JONA. WILLIAMS, ESQ.

Franklin's reference to the Philadelphia manner of binding toy-books in
marbled paper indicates that this home-made product was already
displacing the attractive imported gilt embossed and parti-colored
covers used by Thomas, who seems never to have adopted this ugly dress
for his juvenile publications. As the demand for his wares increased,
Thomas set up other volumes from Newbery's stock, until by seventeen
hundred and eighty-seven he had reproduced practically every item for
his increasing trade. It was his custom to include in many of these
books a Catalogue of the various tales for sale, and in "The Picture
Exhibition" we find a list of fifty-two stories to be sold for prices
varying from six pence to a shilling and a half.

These books may be divided into several classes, all imitations of the
English adult literature then in vogue. The alphabets and primers, such
as the "Little Lottery Book," "Christmas Box," and "Tom Thumb's
Play-thing," are outside the limits of the present subject, since they
were written primarily to instruct; and while it is often difficult to
draw the line where amusement begins and instruction sinks to the
background, the title-pages can usually be taken as evidence at least of
the author's intention. These other books, however, fall naturally under
the heads of jest and puzzle books, nature stories, fables, rhymes,
novels, and stories--all prototypes of the nursery literature of to-day.

The jest and joke books published by Thomas numbered, as far as is known
to the writer, only five. Their titles seem to offer a feast of fun
unfulfilled by the contents. "Be Merry & Wise, or the Cream of the Jests
and the Marrow of Maxims," by Tommy Trapwit, contained concentrated
extracts of wisdom, and jokes such as were current among adults. The
children for whom they were meant were accustomed to nothing more
facetious than the following jest: "An arch wag said, _Taylors_ were
like _Woodcocks_ for they got their substance by their long bills."
Perhaps they understood also the point in this: "A certain lord had a
termagant wife, and at the same time a chaplain that was a tolerable
poet, whom his lordship desired to write a copy of verses upon a shrew.
I can't imagine, said the chaplain, why your lordship should want a
copy, who has so good an original." Other witticisms are not quotable.

[Illustration: _A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by
Isaiah Thomas_]