In connexion with this body, an arrangement might be made whereby the trade assistants could have a separate establishment for educational and other matters connected with the trade. They should have the power of electing a certain number of members to represent them when any Trades Union or other difficult question came up for general consideration. The future is full of difficulties, and it is only through friendly discussions among the various representatives of all departments of the bookselling trade that these difficulties can be satisfactorily settled. The need for some progressive alteration in the trade must be apparent to every one associated with it, especially when we look back for some fifty years and remember the difficulties that then existed respecting the giving of discounts to the public, and then consider how during the terrible war now brought to a close and in the years since, the question of discounts has seldom arisen. Those who remember the difficulties which the discount system caused at the before-mentioned period will feel thankful for the part taken in its abolition by the united action of the Publishers' and Booksellers' Associations, and especially by the general establishment of the net book system and in many cases the doing away with the odd copy. But this subject has been more fully dealt with in the chapter on Underselling. It is, however, only by trade organization that difficulties which must in future arise can be solved, and it is to be hoped that it will further the interest of the assistants and the younger members of the trade so that instead of that want of knowledge which we often hear expressed, we shall have men engaged who are worthy of their craft, and with altered surroundings bookselling, if not regarded as a profession, may be considered as an occupation of light and leading. I have not dealt here with what is known as the second-hand bookseller. He is the one individual in our trade whom I envy. It is true that while he deals with the books of the past the ordinary bookseller deals with those of the present, and those to come. His knowledge, however, of his particular branch of trade is, I think, wonderful, for not only does he know the history of a book from its birth to its place upon his shelves, but a little conversation with him and a walk round his shop and the taking down some of the books from their shelves, is sufficient to make any book-lover forget this world in the pleasure and imaginings of those precious treasures which to know is to revere. CHAPTER V Some Personal Associations I have entitled this chapter "Some Personal Associations," and will first speak of a great and happy event which was only ended after forty-three years of married life.