Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-07

N
~ ably has more secondhand 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 occasion
ally whole clusters of them appear together,
as is the case on lower Fourth Avenue be-
tween Eighth and Fourteenth streets and
Oh Fifty-nineth street running east from
Fifth avenue.
To book lovers, these dingy book marts
are never-failing source Of delight. There
is atmosphere Of romance and mystery
about their dusty shelves that is never en-
countered in the new-book stores where the
standard prices and neat paper jackets of
the volumes proclaim their absence of an
eventful past. There is also certain tran
guilty about them that is extremely crafty
ing to those who like to chosoe their read
ing matter with care and deliberation. You
can move slowly about secondhand book
shop, inspecting book after 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 proprietor rummages indus
triously around somewhere in the rear of
the store, apparently oblivious to your pres
ence. He isn't, though, as you will soon
perceive If you carry Observation-Disclosures too
far and attempt to walk out with volume
without paying for it.
Secondhand books are interesting not only
because of their bargain possibilities, but
because they are mysterious They have
lived eventful, sometimes hectic, lives, and
are usually widely travelled. In the second
hand 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 rub
ber-stamped appearance OF outcasts that
have passed restlessly from one bookseller
fn inn nf
value brings high price because OF its fly
leaf, which bears the autograph OF cele-
brated individual, so that all fly leaves are
generally respected by booksellers and are
not torn out, even though their inscriptions
are seemingly of a trivial nature.
Watch Fly Leaves Carefully
Some of these fly leaves are worth look
ing at just as matter of human interest, I"
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 coat of shoe pol
ish cts a family Bible, and you wonder
how it ever happened to go astray. It's
come all the way from Schenectady and its
got full record of family births and deaths
in the back of it. I'm getting 1t ready for a
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 remember, there was a
quiet studious young man standing by the
table over there looking over the days bar
gains when suddenly he dropped 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 running over
to me, very much excited, and wants to
know where l got it.
"'This book he says, is inscribed with
the name of my brother whom 1 haven't
seen for years. He left home ten 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 clue. Don't you know where
you got this book-whether it came from a
private house hotel Or
{" The man who sold me that book along
with several others lives right aroun1 the
.orner. and ne often comes in here, l inter-
IIUpted and going back to my desk l LOOKED
up the address and gave it to him. And do
you know that book was the means of this
Iyoung man and his brother meeting and MAX
ing up quarrel of long standing? Well
as was saying to a customer the other night
truth is stranger than the fiction even we
secondhand dealers carry"
Fabulous Bargains Are Rare
Some fabulous tales are told concerning
the bargains always to be found in second
hand book shops, but it is probable that such
delightful instances are rare. Most of the
dealers are good judges of literature, as well
as shreWd business men, and they are not