The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-22
WOES OF BOOK men
DEALERS IN OLD VOLUMES HAVE
TROUBLES OF THEIR
OWN
SHOPS RESORTS FOR BoREs
Customers Almost Give Them Heart
Disease by the Manner in Which
They Handle Rare and
Costly Editions.

Unfortunate outcaStS whom the Internal
gods have devoted to the gentle art of
selling books undergo many varied trials
which the careless public Wots not Of
1t is not only that they have troubles
OF their own" says the New York Times,
but that they have to shoulder those of
Sc many other people. 1t was not with
ont occult reason that one worthy, being
summoned upon jury duty and asked il
he were a business man, replied mo;
/ M a bookseller
y book shop Is looked upon as a sum-
mer and winter resort-a sort of continu-
Gus performance place-a veritable free
museum. Some even attempt to use it
as a pawn shop, conducted on liberal
principles. A great many seem to drop
In to get cool in hot weather and to keep
warm in cold l know no place where the
WhimS and peculiaritieS of human nature
can be studied so adVantageouSly as in
a book shop. The class OF "cranks' is
drawn by some mysterious law OF nature
irresistibly toward the book shop. If you
be bookseller, and there live within ten
miles a man who has invented something
for lack of which mankind has been
struggling in comparative gloom and
sorrow through untold ages inevitably
you are doomed to hearken to his ora
tions upon its manifold merits. Has am
other discovered, and can he prove most
wrote the plays attributed to Shakes
peare, Marlowe, Ben Johnson ct al. but
Elso "Hudibras," "Gul.4Ver's Travels,
1.-The Pilgrims Progress Tom Jones,
and so on-that man will infallibly call
to see you at least twice a week, and stun
you with his logic and his sonorous elo-
quence.
And I suppose that in no other bust
ness cam there occur so many ludicrous
blunders. so many comical happenings.
In this sense (and in this sense, alas.
Cnly) can we borrow the words of Fal-
staff and say that book shop is ''argu-
ment for a week, laughter for month,
and a good jest forever Exempt
Eratia: An Admirable Crichton who
runs" an emporium. in the metropolis
conceived the idea that it would be
notable scheme to adopt some distinctive
name for his place. Accordingly, after
much laboriOus cOgitation, he hit upon
the device of "Harlem's Literary Mecca"
and had a man put it up on his window
in snow-white letters He was standing
by the curbStOne aduiring this effect,
when he heard an old Irishman solilo-
quize as follows: "Wel, now, wud We
LUX at the gall Of that Scotchman-callin'
himself "Ha-ar-rlem's Literary Mickey
list TO ketch some Irish trade! An the
ignorant blackguar-rd doan't even know
how to spell Mickey" The letters have
been removed.
The frequenters of a book shop may
be divided into three great natural or
ders-the buyers (may their tribe in
crease the nonbuyers, or bores, and the
biblioklepts, or thieves. The star GUS
toners are probably college students.
The worst ones are certainly those enter
prising foreigners who can never be got
to believe that you expect that price for
a book which you ask for it. The boys
generally come in detachments, unless
when executing some commission, as the
lad who rushed in breathlessly one day
proclaiming that his father wanted the
Origin of Speeches. Boy readers for
the most part read "goody-goody
books, or lurid lucubrations like 'One-
Eyed Sim" or Ready Rob- the Road
Agent" In vain you coax them to the