4 already been published by Leonida'
Westervelt.
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