The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-05-13

~ ACOAy .lolu me the OLler DAY tlat
y being of mind to own sets of
Balzac and Shakespeare, neither of
which he happened to have in his
oacnelor apartments, he dropped
line to wellknown publisher and the
next day the delivery wagon stopped
at MS door, the books were handed
OUT the man took them in, and that
was the end of it. Oh, no, not quite
the end; when he settles his bills for
the quarter he will pay for his books.
NOW l dare say that Cleon will get
some good from his books because he
is really fond of reading when it
doesn't interfere with his golf. And
ne purchased handsome editions, fresh
from the binders, spick-span and
HAWKES., with never dogs ear or a
crease in the leather. But he had no
1un out Of the buying. He saw an ad-
vertisement, he sent in an order and
almost by magic the books were on
his table. Yet think of the price he
pays for them! Two hundred good
dollars
Yesterday l had some money to
spend. I say had money to spend.
Don't think for moment that money
that buys shoes and sacks and sheet
ings and socks is money spent. If
that were the case, could be said to
spend money every day of my life,
for my children will walk on their
feet and they demand protection from
the elements no matter how high
may be the price of CLOTH No, the
money l had yesterday was a gift to
be actually spent as foolishly as
might devise.
Like Cleon, too wanted books, for
your circulating library is only a tenn
porary assuager of literary hunger
and one book owned is worth three
taken out" But $40 will not carry
one as far as will two hundred unless
care Is taken and discrimination is
used. So went, not to a store where
they deal in books fresh from the
mint, but to shop devoted primarily
to the cause of dry goods, where they
were having hurt book" sale and
If you will believe me the very first
thing that assailed my eye was a set
of Shakespeare that looked hurt be-
yond any book physicians aid. Limp
leather bindings that abused their
prerogative; the box in which they
were budding together slit and
cracked and broken. How often hands
had seized those coverings They
looked as if they had been the wade
mecum" of book lover for a score
of years. And my Shakespeare at
home is all crowded into one volume,
so that The Tempest" RACES about
the ears of "The Two Gentlemen of
Verona" and "Hamlet," with scant
regard for royal rights. treads on the
toes of poor king Lear"
I opened one of the volumes and
found to my surprise that the pages
were immaculate. Not a word had
been read! There were Shakespeare's
wit and poetry and splendor and mel
ody and humanity untouched by any
save cursory eye. asked the
maiden, who temporarily divorced
from the ribbon and lace counter, was
giving her attention to the world of
letters, what the set was worth.
Five dollars" was the answer
that fell on my hungry ears. And
had seen the same set advertised for
fifteen! Twelve green-backed vol
umes there were, and they might be
mine for five greenbacks. Never
leaped sword from scabbard sooner
than leaped my money from it's
fearing that some other book lover
would grab the box of books away
from me and claim them / exam
ined them carefully as a mother does
her boy when he comes crying into
the house after a fall and l found
that they looked more hurt than they
were. They were really more fright
ened than hurt. Incessant paving by
unfriendly hands is an awful ordeal
to which to subject a book full of
kindly instincts, as all of Shake
speare's books always are. But they
had fallen on friendly hands at last
and hereafter they shall be handled
with the respect due their contents
And right here let me thank the
kind people that treated Shakespeare
so cavalierly. This may sound in
consistent; but are not my thanks
due those who caused the bard to de-
preciate two-thirds in money value?
I can see them, typical shoppers,
out for bargains in scrim and Ham
burg edgings, making a hurried visit
to the book counter in hope of get
ting complete and unabridged set of
Mary J. Holiness works. And they
stumbled on Shakespeare. Of course
they had heard of him before. Cheap
shoppers are not so ignorant as you
imagine, lofty reader. They had often
heard of him before, but they sup
posed that writing plays for Henry
Irving to produce kept him too busy
to do anything in the book line. Curl
Gus to see what sort of books he had
written, they tumbled them out of
the box and tested the limpness of
the covers until these verdant leath-