Evening star., 1932-09-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Magazines are, and were, of course,
made Of paper.
Files of old newspapers come to have
the same delicious scent
One says delicious, but Of course one
has to have nose suited to such things
to find the scent pleasant, exactly.
Given the booklover's nose and piles
old magazines, tiers of books become
things beloved and dear. not only in
| themselves. but also TO memory.
To that dear memory which holds
no boredom to others in it'll
Why is it that memory so often has
! to take the form Of long-winded mono
logues?
Many a man in his middle 30s and
40s today has sworn solemn oath to
himself that he will never, in the days
to come. bore other people in his old
age with long recitals of incidents
which happened to him in his younger
| days.
TT was on the 10th of October-no,
let me see. I think it was the 18th
no. 1t must have been the 10Th, for
that was the day called Betty on the
telephone; yes, I am sure it was the
10Th, because I remember it was a
very cold day, ana 1t was Thursday,
| anu Sudy GlldO NCCh "do SOlOt
whereas the 18th would have been
warmer; now let me see, could it have
been the 18th after all?'' etc, etc.
From such memories, God save US
all!
The good memories induced by pleas
! ant attic heights of the old days will
| include such things as we have emu
| - A,,A AaII v.I1~
of old magazines and old books.
Warm will be their recollection,
equally divided between the two. Was
it that the magazines of the seventies,
the eighties and the nineties were ac-
tually more interesting, or was it that
youth is more interested?
1t is one of the unsolvable problems;
one time the speculation will run
toward one conclusion, the next time
! toward the other. After all, the solu-
! ton makes no difference. What count
ed was the genuine interest, the stories,
the articles. the photographs, sketches,
the steel engravings. Maybe there was
type of artistry inherent in those old
engravings, certain amount of skill,
which forever set them apart from
photographs, which etched them on
memories, as 1t were, forever and
! forever.
There in the pile of books was a
one-volume History of the War of the
Rebellion" as it was called in the
reconstruction days following 1870.
Every Northern household subscribed
! for one or more of those histories.
High pressure" salesmanship had not
come to the fore then, but in those
days, in selling such histories, it was
not at all necessary, evidently.
Those old steel engravings of Grant
and Sheridan, and the battle of Vicks-
! burg, burned themselves into memory.
! Especially the latter, with its neat gun
boats. and the ira ajectory Of the shells
in the black night.
y r **
The years pass.
One finds ones self stopping by a
! pile Of books heaped up on a desk in
q modern office.
A twist of the neck, slight stoop-
What's this-why, Disraelis "Curiosi-
ties of Literature" to be surel What
else could 1t be?
| In three volumes. printed in Lon
don in the early '80s. here they lie, as
staunch as when sent forth from the
press.
The covers are smudged with the
curious white streaks which come from
loo close rubbing over too long time in
| the outdoors.
These, the owner says, he picked up
| from London bookstall, and prompt
! ly made his own.
| How they love books over therel
Booklovers will not soon forget the
| debt they owe England, and especially
| the great city of London.
They will remember every time they
| see a pile of books.