A SHILLING A BUNDLE.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17691, 17 February 1923, Page 11

A SHILLING A BUNDLE.

jgß LUBE OF . n o disgrace to Christchurch B «* " okg drew scarcely 20 peopie- l &at even standard names H** and nothing to him. Wtf Lhlh contains 100,000 peopleshadows. It employs ' B ° ,o auctioneers to keep those 20 f-! Ob the move. But book-sales rt Wgedies only, because they vi * J r * *f in* a little late ' and miSSed ' to- the auctioneer's preliminary «. ti«*""* had particularly to ilfih justification of the sale as a i»]Ho hear bim say why BUch priC9 ' Jl things been abandoned to be'm&, and why the wisdom of all SI aires was in the market now for a But when I entered the rooms fffa at bundle two, and since 2000 domes passed through his hands in 155 minutes, the mind had to move apidly to keep up with him. I did '•; J in fact, quite catch him till he to sell some mathematical indents, and by that time my mind „, a morass. We had had tho "Koran," and we had had "The Glngs of Gosh," Bubens "with ori- '. and "Don Quixote," a "famous book for boys." We bd been offered "The Outline of History " a "wonderful work this, to be eoinpleted in fortnightly parts," and-if l young woman had not suddenly oftoed a shilling for "Man the Masterpiece," and got it (and him), we } 'itould not yet have had a hearty lngh. Except for a distinguished 'uholar from Canterbury College, whom [ I jaw silently shaking, no one seem-

id aware of any absurdities. And peAaps, after all, there were i use. The man who seeks bargains li looks should be conscious of such noekery to begin with that nothing die should move him. Scott wrote . lit heart out, and his brain out in a ; bag effort to pay for a place in the : ju that he should have been too big Ifß to have coveted. Abbotsf ord was a lesser pyramid, an "unmeaning imulcttre pile," which crushed, long p>ro he was ready to repose in it, 11* biggest and bravest Briton of his diy, and we creep stealthily into auesa rooms a hundred years after and, ■ UjMO miles away, to secure a Waver- " fiy complete for half-a crown if we " tat get it for two shillings. Prol iMj, too, the successful bidder ilg other day had no intention , "if reading Scott, but recognised a bar,j|an in iEaving-paper; ana perhapg he jpsa-jrise man to lack such an lntenpMfl, Soott was a great man, and but Pf-one ineradicable blot, perhaps the filthiest and sanest man, in the whole Mige of, our literature. No other proof pf las quality need' be givrti than the he pleased equally a moralist land Esthete like Ruskin and a "barjllKirio "Jawper" like Whitman. But |%hoeyer leads all of him reads too much Jtfisfortune and a mere habit r tfjHp&g combined oiled hundreds of Wpaftiat no, one needs, wants, or can / >#rjrarfo feel. I wis it bargains wholly that , Aanntera of auctions seek. There are 1 the furtive and forbidderr indulgences ~ of book-land that even the illiterate can r r somehow sense. Rabelaiß, Boccaccio, I Ovid, and, us tbe prurient so strangely think,-Boussearu As surely as one" was !, mentioned the other day the atmofi'ff i changed"} the expressions vaguely was a just appreciable 'JSVTj ™? n *n obscure communication ffSf Sought, tlieh a kind of "noiseless $?»«•/rtwh meant that men were reli&SiYi?* 80meth,n g. and were sudiSfflßteifflKwlves something, arid pEW were nudging their neighbours. jg|P» human race is still very ,near the *W3ri ic ' wa^3 warily on tha gPPS 6 W tkegongl© and of the swamp. |g^k ww wo looks sold, and bought a if our giandfathers had wouUMiave caused any dedomestic disorder- up to GodW®gß& honucide,. But these. -volumes llliwif *?5 ° •kstebed our..' greator been found interesting *° read. For they were not ssSKSl ey were not 6ven o°arse. |SP%ltt9 pare science and plain hisl|i&& «£» one was bought by a woman. on the other hand, which e . tr ? sl, » and . v « may be quite unutehr wearisome trash, prol" 4 ?* 1 * ai mdkea sociolcliflkFy And the would TOBfciur^™ I"*tmnk 1 "* tmnk a S ain ' For the »SS''2 ,W , auctioneer's finger was disHSotSK'E prompt and direct, and two HEgWB"i thereiore bought what two l|s?nP as desired. l|gj> wturn, however, to the hooka #S ; S? **** bo °ks. The "famous ISSl£r? Sfß OU S ht > with its makemm>to, four shillings, and that was laE*?*- j s , ale of **"» da -y- 'The BKPi&i? 11 *. haA some youthful HSHELMi".?* and m 30 years that - For "Don a. boys' book or nothing;. §£/&$ «t %? can't understand it: but S&JS*' 1101 ? tiU boys at 40 and w f shall never understand HSf *■• chances are that we shal) to the end of the llilajfr - ,£ oannot remember, for ex PwStL - o 9° wper 6Ver enjoyed and the end of Cowper was gaSSS' B,oom > but if Cowper had BMwa the absurdity of himWsSoiu*3 ho would not ***> "wounded deer that left SPhr feLT 0 * 1 " in Christchurch, WHd?7k ' wfll b6 biography, I Wtmow ™°l P oß ™ B - • • Poems bv OBt , of P rin£ - • • Who eays rerum; but IP sRSL °y« when B*™ wil! »K;!«?e n ««P-when to sell the llgßfafuJWTOist tie it up with Smiies's KnevJ^!^ 11 '"Tne Sentimental be worked off bv S r U Of . the PI i^ at „ sold a '•""are con■KiSr 8 1? ] ?> "Crime and Punthe best 0 f and "Marriage and Its