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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8300, 5 July 1890, Page 4

The "book fiend" is a character familiar to us in American jocular literature, and of late we have heard a good deal of him as at large in these colonies. His persistency is well known, and the American journals exhaust ingenuity in showing how he operates, and by what expedients he may be got rid of. Persistency in business cannot be legislated against, but in New South Wales they are going to try it, for a Bill is at present before the Legislature to suppress the book agent by the power of the law asif he were a noxious animal. In Melbourne lately a case was tried which gives us a new view of an old phase of human nature. A book was being published entitled " Victoria and its Metropolis—Past and Present." This was a capital spell to conjure with when operating upon the denizens of " Marvellous Melbourne," who are proud of their great city. The book fiend had all the odds in his favour. One particular demon worked it in this way : He approached his victims cautiously and with care. He appealed to their love of literature and to their affection for their noble city. He dilated upon the fact that the product was a work which would go down to posterity, recording the early days of Melbourne, and the whole wonderful history of its rise and progress. When it seemed that all his eloquence on these lines was about to fail he tried another. Most men, if accused of being vain, would scorn the impeachment. If told that there is nothing so dear to their hearts as to see themselves in print, and to be recorded as "eminent citizens," they • would be indignant ; but, as ail newspaper men know, the accusation is true all the same. The particular book agent represented that the publishers of the book were very anxious that biographies of the most remarkable men, the men who had moulded the destinies of the infant colony, and who had raised it to its present proud position, should be included in their work, and of course the gentleman then being addressed could on no account be omitted. This was irresistible. The eminent citizen proceeded to "run over the story of his life, even from his boyish years," and as he could not, like Othello, tell of " hair-breadth 'scapes i' tin? imminent' deadly breach," lie told how his parents were poor but honest, how he had been the architect of his own fortune, how he had rendered public service as a councillor of some suburban borough, and had been instrumental in getting a pump erected in tin; principal street. All these things were gravely taken down by the book agent, and then he asked his victim, who by this time was in full sail of vanity, to sign the notes, to "authenticate them in order to satisfy the publishers." The signature obtained, all was plain sailing. The agent had simply to transfer it to an order ■for the work. No doubt in most cases tin; man took the book, and said nothing. But. one strong-minded man resisted, and the case came to trial. Tho agent swore that a man named Forrest signed the order for the book, and not an account, of his life only, and upon this a verdict was given for the plaintiff. But subsequently a charge of perjury was laid, and the book agent was committed for trial. At the Criminal Court the other day Hall, the book agent, was put on his trial, and the jury, after only five minutes' consultation, brought in a verdiet of guilty. A book agent coming j into Court lias small chance with a I jury. But oik; impressive lesson to be I gathered from the circumstances is, I beware of a man when he begins to i tickle your vanity.