NEW ENGLISH BOOKS. Selected from the current [London]" Publishers' Cir· cular."

Barlow, G. Hist. of the Dreyfus case, from arrest of Capt. Dreyfus in Oct., 1894, up to flight of Esterhazy in Sept., 1898. 8, 9% x 5%, 492 p., 10s. 6d.... Simpkin Bennett, E. N. The downfall of the Dervishes; being a sketch of the final Sudan campaign of 1898; portrait, map, plans. Cr. 8°, 7% x 5, 263 P., 3s 6d..... Methuen Binyon, L. Western Flanders: a medley of things seen, considered, and imagined; 10 etchings by Wm. Strang. Folio, 42s., net... ..Unicorn Press Collingwood, S. D. The life and letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C. L. Dodgson); il. Ex. cr. 8°, 84 x 5%, 468 p., 7s. 6d Unwin Comparetti, D. The traditional poetry of the Finns; tr. by I. M. Anderton; introd. by Andrew Lang. 8°, 16s.. ....Longmans Dyer, T. F. Thiselton. Old English social life as told by the parish registers. Ex. cr. 8°, 8 x 5% 264 P., 6s Stock Elliot, D. G. The wildfowl of the United States and British possessions: the swan, geese, ducks, and mergansers of North America; il. of every species de

scribed. Post 8°, (New York) London, 128. 6d. Findlay, W (George Umber). Robert Burns and the medical profession; 13 pors. Imp. 16°, 9 x 6. 166 p.. 5S., net. ...A. Gardner Geddie, J. The home country of R. L. Stevenson: Valley of the Water of Leith from source to sea. Roy. 4°, 13 x 92, 230 P., 208...... ......................W. H. White Giles, H. A. A catalogue of the Wade collection of Chinese and Manchu books in the Library of the University of Cambridge. Imp. 8°, 12s. 6d. Camb. Univ. Press Graham, R. B. C. Mogreb el Acksa: a journey in Morocco. 8° 9% x 53⁄4, 336 p., 9s.............................Heinemann Krausse, A. China in decay: handbook to Far Eastern question;6 maps, 21 ils. 8°,9 x 54. 412 p., 128. Chapman May, E. S. Field artillery with other arms: its employment il. from military history, and its rearmament withquick-firing guns discussed; plans. 8°, 8%1⁄2 x 54, 346 P..

6s....

...Low

Stables, G. Frank Hardinge: from torrid zones to regions of perpetual snow; il. by Sydney Cowell. Ex. cr 8°, 8% x 54, 360 p, 5s.. ...Hodder Webster, H. C. Through New Guinea and the Cannibal countries. Roy. 8°,9% x 6%, 408 p., 218.....Unwin

NOTES ON CATALOGUES. CATALOGUES OF NEW AND SECOND-HAND BOOKS.-Wm. J. Casey, 123 Fourth Ave., N. Y., Miscellaneous. (December, 1898, 312 titles.)The Carswell Co., Ltd., 28 Adelaide Street, East, Toronto, Ont., Short list of new and old Canadian books. (4 p. 12°.)-C. N. Caspar Company, 437 E. Water Street, Milwaukee, Wis., Standard and practical books. (No. 47. 77 P. 16°.)-A. S. Clark, 174 Fulton Street, New York, Americana, more particularly works relating to the American Revolution, adventure, biography, first editions, etc. (No. 47, 32 p. 8°.)-Ellis & Elvey, 29 New Bond Street, London, Eng., Choice books and manuscripts. (No. 90, 567 titles.)-Francis P. Harper, 17 E. 16th Street, New York, Rare books, illuminated manuscripts, scarce Americana, etc. (No. 82, 20 p. 8°.)-Otto Harrassowitz, 14 Queerstr., Leipzig, Deutsche literatur von 1500 bis zur neuzeit. (No. 238, 1696 titles.)-U. Hoepli, 37 Corso Vitt. Emanuele, Milan, Beaux-arts, pt. 1. (No. 121, 2652 titles.)-Charles H. Lawrence, 60 Nassau Street, N. Y., Engraved portraits for illustrating and second-hand books, including first editions, etc. (No. 1, 546 titles.)-Joseph McDonough, 53 State Street, Albany, N. Y., Miscellaneous, including Americana, dramas, and medicine. (No. 137, 8269-9021 titles.)—Maggs Bros., 159 Church Street, London, Eng., Engraved portraits, engravings and etchings. autograph letters and signed documents. (No. 159, 1504 titles.)

J. Pearson & Co., 5 Pall Mall Place, London, Miscellaneous, including a collection of illustrated French books of the 18th cen

tury. (No. 30, 374 titles.)-James Rimell & Son, 91 Oxford Street, London, Topographical books of Great Britain and Ireland. (No. 168, 1167 titles.)-M. Spirgatis, 23 Marienstr., Leipzig. Altgermanische Dialekte. (No. 65, 1444 titles.) Thomas J. Taylor, Taunton, Mass., First editions of American authors.

surgery; ed. by J. C. Dacosta. Cr. 8°, 12s. 6d., net.

Rebman

calities in America. (No. 68, 284-493 titles.)

The Publishers' Weekly.

FOUNDED BY F. LEYPOLDT.

DECEMBER 24, 1898.

The editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed in contributed articles or communications. All matter, whether for the reading-matter columns or advertising pages, should reach this office not later than Wednesday noon, to insure insertion in the same week's issue.

Books for the "Weekly Record," as well as all information intended for that department, must reach this office by Tuesday morning of each week.

Publishers are requested to furnish title-page proofs and advance information of books forthcoming, both for entry in the lists and for descriptive mention. An early copy of each book published should be forwarded, as it is of the utmost importance that the entries of books be made as promptly and as perfectly as possible. In many cases booksellers depend on the WEEKLY solely for

their information. The Record of New Publications of THE PUBLISHers' Weekly is the material of "The American Catalogue" and so forms the basis of all trade bibliography in the United States.

"I hold every man a debtor to his profession, from the which, as men do of course seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves by way of amends to be a help and an ornament thereunto."-LORD BACON.

HUMBUG IN BOOKSELLING.

As a rule the " Astounding Bargains in Books," advertised by syndicates and department stores in this country and abroad, are not nearly so “astounding" as their promoters would wish them to appear, nor are the alleged philanthropic schemes in business usually governed entirely by that undiluted

concern for others' welfare which their inventors would have the gullible public believe. We have on several occasions given proof of this assertion; and now the officers of five English booksellers' associations assail the claim made for the London Times's reprint of the "Encyclopædia Britannica," and point out its weakness to the public in a letter to the London Athenæum. The letter states the facts very clearly, and as its strictures apply even more pertinently to the reprints of the same work hawked about in this country by newspaper syndicates we reprint it verbatim :

·

"In a leaflet widely circulated in reference to the so-called Times Reprint of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the following statement appears: "The publishers' price for the Encyclopædia Britannica' was £37. The Times found it possible to do away with one very large item of expense. In the ordinary way, when a man pays £37 for a book he really only gives the publisher £20 or £25, and he spends £10 or 15 in hiring a man to persuade him to buy the book. When he (the purchaser) pays the bookseller £37 for the Encyclopædia Britannica' he has the fullest sense of luxury. But the man whose means are not unlimited wants the

book itself, and if he could save money by taking it from

the binder's hands without the intervention of the bookseller, he would gladly sacrifice the pleasant half hour in the shop. This is what The Times enables him to do. For 16 (in the cloth binding), instead of £37-less than half price-he may now secure the complete 25 volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.'

"As these statements are calculated to injure the interests of booksellers, we think it right to place the following facts before the public:

"1. The first volume of this edition was published in 1875, and the last in 1889. The price of £37 was therefore spread over fifteen years, and was subject to the usual discount for cash.

"2. In 1895 the publishers, while retaining the nominal price of £37, so reduced the price to booksellers that any purchaser could procure a copy, carriage paid, through the booksellers, for £18. Many copies were sold at this price; but latterly it was felt that even the later volumes were becoming out of date, and most booksellers ceased to put it into stock.

"3. A few months ago the publishers informed the booksellers that the price of the Encyclopædia' had been restored to £37, and immediately afterwards came the announcement that a great opportunity' was offered to the public of buying the Encyclopædia' at less than half-price through The Times. By having the price thus raised again, the American Syndicate, who are co-operating with The Times and the publishers in the matter, were able to advertise that the price had been reduced from £37 to £16, or £16 16s. if not paid cash. It would not have suited them to say that it had been reduced from £18 (carriage paid) to £16 16s. (carriage not paid).

"4. Although the date 1898 is stamped on the back of The Times reprint, the book is not 'up to date,' as may be seen from the fact that to the article on Africa a note is added:

The above article was completed before it was known with certainty that the saddest event (the death of Dr. Livingstone) in the history of

African exploration had occurred.'

"5. Anyone who compares the paper, print, and binding of The Times reprint with the original edition will agree that the edition supplied through the booksellers at £18 was much better value than The Times reprint."

It is not surprising that the English booksellers look askance on this new system of bookselling. They desire to know where this new species of trading will stop! Attacked from below by the "stores," and from above by the syndicates and newspaper publishers—such as

the Harmsworths with their "Hundred Best Books' worried by the discount question, and lectured by everyone, the English bookseller is beginning to consider his lot the reverse of a happy one. No doubt these new schemes will divert a large amount of money from ordinary bookselling channels in England, as they have done, and are doing now, in this country.

But our English con

frères must make up their minds to face these and still greater cuts into their business. Capital is both powerful and selfish, and now that newspaper proprietors have descended to using their columns to solicit direct business under the excuse of "popularizing knowledge" they are certain to extend their operations. However, in much sorrow there ought to be much wisdom, and if the bookseller is awakened to a livelier sense of his own interests and the needs of the public it will be well. In time the publisher, also, will realize that these means of "popularizing knowledge" are

causing him as great a loss by diverting money from ordinary bookselling channels as this fact causes the bookseller.

THE "holiday season " will last just one week longer, and the bookseller and his assistants will therefore need to unite their efforts to clear the shelves of stock that may be dead a year hence. Never has good judgment and faith in books that promised to become "sellers" been so amply rewarded as during this season—a number of good books having already gone quite out of print. Although everything seemed to point to a big business during the fall and holidays, the publishers, as a rule, were conservative with their manufacturing orders. Consequently the timid booksellers, and those who expected to duplicate their orders later, have been left in the lurch.

Books are becoming more and more popular as holiday gifts, and the bookseller, according to all reports, has been kept busier than for some years past to supply the demand. The department stores made a stronger bid than ever for the patronage of the bookbuying class; but, with one or two exceptions, their competition did not materially affect the bookstores. The educated bookbuying public is beginning to learn that the book advertising of the depart ment store means little or nothing, and it prefers to shop under more favorable conditions than prevail in the bazaars crowded with bustling and pushing sightseers and shoppers. Even in the excepted cases the "drives" were made chiefly in the cheap reprints and in Christmas cards. At least such is the account the trade in New York gives of itself. We hope that the state of affairs in other parts of the country was equally favorable.

DO THE COVERS SELL THE BOOK? WHAT makes an exquisitely tender and pathetic story successful, its own intrinsic merits or colored covers? Apparently the covers, judging from the late Mrs. Ewing's experiences with Jackanapes." In a recently published letter to Edward Thring Mrs. Ewing wrote concerning this book: "It has taken me three years to secure Mr. Caldecott (whose genius in his own line I reckon unique in his generation!). He is so busy and so fragile. But I did get him; and he has done nearly three times the number of designs the S. P. C. K. asked for, in his thoroughness and his kind wish to please me. . . . I polished the text to my utmost, and now the S. P. C. K. says that 'the trade' says it is not worth a shilling! The secretary informs me that the booksellers refuse it en masse, and I must have it bound in colored boards at once." The colored boards were put on, and, strange to say, served well their purpose-twenty thousand copies of the beautiful little book were sold in less than two months.

PRINTED CARDS FOR A UNIVERSAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

THE Institut International de Bibliographie of Brussels has recently issued a circular stating that it desires to put in circulation cards for a universal bibliographical index without waiting till the plan of such an index is absolutely perfected, and that it therefore has arranged for the issue of cards of the index on the following conditions:

Minimum fixed fee for the first 5 cards...1 franc. Each subsequent card............. .......10 centimes. Transmission gratis. Terms of payment: cards relating to a single given question exWhen the number of cash, by postal order. ceeds 50 (or 5.50 francs), the institute will advise the inquirer of that fact before undertaking the work, so as to prevent misunderstanding.

Subscribers to these cards are requested to bear in mind that the universal bibliographical index has been started very recently, and that, consequently, on the majority of subjects the Even in its present state it can, however, bring intelligence it comprises is still incomplete. forward a considerable contribution to bibliographical researches of every kind. and this contribution will become each day more important. It is requested that inquirers will accompany requests for information with a list of all the titles which they themselves already possess upon the subject in question. In this way they will avoid useless expense, that list being simply verified and completed, and they will enrich the universal bibliographical index with titles that might possibly be lacking from it.

Requests for information should be addressed to Institut International de Bibliographie (Service du Repertoire), 1, Rue de Musée, Brussels.

A PUBLISHING RECORD.

THE success of Bismarck's "Recollections"

is unprecedented in Germany. Towards the had been ordered, representing a value of end of the week, December 3, 318,000 copies nearly six and a half million marks-$1,625,000. At present no copies are to be had, and of those ordered only two-thirds have been supplied. The great Leipzig bookbinding firm of Fritzsche required the following quantities of material to bind the work: 1024 cwts. of pasteboard, over 18,000 yards of cloth for the cloth edition, 400 calf-skins for fancy editions, 65,000 sheets of gold brocade, 18,500 marks' worth of gold, and 14,000 marks' worth of glue. The manipulation of this material occupied 732 work-people four weeks, and the binding took 15 days.

COMMUNICATIONS.

HAMLIN GARLAND'S COPYRIGHTS.
ELDRIDGE COURT, CHICAGO,
December 17, 1898.

To the Editor of The Publishers' Weekly.
DEAR SIR: Will you kindly allow me space
to say that I own all the copyrights of my
books, and that intending purchasers of the
plates or alleged copyrights of my books held
by the firm of Stone & Kimball, New York,
will do well to communicate with me before

A PLEA FOR PLAIN LETTERING ON THE BACKS OF BOOKS.

BOSTON, MASS., December 17, 1898.

To the Editor of The Publishers' Weekly.

DEAR SIR: All day long, and every day in the Boston Public Library, a number of men and women surround the bookcase devoted to the

newest publications, straining their eyes in the almost impossible task of deciphering the titles and authors' names which are stamped on the backs of the books. In numerous public libraries and similar institutions all over

the world the same sight may be witnessed, the same disgust is felt at the difficulty nearly everyone basin reading the titles on the majority of the volumes. The people grumble and go away, but it is time someone put in a plea on behalf of the patient public for plain and legible lettering on the backs of books.

It has been gravely urged that no copyright should be granted to a book published without an index; the same penalty should attach to the publication of a book of which the title and author's name are not legibly and clearly stamped on back and side.

The fads and fashions of artists who concentrate all their efforts on an original and fantastic design first, and think of the lettering last, if at all-or if they do think of it as having any importance, exercise all their ingenuity to render it illegible-ought to be curbed and controlled by the publishers far more than they are in their own interests as well as in that of their patrons. Much of the present day lettering on books is based neither on practical considerations nor common-sense principles.

CHAS. WELSH.

ON PRESENTING OLIVER HERFORD'S" BASHFUL EARTHQUAKE"* TO A YOUNG Friend. DEAR BOB:

This book, now much in vogue.

I here present to you.
And weil I know, you little rogue,
That while you read it through
You'll laugh and laugh until you burst
Your precious little side.

You see I know; I read it first,
And laughed until I cried.

Now laughing makes a man grow fat-
At least, that's what they say-

And if it's so I'm sure that

You'll grow on Christmas day.
But don't forget when full of mirth
That there are many who

Might revel in this Bashful Earth

Quake just as much as you.

So when you've laugh'd until your bones
Have shook with all their might.
Just pass the book to Johnny Jones
And make his Christmas bright.

Henry Eastman Lower in The Index.

The Bashful Earthquake, and other fables and verses, with many pictures by the author, Oliver Herford. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898. 7+126 p. 12°.

COPYRIGHT MATTERS.

COPYRIGHT RELATIONS WITH SPAIN.

IN the treaty of peace recently signed at Paris by the representatives of Spain and the United States, Article XIII. provides that "Literary, artistic, and industrial rights of property acquired by Spaniards in Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines, and other territories ceded on the interchange of ratifications of this treaty shall continue to be respected. Spanish scientific, literary, and artistic works which shall not be dangerous to public order in said territories shall continue entering therein with freedom from all customs duties for a period of ten years dating from the interchange of the ratifications of this treaty."

SHEETS OR

PLATES OF A COPYRIGHTED BOOK CANNOT BE IMPORTED. THE Treasury Department, on the 14th inst., decided that the printed sheets of a book copyrighted in this country, although not bound in form of a volume, cannot be imported into the United States without violation of the copyright law. The same rule is held to apply to the plates from which a copyrighted book is to be printed here.

IS AN AUTOMATIC ORGAN PERFORMANCE AN INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT?

A NOVEL Copyright case recently came up in a London court. A music publisher sued a manufacturer of piano organs for infringement of copyright. The defendant argued that there was no infraction of the law, as the music had not been published, but merely had been produced on his organ by means of perforated sheets of cardboard. The point of law raised was so novel that the case was adjourned.

IMPORTATION OF COPYRIGHTED MUSIC. THE Collector of Customs at Chicago, on the 16th inst., reported to the Treasury Department that he had received by mail from Canada two packages of music, a part of which violated the copyright law, and was therefore subject to destruction. He asked the department if the packages should be separated, allowing the legally-entered pieces to be delivered to the addressees. Assistant Secretary Howell replied that it should be so separated, provided that it was imported under the provisions of the parcel-post convention with Canada, or, if not, on payment of a fine equal to the duty.

SUIT TO RESTRAIN REPRINT OF CASSELL & CO.'S DICTIONARIES.

A SUIT was entered in the United States Circuit Court, at Trenton, N. J., on the 12th inst., by Cassell & Co., Ltd., publishers, of London, England, against the Mershon Company, of Rahway, N. J. The complainants allege that the Rahway company has infringed their rights by placing on the market certain dualistic language dictionaries in English and German and English and French. They claim that these are cheap imitations, produced by photographic processes, of the publications of Cassell & Co., being infringements on the style of dress, bindings, title-pages, and designations used by the complainants. Cassell & Co. pray for an injunction against the Mershon Company, and also for damages for past infringements.