tection of American industry through taxation, but its protection through simple plunder, or threats of plunder, loses ground every day. The present bill is the simplest thing imaginable. It recognizes in an author who comes here with a book a civilized man, entitled to all the privileges and immunities on our soil which American authors receive on his. If he brings his book with him, printed and ready for sale, it leaves it to be taxed by the tariff 25 per cent. ad valorem. If he comes with his manuscript, it leaves him free to choose his own publisher and make his own terms just as his American confrère is left, and covers his contract with the protection of the law. It does nothing, in fact, but put literary property on the same footing as all other property, from which it differs only in being more readily stolen. BLIND LEADERS IN THE COPYRIGHT MATTER. From the New York Commercial Advertiser. It is true, as the Evening Post said yesterday, that the subject of international copyright is one of those things which are much talked about and little understood; and perhaps the chief reason for the imperfect understanding that prevails is that a certain group of writers on the subject habitually confuse counsel by making precisely such incomplete and misleading statements of the case as that put forth by our contemporary in the article referred to. The statement there made entirely ignores one half of the matter and that the more important half-and is mischievously inaccurate as to one half of what it recognizes as the substance of the question. It is true that one great reason for urging the adoption of international copyright measures is that our failure to do so licenses the robbery of foreign authors. Against this the moral sense of people who think about the matter revolts, and common decency should impel us to repair the wrong. But it should be remembered also that the foreign author is not the only victim of this dishonesty. He is not, indeed, the person must deeply wronged or most destructively robbed. The American author suffers doubly. His books are printed abroad by publishers who are not half so conscientious or so liberal in recognizing his moral right to compensation as our more reputable booksellers are in their dealings with foreign writers, and, worse still, in his own home market he is subjected to a ruinously unfair competition with reprints that cost nothing. The wonder is that he is able to live at all. He is robbed by his own people, and robbed by the foreigners as well, while the worst from which the foreign author suffers is robbery in this country. Yet the Evening Post, in an article avowedly intended to promote a clear understanding of the subject, neglects, even by so much as a hint, to recognize the wrong and injustice done to him, and, through him, to the people generally who are deprived of a fair chance to have a native literature, worthily reflecting American life and thought. The injustice done to the foreign author ought to be reason enough for the passage of a bill establishing international copyright; but the daily robbery inflicted by American law, or want of law, upon the American author and the American people, is much the weightier consideration of the two. It is like the impracticables, whose case the Evening Post sustains, to leave it out of the account altogether. Our contemporary, neglecting the more important aspect of the matter, unfairly presents the aspect which it recognizes. It insists that to impose manufacturing conditions of any kind upon the grant of copyright to foreign authors would be iniquitous. They should have copyright, it contends, upon the same terms that are given to our own authors. To that we answer very well; but without conditions the terms would not be the same. The American author rightly or wrongly--is subjected by American law to certain conditions, to which the foreign author would not be subject if a copyright law without equalizing terms were enacted. The American must publish his book here, where the cost of making it is much greater than in England, and greater by reason of our own laws. Permission to publish it abroad and import it would in most cases be inoperative, for reasons which are obvious. Practically, whatever the law may provide, the American author must publish his copyright book in this country, if he publishes at all. Why, then, should we not exact like terms of the foreign author in extending copyright protection to him? Neglecting to do so, we shall place him, by our own law, at a distinct disadvantage in his own country, and justice to foreign authors does not require that, while justice to our own writers clearly forbids it. If we extend to foreign authors the protection of our copyright laws upon condition that they shall register their works as our own authors are required to do, and print and publish them here as our own authors must, we shall do all that justice to them requires and all that justice to our own literary workers permits. We have many times given our reasons for believing that no copyright bill which neglects to provide such conditions can be passed in Congress; the reasons why no such bill ought to pass seem to us equally clear. It is true that as an offset to the inequality in the cost of manufacture in England and the United States, there is a duty of twenty-five per cent levied upon imported books. But apart from the fact that such a duty is insufficient to equalize the conditions, it is one of the duties most likely to be speedily repealed, and the Evening Post, we think it safe to assume, would earnestly favor its repeal. With that duty removed and unconditional copyright granted to foreign works, the plight of our own literature would be pitiable. Not only would our authors have to compete in the sale of their books with the far less costly book manufactures of England; they would in effect be compelled to submit their works to English publishers, who know them very imperfectly, and who are so far away that they must be dealt with at very long arm's length or through agencies. The profitable employment given to many writers by American publishers in revising and editing would be taken away, and a fruitful source of income to American men of letters would be destroyed by transfer to London. Our literature would be subjected to a London censorship, the literary life would become practically impossible here, and literary activity in America would be confined to the few who have independent means of livelihood. The truth is that there are conclusive reasons for the adoption of a properly conditioned law, while one without conditions would only increase the wrong and injustice which it should remove. THE UNITED STATES AND COPY RIGHT. From the London Publishers' Circular. SIR: I have just returned from an extensive tour through the United States. During my journey I came into contact with many publishers who received me with the right hand of good-fellowship. I also met many American authors; I even fell into a nest of them, and I felt like Daniel among the lions, but they did not rend me to pieces; I am still alive to tell the tale-indeed, I am bound to say that they vied with the publishers in trying which could receive me with most cordiality. The crimes committed by English publishers upon American authors were abundantly set forth for my entertainment and edification, but, luckily for me, I was not regarded as one of the offenders. As regarded an International Copyright Law, I was glad to find a quite unanimous desire on the part both of authors and publishers for the protection which such a law is expected to afford; among authors generally, the prevailing tone of opinion is that justice can only be met by a pure and simple copyright law from which "manufacturing clauses" and trade interests generally should be wholly excluded, and many publishers advocate the same thing. The American PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY has been very active lately in keeping the subject prominently before the public. In its issue of November 7th it publishes the remarks of nearly fifty American authors which accompanied the return of their signatures to a memorial prepared by the editor on the question of international copyright; the terms of the memorial are withheld until it has been transmitted to Congressmen-but in the remarks I note that out of forty-eight who have thus recorded their opinions, thirty-four ask for copyright pure and simple, while six only are in favor of a manufacturing clause, and the remainder express no opinion on that point. Some of them complain, perhaps not without cause, of their serious losses in England through cheap and unpaid reprints. Mr. E. P. Roe writes: "While on a recent lecture trip in Canada I found my books as thick as blackberries-on the trains my own books, stolen, were offered for my purchase. I had the feeling that before I got back to the States I might have to buy my own valise and overcoat." Mr. Roe made a similar complaint to me as to his books in England. In fact I find American authors now are uttering the same old cry about piracy in England as used to be the fashion with English authors, but long since found to be vain and useless, as to reprints of their books in America. But in this respect the bitter cry of English authors had, and still has more justice in it than that of American authors, seeing that the latter can by proper management secure themselves in England against all pirates, which an English author cannot by any possibility do in America. A a curious comment on Mr. E. P. Roe's remarks, I may mention that I travelled far and wide in America, and I was not very much surprised to notice that, in every hotel where they kept a bookstall, as is frequently the case, in every railroad car, at every book station from New York to Niagara, Chicago, St. Paul, and thousands of miles further in that great country, the chief books offered for sale were cheap reprints of English authors. I found this to be the case in the great corn, cattle, and mining centres of the West, in such places as Minneapolis, Helena Butte, in Cheyeune, Omaha, etc. In Salt Lake City the interest, perhaps, was about equally divided between English and Mormon authors. But otherwise American authors seemed almost to be nowhere. How is this? I thought. Are there no American authors whose works the American public care to read? The answer is not far to seek. American publishers will not pay American authors while they can take English authors for nothing. The cry for cheap literature on the part of the American public is all very well, but it should not be allowed to stifle native literature and crush it out of the market. Here appears to me to lie the strongest argument that Americans can have to bring before their Legislature. We want protection for our authors that they may get something out of their works when sold in America, and American authors want a copyright quite as much for the encouragement of their own native literature, and protection for it against a superabundant foreign supply-as they do for protection of their rights in foreign lands. I cannot help regretting that the energies of the American WEEKLY are not directed to the one sole object of a pure and simple copyright. It suggests, I had almost said erects, a Frankenstein bugbear in the shape of "a manufacturing clause," about which Congressmen know little and care less, and then almost falls down and worships the goblin, protesting all the time that it would far rather be without it. The PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY is willing to swallow a half-cake now in the hope of something better turning up in years to come. The editor should have taken the firm stand which is represented in the letter which he published of Mr. W. M. Griswold, who says: "I prefer that the reform should be postponed for a generation rather than that a manufacturing clause' should be embodied in it;" or, as Mr. Charles Dudley Warner puts it, am decidedly in favor of insisting upon a simple international copyright for authors without any reference to publishers, printers, or importers." I Let American authors and publishers be assured of this one fact, viz., that as a matter of commercial or pecuniary interest English publishers have less reason to desire an international law than any other people. It will open up a new field of enterprise for American publishers in Great Britain, giving them two markets where before they had but one, while the English publisher is excluded from the American market by a heavy tariff, which tariff, even if wholly removed, would still leave the advantages largely on the American side. The manufacturing clause is not per se an object of dread to us, the American public are really far more interested in it, and Congressmen may fairly ask why the American public must pay more for their books, simply because two expenses of manufacture have been incurred where one is sufficient. One of the results of an open competition would be that sometimes plates of English editions would be made for the English market in America and sometimes plates would be sold from English to American publishers; these would be matters of mutual arrangement between authors and publishers on both sides, and would and should have nothing whatever to do with a pure and simple copyright, beyond being a natural result from it. Every man in making his own bargain would know exactly what he was bargaining for without any fear of being handicapped by piracy, or by onesided "manufacturing clauses." printed on both side of the paper, and possess only one copy, it is very convenient to know how to detach the one side from the other. The paper when split, as may be imagined, is [Since the above interesting and practical let-jected to the operation, and the printing-ink more transparent that it was before being sub E. M. somewhat duller; otherwise the two pieces prebrought together. Some time ago the informasent the appearance of the original if again tion of how to do this splitting was advertised to be sold for a considerable sum. impart it to all our readers gratuitously. JOURNALISTIC NOTES. We now H. GREGORY, Providence, R. I., has commenced the publication of a little monthly sheet -similar to Mr. Rider's Book Notes-entitled The Book Hunter. The Book Buyer, (published by Charles Scribner's Sons,) beginning with the new year will be enlarged. Every number will hereafter be illustrated, and the series of authors' portraits will be continued. The subscription price will be raised to $1 a year. ter has been received our attention has been attracted by a leaderette which appeared in the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY of November 14th. Our impression is that the editor is in the position of an unsteady steersman, who is doubtful which wind to catch in the copyright race. The hesitation fully confirms the remarks of E. M. in the foregoing letter. In the first place the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY draws attention to the fact that the Copyright League has decided to give its support to Senator Hawley's bill for international copyright pure and simple, which the Senator undertakes to push vigorously in the Senate. From this, the editor understands, that "the League declines to put itself on record as willing to accept any kind of compromise," and he doubts the wisdom of the course which "depends upon the possibility of getting through Congress a bill going so far as the Hawley bill." The PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY will "be glad to do everything that it can to promote in- issue of the year to a review of "The World's THE Boston Literary World devoted the last ternational copyright to the fullest extent," and Literature in 1885," which is a model of painshopes to be, as it already has been, of service taking and accurate work. The survey is dieither to those who desire international copyright and will have no compromise, or to those vided geographically into ten sections, and under each section the classification is arranged who desire international copyright only if it is accompanied with a printing clause!" (The italics according to the relative importance of the works produced in the several departments. Thus, biare ours.) This assertion of neutrality is in our opinion, dangerous to the cause, especially when ography heads the list in the United States, while it ranks third in Great Britain, where backed by an editorial declaration regretting "very much what seems to be the temper of poetry takes the lead, which in America is briefly summed up under the "Miscellaneous." the League, because it is likely to prove an obThe few brief descriptive or critical words given struction to real reform." What obstruction to real reform" can be seen in the support of a to every book mentioned show thorough knowllaw of copyright pure and simple? The obstruc-edge of their contents, and on cursory reading tionists are those who do not make a steady effort in one direction until the purpose of the movement has been realized.-Ed. P. C.] HOW TO SPLIT A SHEET OF PAPER. From the Paper Trade Journal. IT is one of the most remarkable properties of that wonderful product, paper, that it can be split into two or even three parts, however thin the sheet. We have seen a leaf of the Illustrated News thus divided in three parts, or three thin leaves. One consisted of the surface on which the engravings are printed; another was the side containing the letter press, and a perfectly blank piece on each side was the paper that lay between. Many people who have not seen this done might think it impossible; yet it is not only possible, but extremely easy, as we shall show: Get a piece of plate-glass and place on it a sheet of paper; then let the latter be thoroughly soaked. With care and a little dexterity the sheet can be split by the top surface being removed. Bnt the best plan is to paste a piece of cloth or strong paper to each side of the sheet to be split. When dry, violently and without hesitation pull the two pieces asunder, when part of the sheet will be found to have adhered to one and part to the other. Soften the paste in water and the pieces can easily be removed from the cloth. The process is generally demonstrated as a matter of curiosity, yet it can be utilized in various ways. If we want to paste in a scrap-book a newspaper article tisanship, obligations, or grudges." The necrolseem to be, as claimed, entirely free from "parogy of the literary names for 1885 occupies two columns of nonpareil type. This is an unusually interesting number, which will be of great use for reference. claimed, will contain twenty thousand addresses with financial standing. THE POPE MANUFACTURING CO., Boston, have published a Columbia Bicycle Calendar." Each of the 365 slips which make up the pad gives, in addition to the date, a cycling quotation, newsy, informing, or otherwise interesting; in fact, it is, in miniature, a virtual encyclopædia upon this universally utilized "steed of steel." EDWARD BIERSTADT, New York, has issued a collection of seventy-four artotype views of scenes among the Adirondacks, entitled Among the Mountains and Lakes of the North Woods. There are two editions-one printed on tinted paper, bound in imitation birch-bark covers. The other comprises the same views, with ten additional ones, on India paper with large margins. HOYT, FOGG & DONHAM, Portland, Me., have, in preparation a volume to be entitled "The Triangular Society." The purpose of this book -or one of its purposes-is the delineation of life in a Maine household, whose occupants, a mother and her two children, a daughter employed in a newspaper office, and a son still in school, relate their adventures at home and abroad, and sometimes cheat the long winter evenings by reading to one another articles in prose and verse, the family forming a Triangular Club. A CORRESPONDENT of the Nation claims to have discovered that "Les Miserables," as published in three volumes by Ward, Lock & Co., is incomplete and untrustworthy as to translation. He also claims that this house gives the impression that "By the King's Command," as they publish it, is either a part of "Les Miser Chris and Otho, by J. P. Smith. Carleton. S. E. BRIDGMAN & Co., NORTHAMPTON, MASS Williams's Redeemed Captive. Buck's Closet Companion. Frick's Physical Technics. 2 Modern France, Towle, Harper's Half Hour Series. WILLIAM J. CAMPBELL, PHILADELPHIA. Jacob & Walker's Chancery Reports, v. 2. For Better, for Worse, by George Augustus Sala. Gayarre's History of Louisiana. CUPPLES, UPHAM & Co., 283 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON. Set British Poets, 130 v., hf. cf., L., B. & Co.'s edition. Frederick Brooks's Sermons, with introduction by Phillips Brooks. Boston. E. DARROW & Co., ROCHESTER, N. Y. A Plain Commentary on the Four Gospels, by Dean Burgon, 2 v. ed. Richard MacCauley, Phila., 1868. ables," or a sequel to it. We learn that in the absence of Mr. Sandifer, the American representative, the matter has been referred to the English house, and a reply may, therefore, be expected at an early day. D. LOTHROP & Co. promise, for early publication, Social Studies in England," by Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton. The work will embrace such subjects as woman's higher education, the relations of labor and capital, and various philanthropic movements, art, and industrial establishments for women, etc. The many admirers of Canon Farrar's genius will be glad to know that a volume has been compiled from his writings, by Miss Rose Porter, and will soon be published by this house under the title of" Treasure Thoughts." E. P. DUTTON & Co., N. Y. Captain John Knox, Historical Journals. Bulwer's Works, Knebworth edition, old style, heavy paper, uncut edges. Swift's Tale of a Tub. Stover Dictionary, Chemical Solubility. Jones, Stockbridge Past and Present. Religious Denominations in U. S. Consuelo and Countess of Rudolstadt, tr. by Shaw. EATON & LYON, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 2 Harper's Young People, v. 1. Melville's Sermon's, James Miller, 2 v., $5. Dunglison's History of Medicine. V. G. Fisher, 529 15TH ST., WASHINGTON, D. C. Michaud's North American Silver (complete). White, W. F., Ants and their Ways. London Relig. Tr. Walsh, Report as State Entomologist of Illinois, 1867. Bulletin Buffalo Society Nat. Hist., v. 1, 1873.. Mushrooms and Toadstools, 9 large sheets, col. drawings, etc. W. G. Smith, 1867. U. P. JAMES, 177 RACE ST., CINCINNATI, O. Wood's Class Book of Botany, 2d ed., 1847. E. W. JOHNSON, 304 SIXTH AVE., N. Y. Magazine of Am. History, March, May, June, July and JORDAN BROS., 45 N. 9TH ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA. Voltaire's Hensiad, English translation. Hand-Book of Medieval History. McBurney and Neil. Pub. by Griffin. BOOKS WANTED.-Continued. KING BROS.,.3 FOURTH ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. Chambers's Biographical Dict. of Eminent Scotchmen, v. 5. Wright's Illustrated Book of Poultry, pt. 9. Lecky's European Morals, pt. 1. EDW. E. LEVI, PITTSBURG, PA. Edinburgh Review to 1849, or complete set, if cheap. Kirkwood's Report on Brooklyn Sewers and Water Works. Stockton's Western Speller. Pittsburg Directory for 1826 and 1827. Reynolds's Mysteries of the Court of London. Capt. John Knox's Historical Journals. J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO, PHILADELPHIA. Is our Republic a failure? by E. H. Watson. Authors' Publishing Co. Lock Box 1183, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Kate Kennedy, by Mrs. Newby. Paul Andenheim, by George Lippard. Liebig's Complete Work on Chemistry, 8°, cloth. Cousin Harry, by Mrs. Grey. A. L. LUYSTER, 98 NASSAU ST., N. Y. MCDONNELL BROS., 185 DEARBORN ST., CHICAGO. Harper's Weekly, 1858, complete v., and January 16; 1859, complete v., and July 16,-Aug. 27, September 17; 1874, October 31; 1878, Nov. 2; 1880, July 31; 1881, June 18 and 25, Dec. 11. JOSEPH MCDONOUGH, ALBANY, N. Y. Table Talk and Sayings of Napoleon Bonaparte. Sketches. Bleak House. F BUSINESS FOR SALE. OR SALE-A Philadelphia book store, located in the centre of the city on one of the main business streets, established in this location six years, and doing a paying business. Stock all new and fresh, composed of the fastselling standard books only-no old plugs or unsalable books whatever. Cheap rent. This store in the hands of a man understanding the business will pay $3000 per year clear of expenses. For further particulars and reasons for selling, address Crawford & Co., 47 N. 9th St., Philadelphia. SPECIAL NOTICES. COMPLETE sets of all the leading Magazines and Re views, and back numbers of some three thousand different periodicals, for sale, cheap, at the AMERICAN AND FOREIGN MAGAZINE DEPOT, 47 Dey Street, New York. NOTICE TO THE TRADE-If you require wants to complete serial publications, foreign or domestic, magazines, reviews, or periodicals of any description, the largest stock in the United States is to be found at JOHN BEACHAM'8, 7 Barclay Street, New York. SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL BOOKS, MINERALS, AND OTHER OBJECTS OF NATURAL HISTORY. A. E. FOOTE, M.D., No. 1223 Belmont Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., has just issued the largest catalogue of medical titles ever published. Send for specimen copy of 32 page illustrated Naturalist's Leisure Hour. School, College, Standard and Miscellaneous Books. 88 CHAMBERS STREET, Campbell's Reading Spellers, Allen's Composition Books, Continental Readers, Continental Copy Books, Continental Physiology, Economic Class Record, Campbell's Combination Blanks. NEW YORK, November 1st, 1885. I am prepared to furnish SCHOOL BOOKS in any condition, New, Shelf-worn, or Second-hand, and, in order to reduce stock, will offer special inducements to purchasers. Would be pleased to receive your full lists and will submit quotations. Send lists of Books you wish to dispose of and I will make offer. Would, at the same time, be glad to correspond in relation to the introduction and sale of my own Publications specified above. DANIEL VAN WINKLE, 88 Chambers St., N. Y. |