The Washington times., 1901-08-04
A FORTUNE FOR A BOOK.
One Eight-Page Volume Worth
More Than $500.

Tales Told by a Dealer in Rare Lit
crature-BibliophiIe and Their
Pnssion-Great Demand for Hfsto-
rfes-Many Rare Documents StoIen.
Five hundred dollars for eight pages
nf dingy reading, That's a good deal Of
monss, you Will acknowledge. to invest
in four small leaves OF print paper" OBJ
served a Walnut Street dealer in rare
books the other day. However. that Is
the price l offered man a few days ago.
The eight pages wanted were of old Penn
sylvania laws. My offer was declined
with thanks. the owner being something
of bibliophile himself, and knowing that
the scarcity of these pages would permit
him to fix his own figure for his set The
pages would be passed over or destroyed
by the ordinary reader. yet there Is not
another known copy In existence You
Will readily understand that they are val
liable when you consider the size of my
offer.
II bought a pamphlet for 80 cents from
another bookseller several weeks go.
and sold it within n few days for so. That
was merely stroke of luck in business.
The pamphlet was on this booksellers
shelves for sale at stipulated price fixed
by himself
Dealers in rare books seldom make
purchases from strangers unless the lat
ter can give satisfactory information Of
how the books came into their possession.
This is done partly from selfish motive
and partly from a desire to protect their
customers.
Perhaps you remember the case, sew
eral years ago, when a New York dealer
purchased at different times from a cou-
pie of young men in Washington a val
liable collection of autographs Of eminent
Americans of the Revolutionary period.
including those of George Washington. ths
elder Adams. Thomas Jefferson, and Burr.
The young men represented that they
were Government employees. They said
that in moving documents to the new
Congressional Library many papers had
been relegated to the waste paper heap
and that they had sought them out and
preserved them.
There was no doubt as to the genuine
ness of the autographs and documents Of
fered for sale. They were brought to this
dealer, in such surprising numbers that
his suspicious were aroused. He wrote to
the department at Washington. An inves-
tigation there brought to light the fact
that there had been stolen many Of the
Governments s most valuable and precious
archives Detectives were assigned to the
case and evidence beyond dispute was
obtained against the young men. When
arrested they broke down and confessed
their guilt. The dealer had sold the au-
tographs for big sums. Some of the pur-
chasers, 1 believe. did withstand legal
proceedings before restoring them to the
Government.
so. You see it stands US in hand to be
careful Of whom we buy The dealer IN
rare books has his regular customers. His
mission is akin to that of the Confidential
lawyer with client. He Is familiar with
the literary taste of each customer. His
first thought in purchasing is that such
person would like such book
The book is put aside and word sent to
that customer No dealer depends entire
ly upon the trade of his own city There
are in New York and Brooklyn perhaps
a hundred or more private libraries OF
rare books that are most valuable Phil
adeiphia has fifty or more. have GUS
toners IN every State in the Union One
OF my best is in Portland. Oregon
..rherc is little chance for deception.
even If a dealer were so inclined. A true
bibiophiIe knows the value of volume
the minute he reads the name Therefore.
when get mold of a scarce book, all do
is to aequaint my customers with the
fact and its state of preservation Next
to Philadelphia in the taste for old books
and the amount of business done by deal
crs in rare books come. in their order,
Chicago. New York, and Boston In some
Of the smaller towns and villages some OF
the most valuable libraries may be found
II got $50 for the first Masonic book
published in America. and it is no larger
than the ordinary child's primer. II had
double value because OF the fact that II
was printed by Benjamin Franklin
There are few copies in existence. A
book that is valuable to one dealer may
not be valuable TO another. For instance.
n Trenton bookseller came in to see me
and asked if l wanted a book that he had
in his pocket. / told him l did and Of
fered him $50. This was satisfactory to
him, and he volunteered willingness
to trade the book for books on my shelf.
He selected fifteen volumes. the combined
price of which amounted to $40. l felt
hat had bettered my stock. and he, no
doubt thought he had bettered his.
You will likely be surprised when tell
YOU that in this God-fearing country
there is practically no demand for rare
theological books. 1t is almost impossible
20 sell them. No one seems to want reli-
eious books
The dealer here brought out a recog-
nized edition of Martin Luth..r's works.
printed at Ienae. 1866 They are in four
volumes, bound IN old vellum. This par
ticular copy survived destruction by fire
ut the hands OF the ecclesiastical authori-
ties of the day, who took exceptions to
the great reformer'S writings. The COW
ers show unmistakable evidences CT hav-
ing been in contact with flames. and the
leaves are like punk, showing the effect
of intense dry heat, and. where the
flames did not touch. For practical use
the books are destroyed. although all the
reading is there. But the demand for re-
Iigieus books is so slight that the volumes
are on shelf containing the cheaper
grade OF books.
Scarce books on American history sell
as fast as we can get our hands on
them" the dealer continued EARLY CO.
Ionial laws prior to I776 are among the
rarest of all American publications. This
is due to the fact that they have probably
been destroyed. At least, only now and
tnen uoes one ooo up Dufihs the civil
war the price of paper was so high that
nearly everything in the way of old
books. magazines. pamphlets. and papers
was sold for paper pulp to be made over.
That was before inventive genius had de-
vised other and cheaper ways of manufac-
turing paper. and better qualities. too.
Many volumes of American books must
have been destroyed, particularly in the
States, where at times during
the war newspapers were printed on the