Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-19
DONE BY SPECIALISTS,
Subscription Books OF Which No One
Would Ever Guess the Authors.

From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
MY introduction to the subscription book
business" said professional canvasser
who enjoys a wide reputation as an expert.
was through job l secured years ago as
q clerk in the office of a man who had made
a small fortune out of q peculiar line of
publications. They were In the nature OF
manuals. One, for example, contained a
| Thousand Trade Secrets each guaranteed
to make the possessor rich another was a
Social Guide and Treatise on Etiquette;
another was Family Doctor Book and
still another was q volume entitled Every
Man His Own Lawyer The way these
works were compiled was absurdly simple.
The old man. as we called the proprietor
of the concern, would get together lot of
standard authorities some special topic
and then hire a hack writer to boil them
down. The Thousand Secrets / remem-
Der, were dug out of three or four trade en-
cyclopaedias and q few old recipe books. Ii
contained much valuable Information as
how TO make soap, how to clean wall paper
and how to detect antique eggs. 1t had an
enormous sale: In fact. l think it's being
sold to this day.
But what amused and interested me par
ticularly in the business was the curious
incongruity between the subjects treated
and the men who were hired to do the
work. When l first went into the office
was greatly annoyed by frequent visits OF
a frowsy, middle-aged man, who was al
ways half drunk, and who used to put his
feet on the tables and squirt tobacco juice
over the floor while he was waiting to see
the boss. At last l made a formal COM
plant. oh, WELL said the old man, you'll
have to put up with him for while. That's
-, and l want him to tackle our new
encyclopaedia of etiquette as soon as he
gets sober enough to write.
Hes Jim dandy when 1t comes to
singing polite English Strange to say,
the old ruffian was really capable man
for the job He had remarkable COM
a tawdry, ornate style exactly suited for
such a publication as we proposed getting
out.
THE chap who compiled Every Man His
Own Lawyer was known around the office
as Necessity Jones. nickname based on
the old joke that necessity knows no law
1t was appropriate in more ways than one,
however, for he was the most improvident
wretch I ever knew in my life, and was al
ways in desperate straits for money. He
after he finished the book his salary was
attached for an unpaid lawyers fee. Under
the circumstances that struck me as being
decidedly rich. A book called How to Sue
ceed. which was really an Imitation Of the
well-known work by Samuel Smiles, was
prepared by an old hack writer, who laugh
ingly admitted that he had started nineteen
papers in his life and that they had all
gone to the wall. Odd as it may seem, he
turned out volume Of genuine value, full
OF sagacious precepts and excellent practi-
cal counsel. The trouble was that he
couldn't follow his own advice.
THE average reader has no idea how ex-
tensively these subscription manuals are
sold,' added the canvasser. 'They are ped
died mainly through the country districts
Of the most profitable branches Of the pub
fishing business"