The Neshoba Democrat., 1910-04-21

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 its worth was all
that was left to it. In another week
| 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 Josgled awry by your contemp-
tuous hands. ! 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 | thank you, careless
shoppers. When the glad season
comes that reckless shoppers turn
their thoughts to books, come out, We
DarGalnerS. and depreciate COM
plete set of The Tatler" for me.
Only spare the integrity OF the
leaves. If you but let the leafage
rival that of Nallambrosa | care not
how you smut the covers, for there
are detergents that shall kill all
germs.
When | had secured my Shake.
speare | thought that there might
peradVenture be set of Scott for a
song. | saw an "Ivanhoe" here and
a "RedSauntlet" there and a Lady
OF the Lake" hard by, and | asked
the maiden, late of the lace depart
ment whether they had Scott's 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
| Warerly novels.
y crippled Shakespeare, with rea.
sonng powers still intact, might seem
to be enough of a bargain for one
day, but at another table | found
scores OF essayists on dress parade
ana waiting to be transferred when
i 1t should suit the will of some ran.
! dom purchaser. They were massed
IN solid phalanX, for they had been
so unattractive to the rushing shop
! pers that they had scarce given them
| a toss. There was nothing linn
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 week at the Rangeley lakes
what do you think of "A Week on
the Concord" for 10 cents? And
while you can do no more than catch
some fish that will fade in few days
| can catch and keep forever thoughts
as quaint and as homely as Thoreau
was himself
. Cleon, you with your pethorc
| purse have never learned the delights
OF working for your moneys worth
You spent 5000 without the fun oil
picking and choosing, while l., for less
than $40, have picked up library OF
good fellows. and enjoyed the search
withal
The bookhunting shoppers did no,
toss and gore Balzac. for the very
name seemed to them something sci
entific," and they passed him by as
If they had been so many Levites
Their unjust discrimination against
him was my loss, for | still lack q
Balzac. Next year it would pay you
TO dip into the Frerchman a little. We
scrim-hunting ladies'. TIE is seasily
handled and although in the depart
ment-stOre edition his covers are not
limp, you can bring down his price
appreciably if you follow bargain-sale le
tactics. And when you have be
paved him and rejected him as worse
than rubbish, will you kindly drop me
a postal that | 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 un
less, together with your generous bal
ance at the bankers, | could keeI
my ability to tire out dollar
copyright, by James Pott Il CoD