Are You a Bromide‪?‬

“I don’t know much about Art, but I know what I like.” To Gelett Burgess, that familiar assurance is not just a remark—it’s a diagnosis.

In this 1906 comic essay, Burgess sorts the social world into Bromides, who repeat the obvious with unshakable confidence, and Sulphites, who think for themselves and keep everyone guessing. His evidence is the everyday talk we barely notice: the weather, the telephone, marriage, money, even the dog that “understands every word.” Yet originality is no guarantee of good manners—or good sense; a Sulphite may delight, unsettle, or shock. As Burgess follows the divide through conversation and character, one question keeps nibbling at the reader: which kind are you—and what would your friends say?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.