Life — January 21, 1897 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

54 air of exclusiveness which sugg cost to the uninitiated. I have known as antiquated a tale as ‘‘ Vanity Fair” to sell with moderate success when ickly green and white, and enclosed ina ha’penny pasteboard box. If the buying of books be a difficult problem for those who have not yet bound in mastered this simple scheme of colors, the system by which they are sold is absolutely beyond the comprehension of man. The laws that hold the bookseller in bondage are secret laws, and we know them only by Why do they never permit themselves to keep new books in stock, instead of sending for them one by one, which seems to the out- sider a tedious and expensive method Why do they always their results. of procedure ? employ lesmen who are blithely and comprehensively ignorant of all THE ONE AUTHOR LEFT IN SCOTLAND, FOR WHOM A PURSE IS BEING RAISED RY THE HYSTERIA CLUB OF nosTo! printed matter? Whether these youths be converted cow-boys, or graduates of our schools for feeble - minded children, or merely young men with a wholesome and invincible prejudice against the alpha- bet and all that follow the result is practically the therefrom, am chances are you will not be content to accept Ruth Ashmore’s ‘‘Side Talks with Girls” as a substitute. There are people who even fuss about the language in which a book is writ- ten. I heard with pleasure, and some amusement, the off-hand re- quest of a sanguine young woman for a copy of the ‘“‘Abbé Constantin.” An agitated conference ensued, each clerk passing the word on toanother, and all standing equally amazed. Finally from some remote recess a book was produced, and handed proudly down the line, ‘* But this is in English,” said the fastidious young creature—women are proverbi- ally hard to please—‘‘and I want a French copy.” The worm turned. “We are sorry not to be able to oblige you, madame,” said the ex- asperated worm, ‘‘but the book has never been translated into French.” ” Agnes Repplier. F the time ever comes when it is bad form for a women to be nervous, fewer specialists will thrive. THE SAFEST TIME. OUNSEL: You are free. Ciirnt (a durglar): And lam grateful to you, sir. When shall I call at your office? “IT should prefer to have am there.” you call while I result discouraging and baffling to the buyer, who really needs a little help instead of this unflinching an- tagonism. When you ha explained, for example, that Mr. Gilbert Hamer- ton’s autobiography was written by If, and that Lang's Life of Lock- / hims t is the work, not of Mr. Lock- hart, but of Mr. Lang, the only reward for your well-intentioned dis- closures is a solid assurance that the books are ‘‘not in stock.” When you for ‘‘ Virginibus Puerisque,” the DONALD MACSLUSHEY AS HE APPEARS AT HOME, WITHOUT TROUSERS, UPON MIS NATIVE, HEATH OF TUMTITODDY. BUSINESS TERMS. “TRANSFERKED BIDS."?