THE PRICE OF INK

Booksellers everywhere have had a welcome opportunity to forget their depressing post-Christmas trade. A new light of encouragement has been cast upon their slackened business. Out of the noise and traffic of a materialistic metropolis has come the report that literature still commands enormous prices. For the purchase of valuable collections at public auction, buyers were not found wanting, even though the bidding ran unusually high.

One of the most--interesting of the recent sales has been that of a perfect copy of Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" for $28,000. If money can be considered a criterion of any value, it apparently indicates in this case that the plump little Mr. Pickwick still does not fall to cut a favorable figure, while the Messrs. Weller and Snodgrass empty the wine keg. Such characters as these are too well established in literature to be dislodged by any trifling fancies of the time.

Coming so soon after Christmas, this auction of books has another interesting feature. In spite of the bewildering atmosphere of the holiday rush, all good taste in the selection of valuable manuscripts has not been lost. The American people, so often labeled as materialistic, show they also possess an appreciation of aesthetic values.