Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-12-15
HE WANTED A BOOK.
AND He WAS QUITE A DISTINGUISHED
LOOKING MAN.

So 1t wns Small Wonder That the
bookseller Made n Few Slight Err
rurs In Recommending the Differ
crt Wares He Had For Sale.
The elderly. distinguished looking man
had been lowering around the open air
secondhand bookstal for several days.
The cloth bound volumes did not appear
TO gain his attention. He devoted him
self exclusively to the stacks of fiction,
paper Lound in the old fashioned way
abort If inches long by 10 inches wide
md he even thumped over the nickel and
dime libraries with great apparent in
tercSt. The thicksct proprietor Of the
secondhand hookstall noticed the elderly,
distinguished looking man the other aft
crnoon and strollcd out to the pavement.
Cant find what you're looking for, ch,
judge" inquired the proprietor of the
stand pleasantly.
The elderly, distinguished looking man
appeared to be somewhat embarrassed.
"N-no," he replied efficiently, Il sup
pose I'm on Il fruitlcss quest"
lie didn't name the nature OF the quest,
however.
You won't find anything in Arabic in
those paper bound piles, you know" said
the proprietor of the stall experimentally.
"No?' said the elderly, distinguished
looking man.
"Thcrc used to be Gibbons Roman
Empire in paper covers, but it's out Of
print years ago" remarked the proprietor
of the stall after a pause.
THAT SOP said the stranger. Don't
believe ever saw that edition."
"We've got whole lot of Omar Khay-
vans in cheap cloth covers, though" pur-
sued the bookstal man, scratching his
head in puzzled sort of way and sizing
up the distinguished looking man out of
the tail Of his eye.
"Well. | am not a devotee at the Omar
shrine" replied the elderly man, turning
over another heap of the elongated paper
volumes.
The proprietor Of the stall walked away
n little distance and appeared to be think
ing it over.
You'll find Hugo's History Of
Crime and Les Miserables' in that
bunch" he said, returning to the elderly
man at the stall. "but there's hardly any
use in buying 'cm in that form when I've
got EN- cloth bound for as low as a quar-
ter each and sets of Uugo's complete
works for So"
hlu ilNSO lilIu ItuulllS, ItDlltu iIe
elderly man of distinguished appearance,
wiping his spectacles retlectively. Il
knocked off doing literary pcnance a long
while ago"
The proprietor scratched his head some
more He looked like man up against
it. Having Il reputation to sustain, how
ever, for shrewdness in guessing his GUS
toners literary tastes, he returned to the
charge after a silence.
'Therc's some of Goethe's and Schil-
ler's stuff in those paper piles" he said,
''but got all the Schiller and Goethe you
want inside in cloth for little or nothing"
"Uh-huh!" replied the distinguished
looking man, again removing his iron
trimmed spectacles and wiping them with
q spotcSs handkerchief. "Glad to hear
that. However, l haven't much time to
solace myself with Goethe and Schiller.
LIES too Short
The bookstall proprietor walked out to
the curb and spat musingly.
"Fellow that looked pretty hard up
came in here the other day" he said, re-
turning to the elderly gentleman at the
stall, land sold me ten volumes of the
plays of Congreve. Wycherly and Van
brugh at pretty small figure. Like to
look at emp
"Nno." replied the elderly man. eve
can see all the hot stuff that's good for
us at the tbcaters nowadays without re-
verting to that bunch of degenerates."
"Wcll, he's on to what he's talking
about all right" unused the bookstall pro-
prietor. grinning. Then he said aloud:
"P'r'aps you prefer the older English
Observation-Disclosures, Otway, Beaumont
and Fletcher and that sort?'
"Well, if | were marooned on q desert
island maybe I'd read some of the older
English amatists-on rainy afternoons,
when | couldn't hunt mollusks for sup
per-" replied the high grade looking man
Mt the stall.
"Well. this one gets me going right"
muttcrCd the bOokstall proprietor to him
self. "Ill give him another whiz."
Then the bookstal proprietor pulled out
from beneath a stack of paper bound lit
erature a vellowcd copy of Carlyle's
'Sartor Resartus."
Maybe this is what you are looking
for, sir?" he said, holding the book up so
that the elderly man could see the title.
"No," replied the elderly man; that
is not what Pm looking for. On the con-
trary, Carlyle gives me a pale pink
pain"
This phrase gave the proprietor of the
bookstall his opening. He grinned and
inquired:
"Well, is there anything particular
you're hunting for. sir? ! don't want to
appear to be curious, but
The elderly, distinguished looking man
removed his spcctacles, put them in his
pocket and smiled benignly upon the pro-
prietor of the stall.
"Wcll," he said, "l'll tell you what I'm
looking for, seeing that you take such an
interest. Pm looking for a work enti-
tied 'Rawboned Zeb, the Terror of the
Rockies ! was reading that work one
afternoon about 81 years ago and had
just got to the most absorbing part
where Xcb bites the arms of A. Black
feet Indians in a bunch, if you remem-
ber-whcn my mother came along and
snatched the book out of my hand. 1t
was darncd interesting and entertain
ing work, and I'd be willing to pay big
money to get hold of n copy and find out
how it ended!'-Washingto Star.