Evening star., 1901-11-18
MANY BIBLES SOLD GOSSIP FROM GOTHAM
Annual Trade in Washington Exceeds
$1,000 Copies.
NUMEROUS EDITIONS NOW ISSUED
Revised Version Set Up Aboard a
Steamer.
PRINTED ON RICE PAPER

If you go into twelve Washington book
stores and ask what book sells in the
greatest number sells most regularly and
is most constantly in demand the answer
will be everywhere the same-the Bible
1t is carried on the book shelves of every
store in a comparatively obscure place
The book itself is never advertised pub
fishers of particular editions now and then
announce the peculiar features they have
exploited, but the Bible is never advertised.
Yet more than one bookseller in Wash
ington orders thousands of copies every
year, and the total sale here is estimated
at over 5000.
when one of our customers looks over
our tables and sees there forty or fifty
copies Of some book at that time very
much in vogue, that work assumes in his
eyes an enormous Importance" said local
dealer yesterday. But the chances are
that we have sold more Bibles in that
month than all the copies of the popular
work we shall handle in the course of a
year. Even among the so-called popular
books it is not the sensations that sell best.
We order and use more copies of book
like Prue and l., for example, in the
course of a year than of any work hailed
as the great American novel; or given
whole-page advertisements in the maga-
zines. But even those books with regular
safes, SOOu sellers, We call lnem, amount
to very little as a trade product in COM
parison with the modern Bible.
Demand Has Grown.
II think the demand for the Bible has
| increased noticeably in the past ten years.
1t has surely done so in the past five years,
and that increased demand is manifest to
the bookseller by very many signs. In the
first place it is very much more in evil
dence in the catalogues of the publishing
houses. Bible-publishing is almost busi-
ness separate from ordinary book making
But many printers who issue other books
of dubious market value are glad enough to
have the plates of work that sells every
month of every year. l dare say the title
pages of the Bibles sale today include
90 per cent more publishing houses than
they did five years ago and 100 per cent
more than they did ten years ago.
Another sign is that the shelf space
given to Bibles has probably doubled in
Washington in the past ten years. In our
store''-and the dealer waved his hand to-
ward section of about ten shelves at
least fourteen feet long-"we have had to
dedicate an entire alcove to Bibles. An
other dealer near here has done the same
thing. l went into store in New York
where they put the Bible department near
dumb waiter to save time in refilling the
shelves, and If did not unpack our
books on the same floor we should have
been put to the same device
Many Editions Now Sold.
Then, you will find in every large book
store a clerk who understands Bible pub
fishing. Why, there is as much to learn
about the various kinds of Bibles sold as
about pottery or furniture. We can't ex-
pect the clerk who works at an ordinary
salary to have gone into the subject so
deeply. So we have all been put to the ne
cessity Of hiring one clerk who could sup
ply clergymen and students with exactly
the edition and print of the Bible they had
come to buy.
THAT suggests another sign of increase
in trade. I think the editions of the Bible
which involve actual differences Of text and
form have almost doubled In number re-
Gently. We have one Bible which prints
only one column to the page. We have
Bible which still retain their character as
poetry-the Lamentations of jeremiah the
Song of Songs, the Psalms and the Book
of Proverbs. among others-in the form of
poetry. People are buying Testaments
these days as never before. Several years
ago some man conceived the idea of print
ing the words of Christ in a particular ink
and that Bible is now generally sold Prints
which indicate thesnew version of the text
wherever 1t differs frcm the old are COM
mon. When the Bible was issued in its new
form several years ago a group of Amer
lean commentators preferred slightly differ
ent readings In particular places. They
called the book of Matthew for instance
'The Gospel According to Matthew and
not The Gospel According to Saint Mat
thew Now We have three or four editions
which give the English text in the BODY of
the book and the American preferences on
extra leaves in the back, and others which
give the American text in the front and the
English preferences in the appendix One
firm issues a Bible with thumb index
Another has a Bible particularly in demand
among Sunday school teachers because of
the lesson notes added to the text. There
is one edition with world of marginal ref
erenceS.
A Wide Range In Price,
I'm form there are the widest possible diff
ferences. Net so very long ago all Bibles
were alike in their appearance. Now you
can buy one that looks like reference
book, slip it into your pocket, and read it
in public without exciting the least COM
ment. Among the expensive grades now
sold are editions of an extra large print,
with superb initials We sell for use In
churches print of the Bible on good paper
with sufficient margins of large type and
substantial binding. which costs the buyer
25 cents. These are called pew Bibles
For dollar a man can buy as good a
Bible, except for the binding alone as he
could have bought for $25 when 1 was a
boy. l suppose every book store in town
sells this edition-a print in large type. on
good paper, bound in real leather with
marginal notes and a generous, practical
appendix-for IS cents. We order 1000 O
year. From 25 cents copy Bibles range
in price up to $25, or more. But most
people buy Bible of a high grade, one
that costs at least So. The number sold
of the more expensive grade-$7 to SS each
is surprisingly large. OF late all Bibles
have been printed on thin paper. a regular
trade Bible paper 1t makes a book only
about two-thirds as thick as the Bible of
older days. This movement has led to the
production of Bible printed on extraordi-
narily thin paper 1t is not more than
half as bulky as even the other editions
made up Of thin paper and measures only
-five-eighths of an inch from cover to cover
1t is about as conspicuous as a woman's
pocketbook, though little larger. So far
its patrons have been nearly all women.
but when the men who use Bibles discover
that one can be had which is only half as
cumbersome as the older style. anticipate
1t will sell splendidly everywhere
Set Up Aboard Ship.
Interest in the Bible is. l believe, much
more widespread than is generally thought.
In that connection l recall the remarkable
scenes when the New Testament of the re-
vised edition was issued in London in Nav.
1882. The bookbinders had pretty well do.