"Let us try your case by admitted principles. Inasmuch as you put
yourself into Mr. Hunt's hands to do what was right, he was bound to
pay you as much as others receive upon whose winnings the same profits
are made. This is Law, Gospel, & Co. If he did more, it would be
generosity; if less, meanness or worse.
"He agreed for ten per cent. on the 'City Lights,' and pays you fifteen
cents per copy, which is exactly right if it retailed at one dollar
fifty cents; and he pays you the same on the rest, I understand you.
"Whether he was reasonable in asking you to assent to the fifteen cents
per copy depends on his sales. If they were very small, he would make
less than if large. I suppose you own the copyright, but he owns the
stereotype plates, which cost the same whether many or few copies are
printed. If when paper, and so forth, increased in value, he increased
the price _pro rata_, and the sales continued the same, he made a
larger profit, and should pay you more; that is, your percentage
should continue as large. Now, if he sends you any proper accounts of
sales, they will tell the story as to the number of copies sold, but
not whether they cost fifty or a hundred per cent. more than formerly.
Jackson or any book-publisher would know as to that.
"It would seem that you have received the minimum price, according
to Jackson and the Segregationalissuemost, and my own notions. Your
books are well printed on tinted paper, and your _notions_ may have
abridged the profits. I mean you may have required expensive editions,
more so than was profitable; but I think not. Will you just show me
your contracts and accounts of sales.... I am bound professionally to
secresy, and my habits are fixed, so that I tell nobody other people's
affairs.
"It is due to Mr. Hunt that you investigate the matter to some
conclusion.... Mr. Hunt mistook your position. Your ready assent to
his proposition and your confidence in him, which rendered any sharp
bargaining unnecessary on your part, was interpreted as inability to
comprehend matters of business; and so they said you understood it
once, and will again when you are where you can be talked to. You gave
no heed to what was said, and it is a waste of ink to write it all out!
"But you and I know better. Your mind is logical, and your simplicity
as to business a sham."