Mr. David Ivison moved to amend by rescinding the action regarding discounts taken the day before, and restoring them to their original status under the laws hitherto in force. A very protracted debate ensued, the leading points in which were, that the changes made the preceding day would bring unjustifiable hardships on houses holding certain contracts, and that no plan of obviating this had been devised, which would keep the proper ratio between wholesale and introductory prices. To meet the latter point, Mr. Sheldon moved a resolution additional to his pending one, that freight and cartage be no longer allowed in introductory sales. Mr. Maynard moved to submit the resolutions to a committee, with instructions to report forth with. Carried. After considerable debate, action was had on Mr. Ivison's amendment (restoring the discounts which had been changed the day before) and it was carried. Mr. Emerson (on behalf of Harper & Brothers) moved that each house be allowed to send books on sale to four places to be reported to the Executive Committee. Carried. Other minor legislation was had during the meeting (chiefly on forms of expression), which will be duly printed in the forthcoming edition of the By-Laws. Mr. Bragg reported a circular from the Committee appointed at the preceding meeting, to defend the Board against certain unjust aspersions. The document was referred back to the committee to be revised and printed for consideration at the next regular meeting. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. The interests of the trade cannot be better served than by a full discussion by its members of all questions which affect it. Our columns are always open to communications on any such subject, provided they be brief and suggestive, and we cordially invite the trade to express any suggestions or opinions of interest or value in "Letters to the Editor." Mr. Clarke on Trade Reform. WE are glad to print, by kind permission of Mr. Aston, the following letter addressed to him by Mr. Robert Clarke, of Cincinnati, whose honored name lends additional force to his indisputable logic: CINCINNATI, June 10, 1874. ISAAC C. Aston, Esq., Pres. Amer. Book Trade Union. MY DEAR SIR: I take the liberty of writing you while you are on your mission East, to ask your attention to one point in reference to our July meeting-namely, the importance of having the principal publishing houses represented at that meeting. Our "Union" was inaugurated by booksellers, but the discussions soon made it evident that we are comparatively powerless in attempting to redress the abuses which have crept into the trade, without the co-operation of the publishers. Without that we may meet and discuss and resolve till Doomsday, without accomplishing anything. We cannot revise their prices or discounts. We cannot stop underselling, so long as they continue the practice. We cannot hinder them from contributing to trade sales; as long as they exist they will be patronized. We need not meet to discuss these points among ourselves-that has been done sufficiently to show that we are almost a unit in desiring the reforms indicated. It is all very well enough, too, to obtain an expression of opinion on each point separately from the publishers privately, but it would facilitate matters very much if you could secure the attendance of a representative of nearly all the large publishing houses at our Put-in Bay meeting. I hope you will urge this matter on the publishers. If it meets with general favor among them, you might and I think that as President you have power to do so-appoint a committee of six, from those who will promise to attend, to meet a com Mr. Holt reported from the Committee on Nom-mittee of six booksellers of your Executive Board, at inations the following names of gentlemen to serve for the ensuing year :President: A. S. Barnes. Vice-President: C. S. Bragg. Secretary: George R. Lockwood. Treasurer: C. C. Woolworth. Arbitration Committee: Effingham Maynard, C. C. Collins, J. H. Butler. Executive Committee: A. H. English, Edward Seymour, J. B. Cowperthwait. The Secretary of the Board was appointed to call the ballot of the Board for all but the Arbitration Committee. This committee, it was held, requires individual balloting. The officers were elected as nominated. HENRY HOLT, SECRETARY. Put-in Bay the day before the general meeting, to have an exchange of views on the various points in the platform adopted at the last meeting, in order to form an idea beforehand what kind of action will meet with general support both from the publishers and booksellers. The fact is their and our interests are the same. They should unite in this "Union" on equal terms, and take an equal share in the proceedings. It is only thus that any definite or desirable conclusion can be had. If you succeed in obtaining a very general representation of the publishers at our meeting, it will and the way will be clear for the adoption at once be much better than any amount of endorsement, of some practical plan for the adjustment of the various interests represented, for the correction of the errors and abuses which have so greatly demor`alized the trade in this country. Wishing you every success, I am, yours very truly, ROBERT CLARKE. A Few Suggestions. OMAHA, May 23d, 1874. To the Editor of the Publishers' Weekly: We are glad to note in the WEEKLY the letter from your Baltimore correspondent in regard to bare-backed books. This protest has long been needed, and it is to be hoped publishers of these volumes will hereafter see the advantage of lettering the backs of such books. If publishers and book-jobbers would also be less careless in returning "advice" as to books ordered and not furnished, they would save the retail trade a great deal of annoyance. Simply stating at the bottom of the invoice that "balance will be sent in next," or "new books ordered will be sent when ready," or simply "out of balance" is of no service. We believe the English custom is to enter on the invoice every book ordered and write the reason for not sending against it. Lee, Shepard & Dillingham also make out their invoices in this way: it is much better than no memorandum, but is not so useful as the method assumed to be followed by D. Appleton & Co., and J. B. Lippincott & Co., and others, of sending a separate slip of all books not furnished with the reasons why they were not sent. This memorandum can be filed, and is very convenient for reference. Our only fault as to this is, that the firms who have adopted the method are so slovenly about using it, not sending the slip half the time. Were publishers aware of its great usefulness to the retail bookseller they would insist upon its always being sent. While writing I will take occasion to call attention to the difficulty experienced by book-dealers in obtaining special numbers of magazines, foreign periodicals and catalogues, unusual books, etc., etc. I need not re ount the tedious and vexatious methods that must now be employed in order to obtain any of the above things-every book-seller has had more or less experience in the matter. But why it should remain so is a mystery. It seems to me that the supplying of these articles might be made a profitable branch of the book business. It would not require much stock, and but little store room, so the expenses of carrying on the business would be small, and the commission on the sales ought to pay well. It is possible that the trouble and risk of the many small accounts has deterred any one from undertaking it, but this could easily be avoided, if a responsible man assumed the business, by having each customer make a small deposit, and the dealer sending him a statement when it was nearly used upworking on a plan similar to that used by the Chicago Tribune in supplying that paper to their customers. We think nearly every bookseller could afford and would, because of its convenience, keep such a deposit. Respectfully yours. L. THORVEL SOLBERG. copy of Deschanel's ElementaryTreatise onNatural Philosophy from the house of; it came post paid for $3.50, the retail price thereof being $6.50. I suggested that probably the publisher hoped to effect an introduction, or something of that sort. He thought not, as it was not in his department. I did not press the question of supplying him any further. If it is necessary, the name of the professor making the purchase, and the Broadway firm that supplied the book, can be given. This little incident suggests the following query: Can the trade profitably employ professors, lawyers, doctors, ministers, teachers, etc., as buyers, in order to obtain bottom prices? Yours truly, BOOK-SHAVER. A Digest of Trade Laws. PHILADELPHIA, 15th June, 1874. To the Editor of the Publishers' Weekly: WHILE an effort is being made to adjust various difficulties in the book trade, would it not be well to define and codify the somewhat ambiguous "rules" and "courtesies" by which publishers are supposed to be governed in reprinting foreign books? If unanimous assent could be obtained to a digest of those rules, it might assist in preventing the unfortunate complications which now occasionally arise. Time, I know, is money, but I venture to predict that it would pay the publishers to send delegates to the convention for this purpose. LEX MERCATORIA. BOOKS RECEIVED. A JOURNEY TO the Centre OF THE EARTH, by Jules Verne. (Scribner, Armstrong & Co.) A cheap edition of a well-known book, already noticed in these columns. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, 75 cents. MERIDIANA, by Jules Verne. (Scribner, Armstrong & Co.) The peculiarities of Jules Verne's style are so well known as scarcely to need mention. They seem to have reached their acme in this volume, which relates the adventures of three Russians and three Englishmen who went to South Africa "to measure an arc of meridian," in such carefully selected language, and with so many details of what appear profound scientific facts, as to utterly bewilder the young reader. Profusely illustrated. 12mo, cloth, 75 cents. ROB ROY, by Sir Walter Scott. (Porter & Coates.) This volume belongs to a very nice edition of the Waverley Novels the above house is publishing under the title of the "Fireside Edition." 12mo, cloth. $1.50. THE WINTER FIRE, by Rose Porter. (A. D. F. Randolph & Co.) A sequel to the pretty story "Summer Drift-wood." Earnestly written and full of pious teachings. 16mo, cloth, $1.25. THE FOURTH WATCH, by Anna Warner. (A. D. F. Randolph & Ca) A little devotional work, noticeable for its typographical excellence. 18mo, cloth, 60 cents. FORGIVENESS AND LAW, by Horace Bushnell. (Scribner, Armstrong & Co.) A further statement of Dr. Bushnell's views on the doctrine of atonement. They will be found very much at variance with the stand taken by the Evangelical Churches. 12mo, cloth, $1.75 RALPH ELMWOOD, by John Henry Vosburg. (Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.) A poem containing some passages of considerable beauty. 16mo, cloth, $1. THE BALTIMORE GUN CLUB, by Jules Verne, "freely translated" by Edward Roth. (King & Baird.) Under the above title we have an "original" translation of Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon," especially addressed to American readers. The work the translator has endeavored to do for the author is a remarkable one, his aim having been, he tells us, in a preface, "to soften off extravagances, give the names a familiar sound, correct palpable errors, simplify crabbed science, explain difficulties, amplify local coloring, "clear up unknown allusions, putalittle more blood and heart into the human beings," etc., etc. - or, as he sums up, to give us Jules Verne done into real English, corrected, annotated, revised-improved?" The query belongs also to the translator. We leave it to the public to answer. does seem, however, that a story of Verne's divested of its idiosyncrasies is very like the play of "Hamlet" with "Hamlet" left out. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, $1.50. It CLARISSA HARLOWE, by S. Richardson, condensed by C. H. Jones. (Henry Holt & Co.) With people who like to say they have read every thing, this is a literary curiosity not to be overlooked. Mr. Jones has been very successful in reducing the redundancy of Richardson's style, and bringing his book within limits which will commend it to readers of even "exhaustless leisure and patience." It is doubtful, however, if much benefit will be derived from its perusal, apart from gaining a very minutely-drawn picture of English society in the last century, in spite of the fact, that clergymen of a past day commended it from the pulpit, and old maids wept over its woes. The painful details of Lovelace's profligacy and the tiresome protestations of Clarissa's virtue, can scarcely win admiration from the intelligent and refined mind of to-day, trained in an exceptional school of fiction. Still the book has a place of its own in literature, and will, no doubt,meet with an extensive demand. In the dress of the "Leisure Hour Series." 16mo, cloth, $1.25. METHOD FOR THE STUDY OF THE FRENCH $1. merit. SECOND-COUSIN SARAH by F. W. Robinson. (Harper & Bros.) This author, like Dickens, loves to draw his types from the lower ranks of humanity. His present novel deals with life in London, among the poorest and most miserable of its inhabitants. By force of circumstance, we find in their midst a gentleman deprived of his just inheritance, and a young girl, a poor waif of humanity, whom the gentleman, "Reuben Culwick," rescues, educates, and finally marries. This young girl is his " Second-cousin Sarah," a quaint, strongly-limned creation, whose individuality pervades the story. Robinson must rank among the best novelists of the day. He possesses originality, vivid powers of description, and a grim humor all his own. "Second-cousin Sarah" equals in interest any one of his former novels. 8vo, paper, illustrated, 75 cents. LITERARY AND TRADE NEWS. MR. WINWOOD REED's book on Coomassie has been withdrawn, temporarily, by his publisher. Copies had already been sent to the papers, and these the papers were politely asked to give back, and did so, or some of them did. It may be hoped that somebody has been indiscreet enough to find out why the book was recalled and what the mis THE SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE INFERRED FROM ITSELF, by Henry Rogers. (Scrib-chievous passages were, and to get them somehow ner, Armstrong & Co.) Mr. Rogers is favorably known as the author of the "Eclipse of Faith." A long illness has prevented him, until recently, appearing in the literary world. This volume contains the result of his last researches: it consists of seven lectures, having for their subject the divine origin of the Scriptures. 8vo, cloth, $2. before the public. The public derives so much enjoyment from a little mischief, and the mischief may be harmless after all. What I hear is that there were attacks on Sir Garnet Wolseley of a kind which gave deep offence either to Sir Garnet or to some of his more sensitive friends. So Messrs. Smith & Elder were privately addressed, and made to see how much more prudent it was to suppress the objectionable parts. My bookseller, who knows a great many queer things, tells me that nothing is more common with publishers than to discover mistakes too late. A new book is often followed next day by a woman with scissors and paste-pot, who goes over all the copies delivered, and cuts out some offending page, and pastes in the expurgated one in its place, neither buyer nor reader being the wiser, nor even guessing what piquant improprieties they have missed.-Mr. Smalley in Tribune. THE WORLD ON WHEELS, by Benjamin F. Taylor. (S. C. Griggs & Co.) A number of humorous and tender sketches of life on the road, by the well-known author of "Old-Time Pictures and Sheaves of Rhyme." Very well illustrated and handsomely gotten up. 12mo, cloth, $1.50. THE GREAT CONVERSERS AND OTHER ESSAYS, by William Mathews, LL.D. (S. C. Griggs & Co.) We have rarely read a collection of essays so brilliantly written and with so much elegance of style, as the ones contained in this volume. A PHILADELPHIA disciple of Swedenborg, Mr.L.C. They are also full of wit and wisdom, offering the Tungerich, desiring to give the thoughts of that remost charming reading. Prof. Mathews fills the markable religious reformer a circulation among chair of Rhetoric and English Literature in those most likely to be usefully affected by his teachthe University of Chicago, and is the author of ings, made an arrangement with the Lippincotts, by "Getting on in the World." 12mo, cloth, $1.75.which every Protestant clergyman in America, who might desire to receive it, might obtain a copy of Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion," a large octavo of over 600 pages, in which the whole theology of the New Church is set forth, by simply sending for it and paying postage. Over four thousand Just Issued BY THE copies have been thus sent to clergymen and students PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, of theology, and a fifth edition is in press, this wealthy philanthropist being determined that every theologian who desires the work shall be supplied. A like offer has been made by the American New Church Tract and Publication Society, through the same publishers, regarding Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell," and 1,500 copies of this has been distributed. The first costs forty cents for postage, and the second twenty-six cents. The idea of these propagandists is that Swedenborg's doctrines furnish the most practicable grounds of general Protestant union.Evening Mail. THE total cost to Mr. Geo. W. Childs, of the MS. of Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend," of which we have before spoken, was $1,400. The manuscript was given by Dickens to Mr. Eneas Sweetland Dallas, the whilom husband of Miss Glyn, the actress, and who is well known as a journalist in England. Mr. Dallas subsequently sold the manuscript, and it came into the possession of the late John Camden Hotten, after whose death it was sent to this country through the agency of Mr. Welford, and then by purchase it came into the hands of its present owner. The whereabouts of the manuscript was unknown to either Mr. Foster or the family of Dickens, and the former wrote to this country to inquire about it. 1334 CHESTNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA. Paradise. The Place and State of Saved Souls between Death and the Resurrection. By Rev. R. M. Patterson. 16mo, bevelled, red edge. Price, $1.25. Christian Love, as Manifested in the Heart and Life. By Jonathan Edwards, some time Pastor of the Church at Northampton, Mass., and President of the College of New Jersey. Edited from the Original Manuscript by the Rev. Tyron Edwards, D.D. 16mo, cloth. Price, $1.25. Little Lights, and How They Shone. 18mo, cloth. Three Illustrations. Price, 70 cents. Please address orders to JOHN A. BLACK. Or to DODD & MEAD, 762 Broadway, New York, BOARD OF COLPORTAGE, 198 Penn Ave., Pittsburg, Pa. GEORGE MACLEAN, Philadelphia, has been compelled to call a meeting of his creditors. Much Who keep all the publications of the Board for sale. sympathy is felt for him, as he is personally very much liked by the trade, and his dealings have always been marked by the strictest integrity and good faith. It is sincerely to be hoped that he will be able to effect an arrangement, by which he can continue to carry on his business. BUSINESS FOR SALE. FOR SALE. The goodwill, stock, and fixtures of the stand for the past forty years known as Richards' Book Store, Augusta, Ga. The business has always been profitable; offered for sale now for the benefit of the heirs of Thomas Richards, lately deceased.-Address, W. T. RICHARDS, or J.W.STORY, Executors, Augusta, Ga HELP WANTED. WANTED-A young man, possessing some knowledge of the wholesale book business, and capable of keeping books by single entry.-Address, "Books," PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, N. Y. City. SITUATIONS WANTED. SITUATION WANTED-By a person with twenty years' experience in the book trade: has formed a large acquaintance with the trade in the position of traveller; and has an established Juvenile and Sunday-School book trade that he can carry with him.-Address "B.," No. 9 Murray street, New York. BOOKS WANTED. FORAMINIFERA, by Wm. B. Carpenter, latest edition ; Manuals of the Sub-Kingdoms of Protozoa, Cœlenterata, etc., by Prof. Greene. -Address, stating condition and price, F. B. PATTERSON, 61 Liberty street. BOOKS FOR SALE OR EXCHANGE. SECOND-HAND. School Books in quantity for sale by A. H. CLARK, Peekskill, New York. Correspondence, with lists of books for sale and for exchange, respectfully solicited. A TOUCHING STORY. JOHN HATHERTON. By the author of "Effie's Friends." 18mo .75 cts. One of the most touching stories in print. No one can read it without having awakened in him the better feelings of his There are nine stories for the young in this little volume. Each is an argument against some fault-selfishness, revenge, theft, pride, etc., or an exhortation to some virtue of Christian character. The stories are very neatly told, and embalm the moral so that it will be preserved and may be useful. COUSIN ALICE. A Prize Juvenile Story. Illustrated. 18mo...... ..90 cts. LET WELL ALONE. By the author of "But Once." Illustrated. 16mo........$1.25 A story of an ingenious and skilful mechanic, who succeeded well in his business, but who was never content with moderate success, but always giving up one kind of business as soon as it began to pay, and rushing into something new that promised better. It is only too true a picture of what we see almost every day. The book contains an important lesson, forcibly illustrated. IN EARNEST; or, Edith Palmer's Motto. By Faye Huntingdon. 16mo............$1.00 This is a hook for girls, and shows well how much can be done by taking up and ever acting on the important motto IN EARNESI. 2 PUBLISHED BY Alfred Martien, 1214 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Good Stock for Summer Trade. THE LEISURE HOUR SERIES. 16mo. $1.25 per vol. Other Recent Publications. Conway's SACRED ANTHOLOGY.... Mill's AUTOBIOGRAPHY.......... Chorley's RECENT ART AND SOCIETY.. ... $4.00 1.75 1.50 2.50 2.00 SEND FOR CATALOGUE. HENRY HOLT & CO., New York. |