If at odd moments I wish that by chance poor
Yorick had fallen to my care, the wish is only halfhearted, though had
that happened, I would have given him welcome to the choicest corner
in my study and tenderly cherished him for the sake of one who comes no
more.
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER
One that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
--_King Lear._
THE material for this paper on the autograph hunter, his ways and his
manners, has been drawn chiefly from experiences not my own. My personal
relations with him have been comparatively restricted, a circumstance
to which I owe the privilege of treating the subject with a freedom that
might otherwise not seem becoming.
No author is insensible to the compliment involved in a request for his
autograph, assuming the request to come from some sincere lover of
books and bookmen. It is an affair of different complection when he is
importuned to give time and attention to the innumerable unknown who
"collect" autographs as they would collect postage stamps, with no
interest in the matter beyond the desire to accumulate as many as
possible.
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