The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-14

he presidential nomination in 1904.
for moderate-priced volumes. Not long ago
l had call to the northern part Of the
city. 1t was quite a long way from the
center of town, and when 1 arrived the
lady of the house showed me upstairs,
where, from the way she spoke, was to
place value on a very fine library but
after getting in the room much to my dis
appointment she pointed to a pile of books
that were nothing more than rubbish. The
pile was composed of paper-backed novels
old magazines without covers and some of
the books were half gone. The truth was.
the whole lot was only fit for the ragman.
1 didn't like to tell her that they were of
use to me, and thus bring her little bust
ness venture to such sudden close, but as
there was nothing else to do, 1 told her.
She turned to me then, and in tone which
displayed more temper than good humor
said she didn't see how 1 could expect peo-
pie to sell good books. 1 guess she thought
I was only buying them for the old paper
1 was getting. She, however. was not diff
ferent from a great many 1 come across,
and it would surprise any one to know the
little knowledge some people display in re-
gard to literature. These people are not
alone among what is known as the ignor-
ant class but many of them are people who
are supposed to be well educated.
ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE.
1.-The classes of people from whom 1 buy
books are in all kinds of circumstances;
some of them are rich, others poor; some
selling because they are leaving their
houses and going into flats where they
will not have as much room as formerly.
In the last few years this class of people
has increased wonderfully. Then people
who are going to leave the city and do
not desire to take their books with them
form another source from which our stock
comes. 1t is, however, seldom that we find
people selling from poverty, but once in
awhile we come across cases of this kind.
In the last few years since the country has
been enjoying such prosperous times to
have people come to us to sell their Ii
braries on account of poverty is quite a
novelty.
when 1 have a call to look at a library 1
always endeavor to find out whether the
people have ever before sold any books. If
they have they are generally very easy
to deal with, but if they have not then they
will invariably expect too much. The aver
age person is under the impression that
| if book has a pretty binding on it 1t is
| valuable. He does not consider whether it
| is a standard work of fiction, whether it is
a religious book or a history; as long a 1t
| looks all right he at once thinks that 1t
| ought to bring high price. 1t is not an
| easy matter to determine the value of
| library, and we are compelled to watch
very closely what is in demand and what
| the catalogues of other dealers call for.
| You understand that all concerns of this
| kind issue catalogues telling what they
have in stock just as any other book store
| or publishing house does. and by close ap-
| plication to the price lists of other estab-
lishments we determine what should be
paid for books and for what they should
| be sold. Many of the places that buy Sec
| ond- hand books in the East are publishing
| concerns.
THE LARGEST DEALER
The largest secondhand dealer in the
world, and the one who is the best known
| by book collectors, is Bernard Quaritch. of
London. Wealthy people from everywhere
visit his shop, where the rarest books in
| existence can be found. Every book-lover
| who visits London goes to Quaritchs, and
| IL he can do nothing else will look over his
stock, for he receives the highest prices of
any of the secondhand dealers. The reason
that he can demand such prices is that col
lectors from everywhere haunt his shelves
| in search of books dealing with whatever
particular subject they are interested in.
| This man is looked upon by other dealers
as an authority, and his catalogue is the
standard from which we all work.
Everyone generally is under the i'm
preston that fiction is in the greatest de-
mand. but this is not true, with the ex-
ception OF Dickens. Scott and Kipling
There are. in fact. very few calls for books
of this kind. The general run of buyers
that call me want histories and biog-
raphies. There is. however. always a good
demand for the two authors first mentioned
1t seems strange. but the demand never
varies for full sets of their works. and it
| appears that people never become tired
the people in this city is to
| have miscellaneous libraries. and in
buying they do not devote themselves to
the entire works of any one author. II they
can get one or two OF the writer's best and
most widely known books they are salts
fed I also notice this in buying books:
the majority of the libraries that / am
called on TO purchase arc not devoted to
any particular line of books and have
everything from a volume OF "Bensons
Commentaries 20 the Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes in them. OF course pro-
fessional libraries are devoted TO one class
OF books. but these the secondhand man
seldom gets chance TO buy. If he does
happen to get hold of a collection of this