Evening star., 1925-01-14

As the horse scents the battle afar
so the booklover reads of the great
sale of odds and ends of books to be
staged bright and early the next
morning at a big department store.
All the fascination of bargain hunt
ing combined in his Imagination with
his fondness for books, so that the
resulting mixture was curious COM
plex of physical and mental STRINGS
Men. as well as women, are given
to the lure of bargains, despite wha,
the comic stories say. Else why the
crowd of men gathered at the auto
mobile auctions on Pennsylvania ave.
nue.? Or why those solemn groups OF
gentlemen at the auction sale this
day?"
No bargain hunter displays more
avidity than the man searching for q
! boqk bargain. Not only is he spurred
on by his undying faith that some
| time he Is going to pick up a rare old
first edition of some sort. Also, he
feels sure that he will, at the least
get valuable work for a ridicu-
lously cheap price.
He remembers a previous sale oi
hurt books" when he picked up the
| memorial edition of Senecas Morals
the 81 edition put out by Harper or
! the Tooth anniversary of that firm
for As cents,
Reluctantly, then, he left five other
copies of that beautifully printed
| work go begging on the table-an6
| has spent the time ever since in kick
ing himself for being such fool. He
should have bought all of them and
given them to friends who would
have appreciated them.
Seneca, grand old Roman. gone abeg-
o p CT IN a
| and none so poor to do him rever-
ence,
There was all the piety and wit o1
a great man, splendid!y printed or
the finest paper, bound in board
| covers, large copy, huddled with g
heap of good-for-nothing books. The
ladies rushed by on the search fol
dress goods, the ladies rushed by or
the hunt for silk floss, the ladies
surged by on the hunt for remnants
Seneca's mind, the best part of him
| after all, attracted nary a lady. He
was more deserted than on the fate
full day, centuries ago, when the
| prize booze-hister of the empire, one
Nero. ordered the philosopher tc
make away with himself.
Go give yourself dose of poison
| Seneca" Nero calmly told his ole
| friend, the teacher of his youth
Quietly Seneca retired to his coun.
| try estate, quietly drank the neces.
sary amount of hemlock, or what
ever the fashionable poison was a
that time in Rome. Why did he do II
Because that was the way they die
| things in those days. when in Rome
do as the Romans do" and Seneca
was good Roman, one of the best
| Besides, when the emperor told yol
| to move, you moved.
Times have changed since then
thank God.
Suppose the thing had to be dons
over again today. Suppose Nero woulc
send a little letter to Seneca, saying
Go give yourself a dose of poison
Seneca would calmly light a cigar.
cite, turn to the royal messenger boy
! and state: Tell Nero to go chas,
himself"
Nero then would resort TO the law
He would ask for an injunction against
Seneca, to prevent him from refusine
to do the royal bidding.
Seneca, in his turn, would seek lega
advice.
Let me see," he would ruminate
which lawyer shall l retain for my
defense? All, there is old TinctuS
Maximus, sly old boy! Yes, Tinctu,
is just the man. Did he not last yeal
| successfully argue the very opposite