Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-27
WOMEN BOOK BUYERS
SOME BUY BOOKS AS THEY DO
OTHER HousEFURNIsH1NGs.
The Need Of a Society for Educating
Mothers in Juvenile
Literature.

Written for The Evening Star
late summer and early fall always orlhs
CLEARING sales in books, notably GOOD eol-
t;ons of standard authors, and women are
tho most regular customers at these safes.
If q man is book worm or a book-ioVer
no nermits no one to buy for him, but IL
his library is merely part of a well-appolht-
ed home. the task of buying the books lof
II Is generally allotted to the wife ME
many wives and mothers are really oiS-
eliminating book buyers and come 10 a
store thoroughly prepared for their mis-
sion MANY women, particularly those VINO
have risen suddenly to positions OF wealth.
trust implicitly to the clerk. They see
certain style of binding which appeals to
the eve, or which promises to match the
hangings in their libraries, and then they
ask the clerk whether the books are such
as should be in every well-fitted library.
The woman who buys books not to fur-
niSh a library, but for her own pleasure Is
the most discriminating buyer of all. she
studies each edition of the same WORK as
If she We're selecting a life companion, ana
in truth some women make companions ot
their books. A condition which has brought
many of these women book lovers to the
stores recently is the publication OF the
current books in paper form.
This has never been done before, but the
demand for current literature by the
masses has induced some publishers to put
out new edition in paper binding within
a short time after the cloth-bound edition
appears.
The woman book lover takes as good
of the paper-bound volume as she
would of one in cloth, and makes an ad-
Unstable cover of paSteboard and denim,
velvet or silk. or whatever material strikes
her fancy, and if she is a business woman
she carries her favorite novel to and from
work in this case.
Women buyers sometimes make extra
ordinary demands on the knowledge of the
clerks. There is the woman who has for
gotten the name of the story or its author,
and forces the clerk to stand patiently
while she tells the entire plot. Again she
describes the Illustrations that caught her
eye. and expects the clerk to recognize the
book.
AT a large department store recently
woman said she wished to buy book in
which there was a photograph of woman
getting out of a carriage 1t the only
mark of Identification which she could give,
and the story was communicated from
clerk to clerk until she had every man and
woman in that department trying to recall
book which carried some such ilIustra-
ton.
Need Right Hints.
Another woman who gives the clerks
trouble is the one who has become interest
ed in some serial running in popular mag
aZine She cannot understand why it is
not issued in book form before the serial
is concluded, and she makes the clerks life
a burden with her frequent calls.
Clerks in the better class of book stores
say that a society should be formed for
the education of mothers in Juvenile read
ing. 1t is pathetic to see the money sauan-
dered on books utterly unsuited for child
ish minds. The most gushing love stories
are bought for girls from ten to fifteen
years of age Children are permitted to
come with ignorant nurses and select their
own reading matter, and it is only when
the tactful clerk takes the children in hand
that they purchase really good books.
One of the best-known buyers at a GER
tain book store in New York is a lad Of
fourteen. He has unlimited supply of
pocket money, which he spends literally on
the novels of the day. He goes in once or
twice a week, and nothing in the way of
the problem novel is beyond his apprecIa-
ton. He talks of them with the clerks in
a manner which Is almost uncanny.
In the matter of children's books-that is.
books which children ought to read-there
is very little variety in the text. The old
fairy tales, in new bindings and with new
Illustration plates, will never have a rival.
The large illustrated books made up from
characters familiar to readers of the comic
sections of Sunday papers enjoy great
vogue just now among young people, and
it is no uncommon sight to see nurse and
children quarreling over the selection of
these books.
There are many discriminating mothers
who are extremely careful about reading
matter for their children. Such mothers
when known to the clerks, are permitted
to take home new books to glance over. If
the reading matter is not suited to the
family circle the book is returned. These
mothers are, of course, drawn from the
class of women who do not have the time
to read aloud to their children, and yet do
not like to trust the purchase of reading
matter to nurse or governesS.