Congress, and another step thus taken toward the entire release from tax or encumbrance of the intercourse of one mind with another. Cheap postage is one of the latest signs of a high civilization; it is one of the most promising indications of our own future. pathic system of medicine was introduced, which has since become very extensively believed. As in regard to phrenology, it may be said of this system, that whether all its peculiar doctrines are true or false, it has at least done good indirectly, by operating to reduce the quantity of medicines given by the old-fashioned practitioners, and to direct Still one year later was discovered the their attention more than before to the very medical process, since termed "anæsthesia," important points of regimen, ventilation, which consists in rendering persons insensiand the other collateral departments of gen-ble by the inhalation of certain gases (nieral hygiene. trous oxide, ether, or chloroform), thus afAbout 1840 was introduced into this fording an opportunity of performing surgicountry the greatest improvement in picto- cal operations quite without the knowledge rial art since the discovery of painting in of the patient. The agonies suffered in the oils by John Van Eyck in the fifteenth cen- dentist's chair, or under the hands of the tury; the greatest discovery ever made in surgeon, and the not less tormenting pain that department of human knowledge; viz., of many nervous diseases, have thus been the art of taking pictures by the chemical much alleviated, and even entirely relieved. action of light, named, from its discoverer, In the same year was issued the first patdaguerreotyping; and various modifications ent for sewing machines, to Elias Howe, jr. of which are known as the talbotype, ambrotype, crystalotype, photograph, etc. These methods render it both easy and cheap to procure an absolutely and necessarily perfect representation of a person or a thing, Besides the pleasure of thus being enabled, at a trifling cost, to possess a whole gallery of perfect portraits of friends, this art has already been made useful in securing diagrams of lunar and other astronomical phenomena, and in taking pictures of buildings, landscapes, etc.; it has been applied to pur- An important outgrowth of one of the poses of scientific and medical discovery; departments of improvement which have and is now the basis of several processes of been described, is the modern hotel. The printing, and is largely used in the illustration of books, etc., etc. It is only necessary to allude to the very great saving of time, and strength, and health which these machines have effected; their effects are before the eyes of all. They are performing in a day the work of weeks, and doing very much to relieve women of a species of labor which was principally confined to them, but which consumed, in the merest petty drudgery, a wretchedly great proportion of their time, and often ruined health and destroyed life. American first-class hotel is an institution quite peculiar to this country, and inNot far from the same time, other sys- cludes within itself many of the various tems of medical treatment were introduced inventions which have just been cata-the "water-cure," or "hydropathic" sys- logued: splendid furniture, elaborate food, tem, which has proved very useful in certain economical and yet liberal housekeeping, classes of diseases; the "Swedish move- labor-saving machinery; in short, an unriment cure; the use of electricity and valled combination of the applications of magnetism, and later the "Lifting cure," human ingenuity to the improvement of doand "The Oxygen treatment." The first mestic life. named, besides a very simple mode of life, To recapitulate: It has thus been consists only in the application of water, at shown, though briefly and with many imvarious temperatures and in various ways; perfections, that the course of our nation and it is successfully practised in many es- during the ninety-seven years since the tablishments devoted to it. All these new Revolution, has been one of steadfast, essystems, though incomplete as modes of sential, and constant improvement in things treatment for all classes of diseases, have material and immaterial, physical and menexerted a modifying influence upon the tal, practical and ornamental; in business, regular practice. travel, dress, homes and home comforts, In 1845 the principle of cheap postage wealth, morals, intellect-in short, in every was established in this country by a law of department of human activity. BOOKS. CHAPTER I. BOOK TRADE-PUBLISHING-JOBBING- to supply the demand. In order to compare the book market of the United States with that of Europe, we may refer to the census re"YANKEE curiosity" is frequently a sub- turns of 1870. That informs us that in that ject of remark with the flippant writers and year there were 33,586,989 white persons in travellers of the old world, and if not always the country. Of these, 16,000,000 were over urged as a reproach, it is not seldom re- 20 years of age, and of these, 1,035,000 could ferred to in a deprecating sense by those who | neither read nor write, of whom 425,000 do not appreciate the immense activity of were aliens. We now turn to France, and intellect of which it is one manifestation. we find that there were 19,000,000 persons There is no doubt either of the existence of over 20 years of age; and of these, 5,700,the alleged curiosity, or that it sometimes 000 only could read and write, and the reexhibits itself in a ludicrous light; but it mainder, 13,300,000, could not. In other also manifests itself in the indefatigable in- words, there were, in the United States, vestigations to which nature and art are con- 14,650,000 readers of books, against 5,700,tinually subjected by the ever inquiring 000 in France. But there were, also, in the American mind. There result from those United States, 6,977.993 persons between 10 investigations, not the dreary metaphysical and 20. Of these, nearly 6,000,000 were in theories that are evolved from German con- school, and, as a consequence, bought and templation, but those countless inventions, read school-books. The ratio of these scholars improvements, and applications of mechani- to the whole number who can read and cal principles that are every year recorded in write must be the same in France. Hence the patent office, and the effects of which are there are, in fact, three times as many readseen in every department of industry. The ers in the United States as in France. religious and political assemblies; the amu- The making of books has kept pace with sing, instructive, and scientific addresses of the increasing demand for them. If we the lecture-room; and the marvellous circu- look back to the library of King Alfred, we lation of the public press, all reflect that thirst find that he gave 8 hydes of land for a book for knowledge which is a part of Yankee cu-on cosmography, brought from Italy by riosity. This, however, gives a still stronger Bishop Biscop. At such rates, none but a evidence of its vigor in the book trade, which, king could afford to buy a book; but, on the in the United States, shows an extent of other hand, there were few, even among sales that no other country can hope to ap-nobles, who could read if they had them! proach. It is based on the universal ability of the people to read, and on that " curiosity," or thirst for knowledge, which induces them to do so, accompanied by means to purchase books. The word "means" comprehends not only greater wealth on the part of the purchaser, but reduced prices for the books. The existence of 30,000,000 of people who can all read, supposes an immense market for books, that must be supplied; and happily, busy intellects have written, while the mechanical processes of -pub lishing have been developed in a marnne A modern canvasser would not have gotten There was no market, and no manufacture. "Thanks be to God! no son of mine, demonstration to me that the people of New England have a fine taste for good sense and polite learning, having already sold 1,200 of those poems. his name in advance for numbers to be left. Louis XI., of France, in 1471, was obliged to give security and a responsible endorser to the Paris faculty of medicine, in order to obtain the loan of the works of an Arabian This was pretty well for Richard Fry, and physician. The art of printing, which was we hope he had not then introduced the art introduced into England in 1474, had an of magnifying his sales on paper. That important influence upon the production of there were a number of booksellers then books, and this, probably, was the cause of doing well, is evident from the fact that Mr. a greater spread of learning, that reacted upon | John Usher had made his fortune at it 50 the demand. The Bible was the most com- years before; and in 1724 there was held a monly used, and these, in noble houses, with convention of Boston booksellers, to regulate heavy covers and clasps, were chained to the trade, and raise the price of some deshelves and reading-desks. In the sixteenth scriptions of books. The publication and and seventeenth centuries, books were mostly sale of books increased slowly, until the folio and quarto. But the dimensions of events of the war began to excite the minds books decreased as they became popularized, of the public, and works on those subjects and this was in proportion to the spread of were eagerly taken up. The practice was, to learning among the people. This went on some extent, to sell books in sheets, to be gradually, until both the market and supply bound as the purchaser might fancy-per were considerable, up to the eighteenth cen- haps to be uniform with his library. This tury. With the colonies of America is now done only where the work is sold in among whom both religious and political numbers by subscription. There was then views were based upon general education- less capital in the trade, and few were disschools became an institution, and in New posed to risk the amount required to get England the use of them an obligation. out large works of a standard character. From that time the market for books in- The cost was then more than it now is, and creased with the numbers of the people. the time required much longer to complete The first bookseller mentioned is Hezekiah and dispose of it. There was then formed, Usher, of Boston, in 1652; and his son, in 1801, the American company of booksellJohn Usher, is mentioned by a writer in ers, and these generally subscribed together 1686, as very rich, and as having "got his in the publication of a work, to guarantee estate by bookselling." That books, in the the outlay. There was a sort of union, that early part of the century, were by no means regulated the principles of publication, and abundant, or easy to be got at, is evident those who did not conform to these regulafrom what Franklin tells us of the difficulties tions were repudiated. School-books were, he encountered, and the great advantage he as a matter of course, as having the largest enjoyed, in having access to the library of a and steadiest market, the first that were exmerchant. The most of them were imported tensively published. A type of this class of at, no doubt, such expense as confined their books is Webster's Spelling-Book, which has general use to the better classes. Some grown with the country in a remarkable years after, viz., in 1732, at the time Franklin manner. In 1783, with the advent of the commenced the publication of " Poor Rich- peace, Mr. Noah Webster published his ard's Almanac," in Philadelphia, a Boston American spelling-book. The work became bookseller advertised as follows: a manual for all schools, and its influence has been immense, in giving uniformity to the language throughout the whole country. The "Yankee schoolmaster," who was raised upon that book, has gone forth into every section of the Union, spreading the fruits of that seed of knowledge, as writes Fitz-Greene Halleck: "Whereas it has been the common method of the most curious merchants of Boston to procure their books from London, this is to acquaint those gentlemen that I, the said Fry, will sell all sorts of account books, done after the most acute manner, for 20 per cent. cheaper than they can have them from London. "For the pleasing entertainment of the polite parts of mankind, I have printed the most beautiful poems of Mr. Stephen Duck, the famous Wiltshire poet. It is a full “Wandering through the southern countries, teaching The A, B, C, from Webster's spelling-book.' When it was first published, there were 3,000,000 people in the United States; there are now 39,000,000, and there have been 1830. The competition to which the large sold 54,000,000 copies of the work, or five demand for these works gave rise, broke for every four souls in the Union. The down old arrangements of the trade. The spelling-book was enlarged into a dictionary publishers thenceforth acted independently. in 1806, and immediately Dr. Webster went At the same time, the supply of desirable on with preparations for a still larger work. books from abroad, upon which there was no This occupied him 20 years of unremitting charge for copyright, was much increased; research, during which the sales of his spell- and as all the publishers were upon the same ing-book supported his family; in 1828 the footing in respect to those books, the comdictionary appeared in two quarto volumes. petition extended only to the mechanical Twelve years after, viz., in 1840, a new edi- process, reducing its cost to the lowest rates. tion made its appearance, greatly improved; The capitals of the publishing houses gradand since Dr. Webster's death, there have ually increased, but there was still great diffibeen two complete revisions of his great culty in getting an American book printed. dictionary, now known as Webster's Un- Cooper tells us, in the preface to his Pilot, abridged, viz., in 1847 and 1864, beside sev- that so great was the difficulty he encouneral partial revisions. Of this Unabridged tered in getting a printer to undertake it, that Dictionary, now a ponderous quarto of 1,840 he was obliged to write the last page of the pages, about 350,000 copies have been sold, story first, and have it set up and paged, to and a vastly greater number of the smaller insure the extent to which the matter would dictionaries, of which there are seven of dif- run. ferent sizes. The sales of the spelling-book are now about 1,500,000 copies annually. These works have exerted a powerful influence in giving uniformity and precision to the use of the language in all parts of the country, and as a result, there are fewer dialects here than in England. The publication of books is a business which has undergone many changes within the past hundred years. There has at all times been a limited amount of publishing of works by American authors, partly because it was so much more profitable to reprint foreign works on which there was no The publication of religious works was copyright, and which had already some repugreatly promoted by the societies formed, tation; and partly because in the early particularly the American Bible Society, struggle for national existence among a new which was formed in 1816; the Bible So- and not homogeneous people there was not ciety of Philadelphia in 1808; one in Con- the opportunity for that profound culture necticut in 1809; and also one in Massachu- and leisurely study which could alone make setts. The American Society in New York American works popular and successful to published, in its first year, 6,410 volumes, the publisher. There were, of course, exmostly Bibles and Testaments. In 1871, ceptions to this general rule; but for a long the issues were 1,196,797, and the whole period, publishers were shy of undertaking number during 56 years, was 28,601,489 vol- a work whose author had not already atumes of the Bible. A good copy of the Bi-tained a reputation abroad. The great bulk ble is sold for 60 cents, and a cheaper edition of publishing was therefore limited to the at 35 cents; Testaments as low as 10 cents. Contrast this with the Bible copied in 22 years by Alcuin for Charlemagne about 800, and which was sold in modern times to the British Museum for $3,750, and the progress we have made appears great. The American Bible Union was organized fn 1850, and it has since issued 259,748,804 pages of matter, including Bibles. The publications by other societies have been considerable. reprinting of foreign works, sometimes with introductions, appendices or notes added here, but the reputation of the foreign author was the inducement to the publication. Matters have changed in this respect, and American copyright works now largely predominate. among the publishers' issues. The reprints in 1871 were nominally less than one-fifth, though really probably about one-fourth of the whole number of books published that year. These societies were not a portion of the For the first fifty or sixty years of our regular book trade, which continued to be national existence very few important origimostly under the association, until the ap-nal works were published except by "subpearance of the Waverly Novels in 1820 to scription;" the author or publisher issuing per cent., or in the case of a popular author a prospectus describing the work and by so- | wholesale or retail price of the book, as licitation in person or by letter, obtaining they can agree; or if they are confident of a sufficient number of subscribers to war- the success of the work they may pay ten rant its publication. Usually a subscription of from 1,200 to 2,000 was deemed sufficient to guaranty the success of the work, and if a larger number were printed they were disposed of at auction or to chance purchasers. There was, during the period of which we are speaking, no stereotyping; that process was then unknown, and all copies were printed direct from the types, while in books which required to be often reprinted, such as Bibles, Prayer and Psalm books, &c., the type was kept standing, involving a very heavy expense for the publisher. Under these circumstances there was little encouragement for the publisher to take any doubtful risks, and it is not surprising that so late as 1820 the whole number of books manufactured and published in a single year throughout the whole country should not have exceeded the value of $2,500,000, of which school books formed nearly one-third. Stereotyping, electrotyping, and wood engraving have effected great changes in these particulars, in the publishing trade. More than $40,000,000 worth of books are now issued in a single year. The large publish ing houses employ a "reader" and sometimes more than one, whose business it is to decide upon the merits of manuscripts of fered for publication, as well as to examine any foreign works which it may be thought desirable to reprint. These "readers" of course reject four or five manuscripts, and sometimes more, for every one they recommend; sometimes deciding unwisely, as when five or six of the ablest of them declined the manuscript of "Uncle Tom's Cabin,” in the belief that it would not sell; but generally with a judicious regard to the interests of their employers. If the book is accepted, the terms on which it shall be published are next to be considered. The publishing house may require the author to share the risk with them, by furnishing the cost of stereotyping, or possibly of manufacturing a first edition, to be reimbursed in whole or in part by a percentage on the sales ;- -a plan which though safe for the publisher, hardly leaves much margin of profit for the author;-they may require the author to make over to them all copyright till the cost of stereotyping is made up, and thereafter, allow them five, seven and one-half or ten per cent. on the up Whichever of these plans may be adopted, the manuscript is handed over to the printer to be set up. The "composition," or setting up the types, is conducted with more or less expedition according to the character of the matter. When set up, proofs are takenusually called "galley proofs," because they are impressions from the matter which is set up the width of the page or column, and of indefinite length, technically called “galleys." The proofs are carefully read by a professional proof-reader, and usually also by the author, after a first revision, and when corrected, the matter is made into pages with the requisite running titles and paging, and if any large sale is expected, the pages are either stereotyped or electrotyped. The plates, as these stereotypes or electrotypes are called, are next sent to the press-room, where paper of the proper size having been provided and prepared, the book is printed and goes to the binder, who, having folded, stitched, covered, stamped, and gilded it, delivers it at the publisher's warehouse, ready for market. If it is illustrated, the engravings are generally made while the work is going through the press. They considerably enhance the cost, but add also to the salableness of the work. At the time of putting the book on the market from one hundred to three hundred and fifty copies are sent to the members of the press, and two copies are sent to the Librarian of Congress, who is ex-officio the Register of copyrights. A considerable, often a large, sum is expen ded in advertising the book. Most of the |