E. C. Eastman, the principal bookseller, publisher, and stationer in Concord, is located opposite the State House, next door south of the Eagle Hotel. Mr. Eastman deals in standard publications of all kinds, stationery of every description, and fancy goods in an almost endless variety. He constantly keeps a large and carefully selected stock. He boasts that he keeps the best pens, ink, pencils, paper, town and legal blanks, to be found in the State. An inspection of his stock will readily show that he is not far out of the way in this assertion. He is one of the oldest publishers in New Hampshire, as the successor of Jacob B. Moore, and later the immediate successor of Parker Lyon, who followed Mr. Moore. He publishes several standard works, like the "Life of Gen. Stark," "Robinson Crusoe," and others; and some of his publications reach an edition of forty thousand each, annually. He has published several local historical works, and does a large wholesale business in stationery, etc., besides enjoying a fine trade in school-books and school-apparatus. Eastman's pencils and pens have won a national reputation, and have been adopted by many school-boards and mercantile firms throughout the country. "Eastman's White Mountain Guide," and "Leavitt's Farmers' Almanac," are among his publications, either of which is sufficient to gain him a reputation as a publisher all over New England, where he has long and favorably been known. He has been quite a traveller himself, especially in the White Mountain region; and it is a rare pleasure indeed to listen to his faithful and living descriptions of those regions, and the historical incidents connected therewith. One can almost imagine himself beholding the beauties and glories which he is wont to vividly depict of that wonderful region, which his publication so truthfully portrays. The daily habitués of his store embrace the elite of Concord's society,—the clergy, men of letters and refinement, and ladies of culture and reading. He always keeps the latest respectable works on his shelves; and they are also adorned with all the standard publications to suit the taste of, and please, littérateurs, and lovers of poetry, history, drama, and fiction. Here one can delight in all that is wholesome in the way of literary pabulum, whatever his taste or inclination may be. A visit to Eastman's bookstore is like that to a "world's palace," or a museum of art,—delightsome, enchanting, and refreshing. Mr. Eastman has a natural and readily acquired taste for his business; and it has built itself up about him as apple-blossoms come out upon the perfect tree, scattering their fragrance everywhere. His store is a credit to the capital city; and the fact that it is so largely and so liberally patronized, bespeaks well for the culture, education, and refinement of the city, which has been greatly improved in the last generation.
Humphrey, Dodge, & Smith, the leading firm of hardware dealers, carry the largest and most complete stock of any firm in Central or Northern New Hampshire. They occupy the old stand in Exchange Block, next to Eagle-Hotel Block, on Main Street, where they have so long done a large and flourishing business in standard heavy, light, and fancy hardware, as well as carpenter's tools of every description. Their stock of planes, handsaws, agricultural tools and implements, is always of the largest and best. They make a specialty of iron and steel, springs and
