The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-03

New York CITY. Marcn NEW
York probably has more second
Land bookshops than any other city
in the world. Dozens of single
shops, with their outside tables
piled high with books, may be
found On every main thoroughfare,
while occasionally whole clusters
of them appear together. as is the
case on lower Fourth avenue be-
tween Eighth and Fourteenth
streets, and on Fifty-ninth street
running east from Fifth avenue.
To book lovers, these dingy book
marts are a never-failing source of
delight. There is an atmosphere of
romance and mystery about their
dusty shelves that is never en-
ccuntered in the new-book stores
where the standard prices and neat
paper jackets of the volumes pro-
claim their absence of an event.
full past. There is also certain
tranquility about them that is ex-
tremely gratifying to those who
like to choose their reading matter
with care and deIiberation. You
can move slowly about a second
hand bookshelf, inspecting book aft
er book, without interruption from
brisk, ambitious statesmen. You can
read whole chapters, even whole
books (many people do) in utter
peace and quiet while the propri-
etor rummages industriously some
where in the rear of the store, ap-
parently oblivious to your pres
ence. He isn't, though, as you will
soon perceive if you carry absent
mindedness too far and attempt to
walk out with volume without
paying for it.
Secondhand books are interest
ing not only because of their bar
gain possibilities, but because they
are mysterious. They have lived
eyentful, sometimes hectic, lives,
and are usually widely travelled.
In the secondhand book stores OF
New York may be found derelict
volumes from all cities and coun-
tries. Some of them have fallen
from high estate, as is evident from
the names and inscriptions on the
fly leaves, while others have the
tawdry. battered and widely rubber
stamped appearance of outcasts
that have passed restlessly from
one bookseller to another. Some
times book of very little value
brings a high price because of its
fly leaf which bears the autograph
of a celebrated individual, so that
all fly leaves are generally re-
spected by booksellers and are not
torn out, even though their in
scriptions are seemingly OF a triV-
ial nature
Watch Fly Leaves Carefully.
Some of these fly leaves are
worth looking at just as matter
of human interest" declared one
secondhand book dealer the other
day. take this classy old Bible
now" he suggested, exhibiting the
large, fine, black leather-bound
volume to which he was carefully
administering a coat of shoe-pol-
ish. IT'S family Bible, and you
wonder how it ever happened to so
astray. It's come all the way from
Schenectady and it's got full rec
ord of family births and deaths
in the back of it. I'm getting it
ready for customer who says she
believes she knows some of the
people recorded in it. Funny, amt
it?
"Such condolences often happen.
Once. several years ago, 1 remem-
Der, there was a quiet, studious
young man standing by the table
over there looking over the days
bargains when suddenly he drop
ped the book he was holding and
stood staring at it where it lay on
the floor as if he was paralyZed
Then he picks it up and comes run
ming over to me, very much excit-
ed, and wants to know where I got
it.
This book he says, SIS inscribed
with the name of my brother whom
| haven't seen for years. He left
home 10 years ago, and we haven't
heard from him since. My father
would give anything to know that
he was here in New York, alive and
well, and here at last is a clue.
Don't you know where you got this
book-whether it came from a pri-
yate house or hotel or -
The man who sold me that
book along with several others
lives right around the corner, and
he often comes in here l interrupt
ed, and going back to my desk I
locked up the address and gave it
to him. And do you know that book
was the means of this young man
and his brother meeting and making
up a quarrel of long standing? Well
as | was saying to a customer
the other night-truth is stranger