Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1883 — BOOKS AS FURNPTURE. [ARTICLE]

BOOKS AS FURNPTURE.

■ l Ml.—Purposes—Home Queer Book Buyers, the New York Sun.l m «e books worth a dozengood ones, you know -standard and Question was propounded by a somewhat over-dressed maa in an uptown book-store. The emphasis which be placed upon the phrase “lor cash” revealed the esteem in which he held that article as jompared with the commodity for which he intended to exchange it “I)o gentlemen often buy books by the dozen?” asked the reporter. “Oh, yesj* replied the salesman, .when Iris customer had disappeared. “Lhave been sent for several times this jegf to measure the shelves of libraries .in new houses, to find ont the number o# bodies required to fit them up. Books a3ta ftn important item in house-furnish-ing. The comfortable, old-time sittingroom has made way for the formal library. As a library without books would hardly ao, house-owners are to hsvd them whether they possess literary tastes or not. Besides, they add tone and color to the room. A customer recently said to me frankly enough; ‘ L don't pretend to read anything except tlie papers, but there’s a home feeling ip having books around; they look well, too, and sort of encourage the children.’ He told me to be ‘ sure and “chuck” in a few big ones to put on the tables.’ “The customer who just went out ordered books for eight four-feet shelves. He said that he did not care much for literature, hut that now adays a library was almost as necessary as a billiard-room. AH buyers are not so frank in speaking about the matter. The majority not only want books for their decorative qualities, but to give an appearance of culture. “Another harmless fellow, who "wanted the reputation of a man of culture, always directed ns to put in some books that had been used a little. He once told me that he was bound to have a library as big as his neighbor’s, and whenever the latter ordered a new stand-up show-case, he was going to do the same.

“Some «i these folks have queer jdeas.. One of our customers insisted on having his books bound after the same pattern and numbered. Some time afterward a‘friend told him that people were asking if he kept a circulating library; so he had morocco labels stuck on over the figures. But this only made the matter worse, for his guests were particular to ask him what the labels were for! At last, in sheer desperation, he sent the volumes to an auction-room, and we received his order the next day for so many feet of books, each one differently bound. He wouldn’t hawe even a two-volume edition bf anything; A wealthy man once sent in great haste for a neighboring coaler, saying that he wanted his library closed out immediately and a new one bought. He wa« a speculator in produce, but some one had sold him a law library. T He liked the uniform appearance of the volumes, and had made the purchase without reading the titles. His new books were to be illustrated, all of them. “When I first went into the business I was surprised to see at a customer’s house an extravagantly-bound copy of Shakspeare’s works in the German language. I knew the man did not understand German, and the circumstance puzzled me. I found afterward that a bookseller had loaded him up with a very unsalable article by telling him that ‘every gentleman ought to have ft copy of Shakspeare’s works in the original.’ The same man once came to us for a book to present to his wife at their silver wedding. And whnt do you think he ohose ? Fountaine’s work on ‘How the Earth was Peopled.’ There was some excuse for him—he had eleven children. ”