The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-15
M E N, w ON E N
 A ID T H IN G 5

ing that no one knows it but myself, it's up to me to tell it. and so here
 goes. I'll admit it hurts my pride bit
 but I'll not keep mum on that account: On receiving an invitation to speak before the Anniston Rotary club con-
 pie of weeks ago, on the best way in
 which to bring the city and the country
 people into more sympathetic relations,
 l at once felt that I ought at least to get line on some of the great farm CTS organizations.
 Naturally. the first to come in my
 mind were the Changers. Now, in my library there are leads for almost every
 subject, and l boast that l have the
 nose of a good bird dog when it comes
 to locating the things 1 want hid away
 in the volumes resting on the shelves in
 my study. l have poor verbal mem
 ory, but tenacious one when it comes
 to remembering where have seen cer- tain articles.
 l recalled that I had in one of my . book cases a book of essays which l
 had never read, but which contained a chapter on Grangerism and Granger ites so l made a bee line for From the Books" by Laurence Hutton. feeling sure that out Of it could find suffi- cient data to at least have an idea of the movement at my fingers end. I'll admit l am giving to romancing, but l | like to have few facts as I find they come in handy when any one tries to question my statements.
 As soon as glanced over the opening paragraph l felt that I was on a cold trail, for it began: That certain class of bibliomaniacs and bibliolaters should be denounced as biblioclasts and biblio- bibliocists, biliophilists, photographers, bibliopholists, bibliologists, biblioope- gists, bibliotaphists. biblothecarys and bibliognostists would seem, to the lay mind, to imply very serious condition
 of affairs. Yet this is, and has been.
 the position of the Grangerites since the founder of the sect published his great work. nearly 15o years ago."
 The first thing which popped into my
 mind was that I was reading after a bibulous, bookish gentleman endeavor-. ing to have sport at the hands of the farmers, but I soon found out that he didn't have any agricultural folk in his
 mind, but was writing about literary dr,,f find what I was after, but I never put down the volume until I had got good line on Grangerism and the Grangerites, and for fear that you do not know any more about the two than I did until I read about them awhile back on the train, for had put the book of essays In my pocket to kill the time between Birmingham and Anniston, I will tell you briefly about the movement.
 The strange thing about the whole matter being that I had practiced Grangerism and was entitled to be called a Grangerite without knowing that any such cult ever existed. I'll first say that the founder, James iGTdnRer (1llo-lffoJ udu SldEIcQ gerism before the Declaration of Inde- pendence had been signed. He was Vicar of Shiplock, in Oxfordshire and author of "A Biographical History of
 England from Elizabeth to the Revolu- ton, consisting of Characters Dis persed in Different Glasses. and Adapt ed to Methodical Catalogue of British Heads" It was intended as an essay toward reducing English biography to system, and help to the Knowledge of portraits"
 It was the forerunner of what is in- dispensable to every fast newspaper worker in the twentieth century, 9 place where those in the limelight can be made to tell the place of their birth and other things about their lives on short notice for paragraph, feature ar 1 ticle or editorial. It was kind of eighteenth century Who's Who" with l out the pictures. That it filled long | felt need even in thos edays is evil l denced by the fact that Mark Noble 17S4-1S27) added in 1906, "A Continua- | tion of Grangers History, from the Revolution to the End of the Reign of
 George r.
 !, It is also of historic interest as being {, the first book extended by the intro duction of extra prints illustrative of | it's text and so Hutton says 'Mr. Granger was the original extra illus | trator the father of the noble band of Grangerites; but unlike his descendants, l he wrote his book to illustrate his por- | traits; he did not collect his portraits i, to illustrate his book. The great Dr. l Samuel Johnson. and he was great. in spite of some animadversions upon him recently in the Kansas City Star. said,
 'Granger"s Biographical History is full of curious anecdotes. but might have been better done. The dog is a
 whig. I do not much like to see a whig in any dress, but I hate to see 1 just enough bite in this to make it truly { J Johnsonian.
 1 Grangerism has been roundly de- nounced. It is thus defined by one of i it's most persistent critics in "The Book
 Hunter" illustrating a volume con-
 sists in inserting in, or binding up with | 1t, portraits. landscapes, and other works of art bearing a reference to It's | contents. He looked upon Granger with frowning eye. John Hill Burton Hooked upon the tribe as the Ishmael- lites of collectors; his hand against every l man who loves books, and every book | lovers hand is against his. Here was | his reason for his strtctures. The 1 Grangerite destroys unknown quanti- I ties of books for the sake of enriching a single volume of his own with tho