Newspaper Page Text
pKsS^^ READING
DT WAS perhaps an unworthy effort
upon my part, but the way it
turned out may work ultimately
for the general public good.
Trifling the other afternoon with
the Spectrophone in the darkness of its
in venter's den, it occurred to me that
the possibilities it afforded as a labor
saving device were enormous, and I
immediately started in to turn the
thing to account in that particular di
rection. Why should I not, thought I,
twist the lens a half dozen or more
years in the future and look up some
library or book shop in which my own
books reposed, seek out those that
were still not only unwritten but as yet
unthought of. copy down their contents
then and there, and so save myself
both the physical and intellectual ef
fort, however moderate, that would be
otherwise involved in their prepara
tion? I fairly hugged myself with de
light at the idea, for I must confess
that sometimes the labor involved in
the preparation of one of my books
is almost as great as that of the read
er who for some compelling cause is
afterward required to peruse it. The
Spectrophpne would make my end of
the work a practical sinecure. The la
bor involved in the production of my
magnum opus would be no greater
than that of the ordinary copyist who
takes the manuscript of another and
reduces it to more legible form, and if
in thus avoiding the difficult road to
achievement I were guilty of any moral
offense it was at least only against
myself that I sinned, since it was no
part of my plan to appropriate to my
own use the work of any other. I
little thought as this brilliant idea
Hushed across my mind of some of the
risks I -ran to my own pride in ven
turing upon such an enterprise, but
it was not long before I was disillu
sioned. Turning the screw so the lens
rested upon the year 1914 I sought
to penetrate the mysteries of the Bos-
ton public library at that time. This
superb creation of the public spirit of
the Hub architecturally still rested
♦
fifil] F you" visit the - city. - of ~ Mexico,""
II said a returned"-- St. Paul man;
v "you will hear them talking re
form..: They -will : tell you that the old
capital is going to put on the lid, as Min
neapolis has done, and then they smile. •-,
"Then you are asked if you would like
to see the game that is played in Monte"
Carlo, and your host, a gracious clubman,
conducts you to the palace.'- Its : furnish-,
ings are rich. , Purple- hangings.. adorn
the, walls. There are replicas of the Lao
coon and of the Venus of the Capitol. " v ""
"The orchestra renders'; the sensuous
music of the ballroom. The • atmosphere:
is fragrant. Everything necessary, to
. make the player linger is there,' even to
the occasional winning. But the .end
comes to all ■who, having entered,- sit out
the game. ''^^ - :'
"But the great game of : the city lis
American poker. r The American " visitor
can find establishments at" every turn. 18
•"Special pains are taken so the*"player,
is assured, to give him the same sort of
entertainment he would find at home. He
meets with varying success until the pe
riod of fascination begins.
"Then., the player^ wants to- stake all he
has. The dealer seems to know just what
is wanted, and the player gets four of a
kind say four tens. Now that sort of a
hand in New York would make an Ameri
can feel as if he owned a whole string of
automobiles with an. English bulldog In
each. ; .. .-. - -
"In Mexico it makes him feel like one of
t the Montezuma family. While he is under
' the spell another player at the showdown
. smiles, as only a Mexican can who when
he has a sure thing, and lays down what
is called four typewriters.
•. "Such instances as this are quite fre
! quent in the Mexican card house. .
"But the game which seems to hypno
tize, that draws the bloods as- well as hoi
poUoi, is viga. Ever hear of it? '-.'-'
"A canvas sheet hangs back of - a.
. counter. The figures of a man's head with
- a big mouth is drawn upon the sheet.: The
player throws a ball at *■ the cavernous
opening.
"The baS falls upon a sloping board
that bristles with nails. It meanders
through the ■ maze of spikes.; There are
three pockets. • .
"One Is marked red, one white and one
with a star. If the bait rolls into the red
. pocket the. player wins; .if it drops into
the white the player loses. If it '■ finds it- '
aelf in the star hole the player : has won.
upon its present site, '?- but within I;
--found strange changes. Not only were l?
my own books not -to be found upon
its shelves, but none others of mod- ] j
crn authors. Upstairs, where there had
once been reading j- rooms =' of,? rare
beauty and of studious quiet, were lec
ture -or reading • halls in which people
were read "' to ; instead of , reading * for
themselves. There was a service of
current fiction, but it came: no longer -
from • printed - pages as of yore, but
from large phonographs: placed high
upon {.-.platforms. having^ sounding '.g
boards upon them so t that fno word is
suing from the cavernous megaphqnic §
jaws should be lost. To the utterance
of • these at the \ moment of my intru- .
sion upon the scene in at least thirty r
reading rooms were the consumers of /
the period listening. Each hall was
crowded to its uttermost capacity, the.
audience made up for the most part of v
women and young persons—an indica
tion that,. however much methods of
publication might have changed in the 'i
course of a decade, the .- personnel of 1
the reading forces of the. period differ
ed little from that of today. Brief vis- ,"
its to each hall failed to disclose that ;
out of sixty works of fiction in course :
of perusal that day anything of mine
was occupying. to the least degree any ,
measure of public attention.
Withdrawing my eye from these
large ' literary gatherings, ' I . peered
through the corridors of the building .
and was entertained to observe that for s
readers desiring books not of the current
hour there had been provided individ
ual phonographs located in alcoves, into r
which cylinders containing - the ■> espe- i
eial work desired were , placed,^ and.
which were listened to in rapt : atten
tion through the usual j insulated wires
with rubber nozzle ends connecting the y.
ear drums of the consumer with r the
cylinder within, exactly as the martial ;
notes of Sousa marches are now con
veyed to the public ear by.'slot ma
chines in railway ; stations and i ferry .
houses. There were Kipling;, cylinders
and Anthony Hope alcoves and. corners,
given over to a vast array of unknown
popular authors, some of whom are
«9 A
'conditionally, ylt is almost' a certainty
that .the ball will never get into the ! red
hole, j but it does trek quite often into the
stellar receptacle. l
"That is what catches the fly. The
player has -■ paid -a~ quarter for " this" ball.
Ten dollars is : put ,up by 5 the house. The
player is told - that , he. has won 7 this—
conditionally. ,v r-i- :-a*.-; "'■:', "Vj.//:"'^
>~ "In order to take it away he must again
throw the ball and land ■-it in the red :
Docket. This "costs 50 cents. He throws the
ball again and it lands in- the star hole.
i "The house ; puts up . $30. That also is
the player's, conditionally. The throw
for this ;cost Jl. Toe player takes another
chance. ' *"■;'"'>-■'••..■ :-*V; v ':r...-"s';-.*^ v-""": ■:
"The ball ; finds the star hole as before.
The player loses. When he quits he is,"to
use a gambler's expression, 'skinned to
death.' l 'i'l'",-.-r 3'<:;ii '*jH. S^'^"'?^''"^o
; "As he backs out a peon drops in, hurls
a ball and It makes a straight race for
the red pocket. This is done for the bene
fit of the victim who.lias, seen the first
player lose. When the peon throws, the
counter is so man-ipuhired that ; the ball
finds its way to the winning. pocket.
"Such a game could . not ran ■at Coney
Island or even in; the - best : manipulated
districts of New York,' but it, flourishes
in the City of Mexico day and night. : And
although no one ever beats it, the bare
faced swindle , seems ; to ; fascinate ~. all
classes addicted to gambling. It has more
patrons than the whilom lottery.";
* "When your host has ' shown you all
these games he takes you back to his club
and while .be ; rolls cigarettes he ; says ;to
you:.- ■[_ . '\'-;- "~~',': •'.-. j---~~'■"■■■
" 'We are going to quit bull fighting and
then. Iwe ' are ; going .to import a*■ man • like
your Meestair Jerome, and he will put the
lid on ail that I have shown you,, may be,
some day when all these people you have
seen tonight;; are dead : and when 3 you
Americans come no longer to r visit; us.'"
Any Way
"Mother, may I go out to be killed?" 'C
"Yes, my darling daughter. . . \
Just jump an a car or cross a street.
Or else go near the water." , .
—Collier's Weekly. ;
After the War
- Oh. how we long to see the day
When strife and battles cease. ..
-'. And all the dogs of war will make
t-1: ' The frankfurter of , peace. -"; * "-•
' —Saturday Evening Past.
THE BT. PAUL GLOBE. SUNDAY, -DECEMBEK 11, UHH
now probable mischievous schoolboys,
who hate ■ compositions as they hate
squills and other nauseous doses, but
who inthe ten years that are yet to
come will seize their pens with avidity
and wrest the laurel from brows that
now are proudly wearing it. As for
books as we know them, there were
none in sight in the Boston public
library, save oft* in one corner of the
librarian's room one single copy of
"Frenzied Finance," by Thomas W.
Lawson, in a glass case, kept as a mere
curiosity for coming generations to
gape upon in astonishment at the
clumsy ways of their ancestors, and at
the same time as a reminder of what
heights Boston had once attained to in,
literary achievement.
So far from pleasant was this dis
co very that I withdrew my graze for the
moment and by a slight deviation oi
the direction of the machine from west
to southwest I drew the Ne\y York
pubjiic library into focus. Possibly I
had no right to expect to find any of
my books In the Boston public library,
where there Is always a rather nicer
discrimination exercised in the selec
tion of books for public consumption
than elsewhere. Massaftiusetts is pro
tectionist in principle, not only in poli
tics, but in its literary matters as well,
and Boston in particular has ever been
careful to keep from the ear 3of her
young anything savoring either of evil
or of flippancy. New York, on the
other hand, is more cosmopolitan, and
writers like Hall t'aine, Marie Corelli
and myself might hope for a recogni
tion here, which in the home of Emer
son, Huxley and Thomas W. Lawson
would be denied us for very good rea
sons. A man may write very gc yd
music, for instance, for a Broadway
theater of the first class and yet fail
to have Tiis opera produced by Mr.
Conried^s forces in the sacred presence
of the four hundred at the Metropoli
tan opera house. Similarly it was no
reflection upon Mr. Came and Miss
Corelli and myself if our particular
style of literature was not favored "at
the Hub. New York's standard of taste
was about as high as we could hope to
reach —or at .least that is the way I
consoled myself for the situation that
revealed itself to me in the Boston li
brary.
GETS HER FIFTH DIVORCE
Mrs. Grace Sari* Coffin-Coffin-Wa:ker.C«ffin.L ay man, Who Has
Just Been Set Free for the Fifth Time
In New York I found the magnificent
library finished, but, alas! it was less
like a library than a huge literary dis
tributing agency, a sort of department
store of letters. Like the Boston li
brary, it held no books in sight, and all
its matter was phonographieally cir
culated, only with a difference which
struck me, as characteristic of the great
metropolis. Instead of having reading
rooms, thanks to the munificence of a
distinguished novelist who. ha<i re
cently died and left all his royalties
to the library, a house service had been
installed which enabled the public to
get at home all the stores of letters
the library held in trust. The greater
part of the building had been turned
into a powei house by which thousands
of .volume*: were transmitted hourly
to the residences, apartments and tene
ment houses of the city, just as electri
city is sent over a thirdrail in our own
time for the propulsion of oar motor
cars. -As a matter o£ fact, every
avenue, street, lane and road in the
great city of New York had been fitted
with the wires of letters over which
were constantly running the latest
and best thought of the writers of
the hour. It was as easy for a New
•York householder under this superb
plan to secure his reading matter as it
is for him today to turn on the gas for
the illumination of his drawing room,
or in the privacy of his bath to extract
hot or cold water by the turning on of
a faucet. I was amazed at the won
derful ingenuity of the plan. That a
novel placed in the central reservior
of the motor library could be phono
graphieally transmitted to a reader in
Harlem. Long Island City or darkest
Brooklyn by the mere pressure of a
button struck me as amazing. I had
once observed in the late nineties of
the' ninetenth century that I had no
doubt the day would come when books
would be served by book men to con
sumers daily, just as milk and break
fast rolls are served by milkmen and
bakers, but tfeat a literary service
would ever become a public utility like
the service of water or the delivery of
one's letters by the postman, I had
never even dreamed. Yet here, only
ten years ahead ot me, this very
thing was going on as merrily and at
tracting as little public wonderment as
though it were the most natural thing
in the world.
Eye and ear fixed upon^-this great
central motor, library I was able to
discern something of the methods em
ployed. The consumer —living, say, in
the Bronx —would ring up the Bronx
submotor library and call for €343—
Isle of Man. The telebook girl at the
Bronx substation would immediate
ly connect the caller with the central
library, the wire, by means of a large
switchboard, would be in turn con
nected with cylinder No. 6343 —Isle of
Man on shelf No. 37, sixth floor, al
cove 222, and in ten seconds Hall
Game's latest novel, "The Gloomster of
Greba" would go rattling over the
wires un through central park and
Harlem Into the regions of the Bronx,
where the would be reader was anx
iously awaiting the results of her
call. Other calls similarly made for
648B—Gramercy. from Murray Hill,
would immediately send Mr. Davis'
latest romance into the boudoir of
some fair admirer of his genius; 634,
--92B—Brooklyn,8—Brooklyn, called from Manhat
tanville, would carry the poems of
Edwin Markham to some would be
consumer's ears, and so on. Not a
known book in the whole history of
letters but could be "rung up* at this
marvelous storehouse under this even
more marvelous system without an
immediate response of the present
hour, "Ring off, please, the wire's
busy." Of course, there were incon
veniences, as I was made aware by
hearing a complaint from a lady in
South Brooklyn, who was very wroth
because in the midst of^an exciting
episode in a historical novel by Stanley
"Weyman somebody had switched her
off to the last chapter of "The Simple
Life," by Charles Wagner, but the
usual excuse of a crossed wire ex
plained this to her satisfaction, and it
was clear that in the main the serv
ice worked to .the beat interests of
everybody. . ' .
Such was the library scheme of 1914,
and of course, things being so, all the
letters of the period being thus locked
up in cylinder form and securely stored
away upon the shelves of the big insti
tution at' Forty-second and Fifth
avenue. I was unable to form a con
nection with the central office or any
■
FEW AIERICAN COWS ARE
CARRIED AT M PREMIUM
»* ~ »»»»!»» V ""
gn ||E few of the coins issued during
*!. vll 'theilast fifty years' now command a
■' W : premium," saW "an old coin-" deal- :
~?-i\.\% er, "and yet'there are lots of peo- ,
* pie who are holding coins that date from
i 1850 in the . expectation that some time
*■ -they' will be able to' get a : large sum for
them.
- "Every day *peojjle ,come In " here and
• offer a flying eagle cent for sale. They
are always disappointed when I tell them
s that the coins are 'not worth more than
\ $1.58 J a hundred. ■--. -, .;.■ ,;:■;^..;-."^^7^3
: "There was one issue of the flying eagle
* Cent that is v now very scarce, and coins in
'; tine condition- as.- high as v $15 apiece.
: These are dated -1856.^ : .- r. **?^
I "It was in this year that: the design was
- first introduced, and a'%mall^numVeV^of",the : ;
■ cents were minted a.s pattern^pieces and.
] given to member? of congress and other'
n government facials. -* - But the issues ?
1857 cand|lSJß;-when'.tijet coinage' Was,
* xs topped,> were ** turned^ out 'in ; immense
quantities, and the.v are* but little
■ more that face value. .; ; r.-r-'-^^^ataw
- "Another example :of the , way in ; which
f people hang on to certain issues is that of
' j the "V" nlckete^bf 1883, 'without the cents.'
; | Of ■■ course-.; the omission was an ' oversight
at th« mint and the: government tried to
: get j the; coma \ back, and \ this fact .caused
lota of people to think, that some day these
* cokts would surely be worth J a large pre
' mium. . Ever since they » have f carefully
* hoarded each one that has come into their
\ :haxids.^^~j_:yS--U^'/:/;. '■'■ ■'•-■';; ' .■.■".'".■';-'-,
: "One man has even gone so far as to try
to corner the 1 market hi these coin*. He
already has over a thousand of them, and
i he buys all he can. He argues that after he
■ • gets ', hold of :l a great number of %^ these
, nickels people who Aare^coDectlngr/: wiU
I. have :to s come 'to"; him . for them, and \he
i can charge what -he '"- pleases. This ; man
will have % his hands full ►- before he does
this, ;; for there were 1,000,000 of r ; them
originally issued. ?»/c ilVlV.'g;!-: -i;*;:
"There are many people who have from
I ten to a hundred of < these coins, ; patiently
waiting for a rise, but I'm- afraid they'll
t be disappointed like ? those who bought iup
1 all the trade ■ dollars they could get' at 85.
cents. There is ■ one man out West who
■ now ] has 2.000 of these ' dollars, •' and is still
; .buying/p-;^-i;7"^::;'^-^^--V^V--"; c .^..J''7;::.^;l^
"The 1883 nickels now command bo- pre
mium whatever, and ; yet •it ; has ] been over
■ twenty years since they first came •"» out.
J In the case of the trade dollars, they are :
v - worth even less than- they were,- aad- their
of the substations, and could not
possibly get hold of my own books even
for my own benefit. It was with a
thrill of joy, however, that I discovered
that I was represented in the "Tele
book List" and could be called for at
any time by any one who chose to
ring up No. 41123J —Columbus; No.
56347—Hades and No. 7737—Herald
Spuare. The titles of these books were
unfamiliar to me, and I must assume
are still to fee written in some meta
morphosed condition that today I do
not dream of: "Andrew MacGargil's
Revenge," "The Life Story of Fergu
• Tinkletop" and "The Inventions of.
thew Bilkerson, of Butte." The
overy of these items filled my soul
with a curiosity of the wildest sort,
for I must admit that so far my wan
derings through life I. have never yet
even imagined that books having such
titles could appeal to the kind of a
constituency that I am most eager to
win to a friendly regard for myself.
Indeed, I am daily growing more and
more excited over the discovery .that
in 1914 such works are to be credited
to my name, for I frankly don't like the
titles, and it seems truly awful to me
that I am inevitably scheduled to per
petrate such things, but I am, perforce,
for the moment compelled to sit in
patience waiting for another trial of
the Spectrophone to disclose to me the
contents of these books, for just as I
had made my memorandum of the
titles the inventor and owner of the
apparatus returned and I was com
pelled to give up the machine to him.
He wanted to look up the year 1908.
He had just read Mr. Roosevelt's
statement that he would run again for
the presidency and he was anxious to
see what the future had to say on that
subject.
"You never can tell so far ahead
just how things will be," he said, "and
I want to lay a few bets with some
intelligent* reason for putting my
money on one side or the other."
Of one thing the reader my be as
sured. Unless "The Revenge of An
drew MacGargill" and "The Life Story
of Ferguson Tinkletop" are better
books than their titles suggest I shall
never, never write them, spectrophone
or no •spectrophone^ to the contrary
notwithstanding.
price seems to be steadily r decreasing, as
they rarely^ fetch more , than 55 cents,; and
ritever more than." 60.:.' ' ' '■" ~r->~'^ -^zsii
'.'«, "It's the same way with a the majority
of !the -; old silver iI tteee-cent the
nickel ? three-cent;; pieces and the bronze
; two-pent pieces. Very few of them are
worth ; more than face value. £'.,y •<■ -
"Columbian half dollars of 1893 are worth'
just > face value and not a cent more. The
Columbian half doHar of 1892. of which :
a limited number were coined, -. bring *a'
slight | advance, but i never 3 more than ;55 p
(cents'; total value. The Isabella quarters -
■■ are the rarest of. the Columbian issues,
, and one of them in unused ' condition will
fetch 75 cents. j
"Another coin issued in recent years
that at first was | thought to ibe | a good
chance for speculation was the Lafayette
dollar, issued to commemorate the unveil
ing of the Lafayette monument in^Paws
in 1906, but they are worth only $2. The
government 1. mint made 60,000 of these
coins "an"a ff turned ' them over to the cotn
raitt.ee r iß; .charge of tb.6 monument in i this
city at' $1 each, the premium to )be 7 de
voted to the building- of the monument.
";. "It's v a hard tiring to make a fictitious
; value . for a coin, vTand this ' is. clearly shown
by the Louisiana Purchase"exposition's is
t sue of „' Jefferson and• McKinley gold : dol
'-lars^>'>'^; ■; ■::.:-r- ; -i \;":, : - ;.': I'-X'r'^:-: 'O^-M 1
: "These were the first gold coins to bear
i the j portraits of "United x States j citizens,
. and f their ? issue was limited. The .original
price * was $3. but " the prospects are quite
; rosy i for the exposition *to have a large
I number of * the coins left \on Its hands, as
, the ' general ; public is not ■at all enthusias
'■', tic over j paying $a for .; a gold \ dollar, and
; the coin ;: collectors, • pay 'I no ; attention to
them whatever. ':^i "Z^^'-' ;'-''"vV;'"^V' -i >A
-.~?j "The only s coin [_ issued ?by the govern
t meat during: the last fifty years ,that: com
- mands a really high - premium;;, with \ the
,one. exception Jof Che 1856 cent, is that
■ known ; as the ; Stella*; $4 ', got*" pleee.?^ This
: coin was. also nothing -. more ' than ; a pat
■ tern piece. ?_lt was "■ made at • the - United
; States mint lin ISl&JandjlSSa/^*:^.;^? >|
"Only a limited number them were
; coined!, about '. S6& in, an. They now bring
from. $4* to according to state- of
preservation. :^ «''.; :'^%'\ -'--v-C
5; "The coinage at all the smaller denomi
■\ nations was '' Quite ;; limited'; in 5 1877 % and
nearly all»of them bring I fair; premiums.
fAy nickel S-cent X, piece of that ? year Xis
i worth $31 to ~ a collector, whereas the ■■ other
dates fetch onxy a few cents. Nickel 5
i cent pieces of 2577 bring from IS to W."
THE mo& beautiful and inter*
* eating v of. all the Christmas
periodicals is the great :.
Christmas
Metropolitan
in which you will find [Sirring s"to-
Tries and articles by Thomas Nelson
f Page, W. A. Fraser, EL S. Martin^::
Joe! Chandler Harris, Richard Le %
Gallienne, Charles G. D. Roberts,
Alfred Henry | Lewis, Harrison -
Rhodes, and many others. The
1 50 illustrations, in two, three and
■ four colors, are by Guerin, Knead,
Clay, Bull, Conde, Penficld, Par
rish, and Haskell, and repro
ductions from many photographs.
'"THIS Xmas issue is filled with
I 1 good : reading and fine pic- :
tures; it is a delight from cover to
cover; it is a worthy Christmas ; :
gift in itself and is now on sale
everywhere :■ for 1 5 cents a copy.
? l~*pß the ? entertainment of? the
!*^^ whole family there is no bet
ter magazine published than Tho
Metropolitan. fe
'"THE following special offer is
*• presented in the interests of-'.;
those who wish to send to a friend ■
a gift and at the same time receive ;
four free holiday gifts for them- f_
selves: .
Cat oat this Coupon.
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
COVPON
T*O any one tending us immedi
ately $1.80 (and this coupon)
we~will send free of coft—
GIFT I— A superb portfolio,
tamped in gilt, and containing
photo-ftudies cf beautiful wo
men, models, and players.
GIFT 2 —A fac-simile water
color, readyfor framing, show
ing the sky-scrapers of New
York as seen at twilight—an
exquisite work of art
GIFT 3—An art booklet, in
brown covers, stamped in gold,
and containing sixteen full-page
portraits of well-known society
beauties printed on plate paper.
GIFT 4— Copies of the Novem
ber and December (Christmas)
issues of The Metropolitan, in
cluding all the color insert il
lustrations.
Theie four gift* can be lent to the re"
mitter of the $1.80.
Q The two gifts below can be tent to the
remitter* friend.
q If you prefer, we will .end ALL SIX
direct to you.
GIFT 5 —A full year's subscrip
tion to The Metropolitan, com
mencing with the January, 1905,
number.
GIFT 6 —A beautiful subscrip
tion certificate to be sent to
the recipient of the magazine
and bearing the name of the
sender.
A LL of the above for the price
of the magazine alone —$1.80.
Have The Metropolitan sent for a
year to your friend, together with
the illuminated subscription certifi
cate, and have the "Portfolio of
Beau'.y/'the book of American So
ciety Types, the fac-simile water
color and the November and De
cember issues of (he magazine all
sent to your own address. This
offer is only good for on? month
from date. Mention this paper, and
send us this Coupon,
The Metropolitan Magazine,
9 West 29ih St.: New York,
No. 92. '
$$
$$$
$$ $ $
Made and ": saved by
reading The Globe ;
want pa o^es every day. •r
; Be sur" to look them
• over/iuday.---.:. : ;v= ;'-. .^^^Q
