He Quits?

E. Haldeman-Julius of Girard, Kan., publisher of the famed "Little Blue Books" at 5c each (provided one buys not less than a dollar's worth), last week advertised:

"I QUIT! On June 33, I shall quit publishing Little Blue Books! Order till then at 5c.

"I am going to stop because I must give my full attention to my immensely successful Haldeman-Julius Monthly--The Enterprise of Bringing out 842 Good Books has been Sensational-over 75,000,000 sold in Five Years--

"Here is sound advice: Do not buy a mere 25 or 30 books--Do as most are doing by ordering 100 or 200 titles, or better still an entire set of 842 titles. Invest today in your future reading. This is your final opportunity."

Skeptics muttered. "Can it be?" said they. "With 842 books edited, set up in type--only needing advertising and the grinding of the printing press to sell the output--can it be that Mr. Haldeman-Julius cannot spare the time to sell them? Can it be that the Halde-man-Julius 60-page monthly magazine with a circulation of 400,000 must have all of Mr. Haldeman-Julius' time? Can it be that the Little Blue Books--of which 75,000,000 have been sold in five years--can no longer be sold in sufficient numbers to be profitable?"

Other skeptics made answer: "It is likely that there will still be a limited number of books remaining for sale after June 30. It is possible that there will be such an overwhelming demand --so many outraged protests from citizens at seeing the Nation deprived of such a valuable source of reading matter, that Mr. Haldeman-Julius will be reluctantly persuaded to continue publishing them for a 'limited time.'

Said apostles of Mr. Haldeman-Julius: "Some publishers, with a less high standard than that of Mr. Haldeman-Julius, might succumb to the more or less persistent supplications of the public. But not Mr. Haldeman-Julius! It is unthinkable."