The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-04-20
49,. s.ss <s&a~k
,@ @@AEB2saEF7jT1 zfkZ{||ll

k-s~
ried step, and hour by hour the value
of that set of Shakespeare as leather
and paper sank low and lower still,
until one-third of it's worth was all
that was left to it. In another week
1 might have had it for the asking,
perhaps. But you shoppers, you die
not hurt the thought in the book mol
were the Typography and the mar
gins joggled awry by your contemp-
| tuous hands. I can sink back across
the arms Of my easiest chair and find
as much of Shakespeare's divine es-
sence as Cleon shall find in his hun
| dred-dollar edition.
! Therefore l thank you, careless
shoppers. When the glad season
comes that reckless shoppers turn
their thoughts to books, come out, We
bargainers, and depreciate COM
plete set of "The Taller" for me.
Only spare the integrity of the
leaves If you but let the LEAKAGE
rival that of Vallambrosa l care not
how you smut the covers, for there
are detergents that shall kill all
germs.
When l had secured my Shake.
speare l thought that there might
peradventure be set of Scott for a
song. l saw an Ivanhoe" here and
a "Redgauntlet" there and Lady
of the Lake" hard by, and I asked
the maiden, late of the lace depart
ment, whether they had SCOTS works
complete. She walked up and down
and cast a searching eye over the
mass of books.
"No," said she, finally, there's
nothing left but his poems and the
Waverly novels.
A crippled Shakespeare, with rea
coming powers still intact, might seen
20 be enough of bargain for one
lay, but at another table l found
cores of essayists on dress parade
md waiting to be transferred wher
should suit the will of some ran
dom purchaser. They were masset
in solid phalanx, for they had beer
SO unattractive to the rushing shop
lpers that they had scarce given then
a toss. There was nothing linn
about them. There they stood undis
mayed, ready for friend or foe, pipe
clayed anad soldierly, with "shinins
morning faces" And 10 cents woult
buy their discharged!
What do you think, you thoughtles
persons who spend a hundred dollar
for a week at the Rangeley lakes
what do you think of "a Week OF
the Concord" for 10 cents? Ant
while you can do no more than catc1
some fish that will fade in few day
l can catch and keep forever thought
as quaint and as homely as Thorea
was himself.
O Cleon, you with your plethori
purse have never learned the delight
of working for your moneys worth
You spent 5000 without the fun Q
picking and choosing, while l, for les
than $40, have picked up library @
: good fellows, and enjoyed the scare
withal.
> The book-hunting shoppers did nc
= toss and gore Balzac, for the yer
name seemed to them something sc
entific," and they passed him by a
if they had been so many .Levite'
= Their unjust discrimination agains
:. him was my loss, for l still lack
Balzac. Next year it would pay 20
: to dip into the Frenchman little, y
. scrim-hunting ladies. TIE is seasil
: handled and although in the depar
ment-store edition his covers are nc
limp, you can bring down his pric
:, appreciably if you follow bargain-sal
:. tactics. And when you have b.
paved him and rejected him as wors
than rubbish, will you kindly drop m
postal that l may go to see whethe
y :, he has been let down to my stature
But for one afternoons browsing
credit me with Macaulay's "Literar
:, Essays" Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus
>, Lofts iceland Fisherman" Eme
g sons English Traits" Curtis's "Pru
= and L." Thoreau's walden" and h
:, week on the Concord" and Shak
:. speare on crutches, and there is sti
;, some virtue in the $40. Cleon,
- wouldn't change places with you u
D less, together with your generous ba
Z ance at the bankers, l could kee
= my ability to tire out a dollar.
i Copyright, by James Pott s. Coz
a. M,rrvino in Haste