to see all of them. The Library of Congress
possesses thirty-five years of these issues.

A word may be added as to early newspapers, of some special numbers of
which prices that are literally "fabulous" are recorded. There are many
reprints afloat of the first American newspaper, and most librarians have
frequent offers of the Ulster County, (N. Y.) Gazette of Jan. 10, 1800,
in mourning for the death of Washington, a genuine copy of which is worth
money, but the many spurious reprints (which include all those offered)
are worth nothing.

Of many rare early books reprints or facsimiles are rife in the market,
especially of those having but few leaves; these, however, are easily
detected by an expert eye, and need deceive no one.

Of some scarce books, it may be said that they are as rare as the
individuals who want them: and of a very few, that they are as rare as
the extinct dodo. In fact, volumes have been written concerning extinct
books, not without interest to the bibliomaniac who is fired with the
passion for possessing something which no one else has got. Some books
are quite as worthless as they are rare. But books deemed worthless by
the common or even by the enlightened mind are cherished as treasures by
many collectors. The cook-book, entitled _Le Pastissier francois_, an
Elzevir of 1655, is so rare as to have brought several times its weight
in gold. Nearly all the copies of some books have been worn to rags by
anglers, devout women, cooks, or children.

When a book is sold at a great price as "very rare," it often happens
that several copies come into the market soon after, and, there being no
demand, the commercial value is correspondingly depressed. The books most
sure of maintaining full prices are first editions of master-pieces in
literature. Fitzgerald's version of Omar Khayyam was bought by nobody
when Quaritch first published it in 1859. After eight years, he put the
remainder of the edition,--a paper-covered volume--down to a penny each.
When the book had grown into fame, and the many variations in later
issues were discovered, this first edition, no longer procurable, rose to
L21, the price actually paid by Mr. Quaritch himself at a book auction in
1898!

Auction sales of libraries having many rare books have been frequent in
London and Paris. The largest price yet obtained for any library was
reached in 1882-3, when that of Mr. Wm. Beckford brought L73,551, being
an average of nearly $40 a