A RIVAL TO MUDIE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1896, 22 March 1880, Page 4

A RIVAL TO MUDIE.

There was a rumour in the air, to which I ventured to allude some weeks ago, that the great Mudie was to be opposed by another potentate—that there was to be a Battle of the Books, or at least of the circulating libraries, on a truly imperial scale—and that rumor has now taken shape. Sir Ooutts Lindsay is the doughty knight who has struck with the sharp end of his spear tho shield, of the magician of New Oxford street, and the hall from which he hails and where he designs to camp his opposition forces, is tho Grosvenor Gallery in Bond street. If rivalry is to be attempted at all, he is the man to carry it to a successful issue, but certes he will have his work to do, Mr Mudie is said to count his s übscribers by tens of thousands, and Mr W. H. Smith is not so far behind but that he galls his heels. And against both these men must Sir Coutts place lance in rest. He has money at his back, but his board of directors is but a narrow one, though curiously enough it comprises two authors, Mr Comyns Carr and Mr Sala. They are not novelists, it is true, but since they are makers of books sueh behaviour shows a high courage ; for it is not likely that Messrs Mudie and Smith will look with favor on their book for the future. To those who are not behind the scenes it is almost impossible to convey a sense of the important bearings that this new scheme may have upon literature, and especially upon literature of fiction. For every book that is bought now nine books are borrowed from the circulating libraries. The establishment of a third will probably increase the circulation of all good authors and I hope decrease that of bad ones. Indeed, one of the evils Sir Ooutts seek tos remedy is the ever-growing accumulation of trash. Whether from some arrangement over which he has no control or from ancient custom, Mr Mudie, it seems, takes some copies of everything, however feeble, and as these feeble works are very numerous, the money he spends on them, though ho buys them cheap, is sufficient to cripple him in the purchase of better books. Every country subscriber knows what a lot of things he doesn’t want come down in his book box in place of those ho does ; and of this rubbish Sir Coutts says he will have none. As to what will happen I suspend my judgment; but he is certainly a formidable foe, and the Grosvenor Gallery is a very convenient spot for him on which to pitch his camp.—“ Argus” Correspondent.