DEMAND FOR FAMILY BIBLES.
“People who deal in Bibles,” says the December Chautauquan, “say that the demand for family Bibles, having the family records between the two Testaments, has almost wholly ceased. They do not know whether this is because family prayers have almost ceased, or are said to have done so, or whether their place is being taken by teachers’ Bibles, the sales of which are rapidly increasing. Some years since Bibles bore the Oxford imprint. Now almost all of the best Bibles are manufactured in this country. Some plates are brought from England, but for the most part these are reserved to print the cheaper Bibles, for the use of the Bible societies. One can buy Bibles at $400 a copy, but the Bible trade says the average price paid nowadays for Bibles is about $1.00. Apart from the American Bible Society and its auxiliaries, the public absorbs about 2,000,000 copies a year. Hence the general public of the United States spends $2,000,000 a year for Bibles at this end of this century. It is not so great a sum as it spends for tobacco or some other things, but Bible-sellers say it is a greater amount than ever before, and one that is steadily increasing.” And, sad to say, so also is the sum paid for tobacco and rum.