Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/458

418 4i 8 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. ing each order with the works they have in hand, the " collectors " are furnished with lists of the books required from other houses. The " collector " is by no means an unimportant person in a publisher's establishment; though "seedy" in attire and suspicious in general appearance, he is entrusted with large sums of money, for the cheaper publications are all paid for in ready cash. Bag in hand he rushes in hot haste all over London, and with an impudent tongue and a pair of brawny shoulders, thrusts himself to the front place before each publisher's counter. As we listen for a moment to the reply he receives as to the price of a cheap periodical, we may gain an insight into the middleman's system of profit. " Sixes are fours and twelves are thirteens !" yells the shop-boy, the which being interpreted means that the whole- sale price of the sixpenny periodical in question is fourpence, and that thirteen copies go to the dozen. The bustle at each establishment is, of course, greatly increased by the fact that each house has to supply the wants of others, as well as to satisfy its own all the counters of the wholesale booksellers being filled with screeching collectors, with greedily- gaping bags. Early in the afternoon, however, the collectors return, and now the books, magazines, and invoices are carried into the packing department, and such works as could not be obtained are written off as " out of print," &c. Packing is an art not easily acquired, and necessitates the patient and skilful use of much brown paper, and, in many houses, of paper- pulp stereo-moulds, by way of stiffening. The smaller parcels are finished first, and as soon as all are ready for removal the carriers' carts and vans arrive ; all entering the Row in regular order from