The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1907-02-08
AMERICANS ARE
BOOK LOVERS
PURCHASE MORE THAN People
OF ANY OTHER NATION
CHILDREN LARGEST
BUYERS.

auto p'UiNs, ana reaulnB more o
than the Inhabitants OF any other M.
ton. says Frederick ]. Hasiin in the
Baltimore American. All Americans
are book lovers. from the messenger
boy. lost IN open-eyed wonder at tbs
startling adventures Of "Deadwood
Dick" to the rich lady who buys her
books with bindings to match the
color Of her Curtains. There are now
over 10000 Arms In this country en-.
gagged IN the business Of making or
selling books. children are the great.
est p%urchasers. one publishing firm
alone printing more than 100000
spelling books each year. The mana.
ger Of large departments store,
which has branches In a number OF
our big cities. told me that during the
holidays each one OF these stores dis.
poses Of 1000 sets of shakespeare's
works.
Doubtless the most popular and
widely known series of pictures in
The Libiary OF Congress. at washing
tos, Is that by John w. Alexander,
representing the evolution Of the
book. The FIRST picture Is called "The
cairn." and shows men Of a pre.his.
tcric age setting a pile of stones in a
crsde fashion so that others might
know they had gone. The second Is
a ~partiarchal s%tory.teller, in long white
sobes and hood, leaning on his star
and recounting the glories OF some ma.
ton for the benefit of his hearers, who
are seated on the ground near him.
This Is called "oral Tradition" The
next shows an Egyptian youth chiseI.
ing ont his message in hierogiyphics
on q temple wall. This is followed
by q Red man painting tribal history
ON q dressed deersbdn. Then comes
a group Of monks writing and illum.
mating parchment manuscripts in the
dim quiet of an old monastery. The
last shows the worlds greatest inven-
tion, the printing press, with Guten.
berg standing near giving instructions
to his men. It Is the story of the
whole worlds thirst for knowledge
and the effort to preserve it by perma-
nent record of some Kind.
Monks as sookmakers.
The evolution from the Calrn OF the
stone age to the modern edition de
luxe. has touched almost every nation
in the progress Of its growth. The
old public Libraries of Babylon had
books that were so many baked bricks.
covered with cunelform characters,
and those OF Rome were rolls OF papy.
rus. copied by the educated slaves OF
the rich. Time hung heavily on the
hsrds Of The me1iaevat norris and
!: sr the ns,iti tasks of writing w"r.
Zone they began Illuminating and T.
Illustrating the pages OF their boots,
until odofeldi said In derlsion that
..they were no longer writer's, but
painters 1t was the monks who frst
started the book trade by bartering
among themselves. Then street stands
were erected in various cities, where
private persons could expose for sale
any books they had. The men in
charge Of these stands were called
stationarii. tlicause they were sta.
toned in Al stall.
Eirs. IN This cou,trvs
toaelon y. A'eeute s,at.eu
= in's eouhtry sahays oorth'
e. ois we nrse treasurer ol the James
.own colony wrote the hrst doom IN
atnesaca ~ was . translation OF
osids iMetamoFphos's, n was sent
70 hnstaha pupHeat.oh' ne nrs'
poes prahtea N amer'ch was II
Day sam hooh, ~hien was prlht-
ed ps ssephen AYE at samoriuse'
Mass, u leeo. me hfst DOCK poth
written and printed In America was
Mrs. Anne sradstreets Poems" rom
me snampr'ase press OF io4o. IN 100"