Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-04-22

49, ~ 1870 - AO0A SAS 0A0S
of that set of Shakespeare as leather
n paper sank low and lower still,
until one-third of its worth was all
that was left to it. In another week
| might AVE had it for the asking,
perhaps. But you shoppers, you did
not hurt the thought in the book mol
were the typography and the mar.
gins joggled awry by your contemp-
tuous hands. l can sink back across
the arms of my easiest chair and find
as much of S~hakespeare's divine es-
enc as Cleon shall find in his hun
dred-dollar edition.
Therefore l thank you, careless
shoppers. When the glad season
m that reckless shoppers turn
their thoughts to books, come out, ye
bargainers, and depreciate a 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 1 la secured my Shake
speare l thought that there might
~peradventure be a set of Scott for a
song. l saw an "Ivanhoe" here and
a "Redgauntlet" there and a Lady
of the Lake" hard by, and l asked
the maiden, late of the lace depart
ment, whether they had SCOTS works
complete. She walked up and down
n cas- 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-
sOning powers still intact, might seem
to be enough of a bargain for one
day, but at another table l found
scores of essayists on dress parade
n waiting to be transferred when
it should suit the will of some ran
dom purchaser. They were massed
in a solid phalanx, for they had been
so unattractive to the rushing shop
! pers that they had scarce given them
a toss. There was nothing limp
about them. There they stood undis-
mayed, ready for friend or foe, pipe
clayed anad soldierly, with shining
morning faces" And 10 cents would
buy their discharge!
What do you think, you thoughtless
persons who spend a hundred dollars
for a week at the Rangeley lakes
what do yOu think of ga Week on
the Concord" for 10 cents? And
while o can do no more than catch
some fish that will fade in a few days
l can catch and keep forever thoughts
as quaint and as homely as Thoreau
was himself.
o Cleon, you with your plethorio
purse have never learned the delights
of working for your moneys worth.
You spent 5000 without the fun Of
picking and choosing, while I, for less
than $40, have picked up a library Of
good fellows, and enjoyed the search
withal.
The boOk-hunting shoppers did not
toss and gore Balzac, for the very
name seemed to them something sci
entific," and they passed him by as
if they a been so many Levites.
Their unjust discrimination against
him was my loss, for l still lack a
Balzac. Next year it would pay you
to dip into the Frerchman a little, We
scrim-hunting ladies'. TIE is seasily
lAu1 oLu oAIA1Ou6h III IN OCpoAN
ment-stOre edition his cover are not
limp, you can bring down his price
~appreciably if you follow bargain-sale
tactics. And when you have be-
paved him and rejected him as worse
than rubbish, will you kindly drop me
a postal that l may go to see whether
he has been let down to my stature ?
But for one afternoons browsing,
credit me with Macaulay's Literary
Essays" Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus."
Lofts Iceland Fisherman" Emer-
sons English Traits" Curtis's "Prue
and l." Thoreau's walden and his
Week on the Concord" and Shake
speare on crutches, and there is still
some virtue in the $40. Cleon,
wouldn't change places with you I'M
less, together with your generous bal
ance at the bankers, l could keep
my ability to tire out a dollar.
Copyright, by James Pott & Coz