Where did we get this story? would you like to know?
We got it from the basket that the wastepaper is thrown into.
Many a good and rare book has been taken to the delicatessen store and
the grocer's, not to be read, but to be used as wrapping paper for starch and
coffee, beans, for salted herring, butter, and cheese. Used writing paper has
also been found suitable.
Frequently one throws into the wastepaper basket what ought not to go
there.
I know a grocer's assistant, the son of a delicatessen store owner. He has
worked his way up from serving in the cellar to serving in the front shop; he
is a well-read person, his reading consisting of the printed and written
matter to be found on the paper used for wrapping. He has an interesting
collection, consisting of several important official documents from the
wastepaper baskets of busy and absent-minded officials, a few confidential
letters from one lady friend to another - reports of scandal which were not
to go further, not to be mentioned by a soul. He is a living salvage
institution for more than a little of our literature, and his collection covers a
wide field, he has the run of his parents' shop and that of his present master
and has there saved many a book, or leaves of a book, well worth reading
twice.
He has shown me his collection of printed and written matter from the
wastepaper basket, the most valued items of which have come from the
delicatessen store. A couple of leaves from a large composition book lay
among the collection; the unusually clear and neat handwriting attracted my
attention at once.
“This was written by the student,” he said, “the student who lived
opposite here and died about a month ago. He suffered terribly from
