Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-04-24
FAMOUS BO0KSHOPS IN
PARIS AND LONDON


In the dusty, musty world of the
second-han bookshop there are two
well-known and famous landmarks
One is Charing Cross Road in London
and the other the Quays of Paris. The
b0okships, as we'll as the "boxstandsH
ciamped to the parapets of the Seine
Embankment, are a striking feature of
Paris, and are always done" by the
thoroughbred tourist In London
however, the second hand bookshops
have not the attractive setting of their
Gallo cCunterparts. or OF their former
home in the Strand. No so very long
ago, in the days of the notorious Holy
well Street, the bookshops of that din
gy, narrow thoroughfare, which latter
ly blossomed into the more pretentious
Booksellers Row." were a feature of
: the Strand which neither native nor
visitor could overlook
With it's gabIed roofs and it's over
hanging stories, HolyweH Street was
ancient, picturesque q genuine bit of
tumble-doWn London. It had apparent
ly long outlived it's day. but it was as
famous among bibliophiles for its rare
finds as it was among the poor
bo0ixTurIrIa Uasuui 1oungsrs FOR its
penny, twopenny and fourpenny grad
TALLY came into disrepute, and civic
improvements saw it ruthlessly swept
away, with scarcely sigh or regret
except from those memorable sticlllers
for the preservation, willy -nilly, of an
cient landmarks
To the disinterested onlooker the out
SIDE bargain boxes are anything but
inviting. Yet to the true habitue OF
tho second hand bookshop loving books
but not possessing 81 superabundance
of worldly riches. they are not only
inviting, but full of promise. He
turns over the ragged pamphlets and
the dog cared volumes with eager
hands, and speculative hope shines in
his eyes. His glance scans a para
graph here or a verse there. He ex-
amines flyleaves and title pages and
eagerly deciphers any Inscription or
marginal scribblings which may have
found their way beneath the cover.
Sometimes he Wanders away at last
reluctant and empty handed, with per-
Eaps a longing backward glance at
some shabby, abandoned treasure For
rare books are still. by some mystic
roius oversight Of their custodian, to
be picked up on these well-combed lit
erary shores.
Was it not in one of these humble
boxes that Dante Gabrielle Rosetti idly
turning over some stray volumes, came
upon q poem by an unknown author
purporting to be a translation from
the Persian? Struck by the rich, ORR
entail flavor of the verses and by the
beauty of the style, he read the poem
to the end and, having bought the
waif, read it again and again with in
creasjng enthusiasm, and at last intro
duced it to the famous men around
him. The result was that Edward hit2-
gerad and his "Ruba'vat of Omar
Khayyam" became famous.
There is another striking tale of the
bargain box, this time in connection
with a literary work that had already
achieved fame. 1t was Edward Everett
Hales well-kpown tale, "A Man With
out a Country" The classic was origi-
nally published anonymously in an
American magazine, copy of which
many years later, foun6 its way mt
the nickel box" of an American sec
ond hand shop, Here it was unearthed
from the dust by shabby recluse. who
having never heard of the tale, so far
succumbed to its strength and pathos
that he sent a written copy of it to a
magazine editor above his own name
Instead of the hoped-for check from
he monthly, however, he received an
unexpected threat Of a lawsuit for an
attempt to purloin the rights of a mas
terpiece which the years had made be-
loved throughout the world One may
imagine that he gave the bargain box
of the second hand shop wide berth
for some time to come Christian
Science Monitor.