Quaint corners in Philadelphia, with one hundred and seventy-four illustrations . under a bushel. In a very well-known bookstore in Philadelphia, one clerk after an-other was intrusted with the charge of the did his best, but his work could not be pronounceda success. Finally there appeared the one who hadlong been \vanted. He stepped into the window andpiled up in tempting rows, as if to the manner born, thenewest and the oldest editions, and he threw carelesslyforward the latest thing in the way of travels and thefreshest in esthetic illustration. This he did as if hewere thinki
Quaint corners in Philadelphia, with one hundred and seventy-four illustrations . under a bushel. In a very well-known bookstore in Philadelphia, one clerk after an-other was intrusted with the charge of the did his best, but his work could not be pronounceda success. Finally there appeared the one who hadlong been \vanted. He stepped into the window andpiled up in tempting rows, as if to the manner born, thenewest and the oldest editions, and he threw carelesslyforward the latest thing in the way of travels and thefreshest in esthetic illustration. This he did as if hewere thinking of nothing less than of the approbationof the public. Yet his taste was so unerring that hiswindow was attractive to all classes of men, from thosewho love the graceful curves and strange unearthlinessof Blakes pictures or an edition Oe hixe of Shakspeare,to those who like to laugh with Tom Jones or evenwith Mother Goose. Quite an education could be ac-quired if we studied these windows as Robert Houdindid those of Paris. Other shops sometimes seem to aim 248 A STLVAX THE OLD at oduratinij; the pcojjlc ; for ifa tradesman liai^^a specialstock of uoods to which he wishes (o call attention, heacconipHshes this hy practical ilhislration of how thearticUs in (piestion are made, and his window becomestor (lie time llic workshop of a wood-carver, a silk-wcavcr. or a Ldass-cuuraver. as the case maybe. Themain (»hjrct. however, heiug not to spread knowledije,lull to cliaiin. ensnare and exhaust financially man-kind at lari^e. it tliis can he accompli>hed by group- snap wixDows. 249 iiig together incongruous elements, incongruity is nevero])jected to. Those tradesmen who cater to vulgartastes, do all thev can to satisf}^ the curiosity whiclirevels in the ahnormal. A keeper of a down-townrestaurant once placed in his window a malformedpig preserved in alcohol and surrounded it with fresh
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbarberedwinatlee18511, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
