The Portland daily press., 1879-02-22

~"A-0' LAW luC odulc atttSuuCnb " Soin
that we have to pipes: it Is not right we
should; still man may be excused for be.
lieVing that the money he owns belongs 10
him. Even rich people have t..eir feel
ings.
In a line with the Communistic claims to
pipes Though the principle of Communism is
not so badly set forth and the assault seems
10 be chiefly made on the theory of rent) Is
the assumption, which Yorick regrets to see
advanced in paper proiessedly religious,
that those who own books should lend them
to those who are bookless. The proposition
is put in specious form. 1t is gravely urged
that those who have garnered the sheayes of
knowledge should, in the interests OF litera-
ture and education, permit all men (because
some man may profit by the freedom and be-
come learned) 10 enter the granaries and help
themselves. As the so-called religious paper
puts it: The rich wno own books should
throw open their libraries to the use of poor
men who have thirst for learning but want
the means with which to gratifyit.
Yorick does not hesitate to denounce this
doctrine as damnable. 1t aims at nothing
.ss than the wholesale plunder of capitalists
In books. The long experience of mankind
caches US that the book which is lent is lost.
There are of course exceptions, as there are
to Addison's rue about the celebrating wo-
man. But II Is general truth. The doc.
trine advanced is thoroughly Communistic,
and the carrying of it into practice means the
dispersion of all libraries, the destruction OF
the great store-houses of information, maga-
zines of learning, toOl.shops where the imple.
ments of knowledge are housed and protected
against the thief that steals and the moth
that corrupts. As devish doctrine Yorick
condemns it and heartily wishes that its orig
inator could be brought to the stake. Spec-
Gus pleas can be made for it as they can be
made for the spoliation OF other forms Of cap
italized wealth. As it tis urged that So-aDd-
So. rich man, makes no good use of his mon
ey, 80 it Is urged that blank-blank, possessor
OF large library, neither reads his books
nor permits others to read them. Does II
{ 'low that the thief who breaks into the rich
mans horde or the reader OF book "bor.
rowed' without the consent of the owner,
makes better use Of the acquisition? Until
that is proved the argument Of the Commun-
ist has no weight. Dick Turpin said be
robbed the rich to help the poor. But that
plea did not save him from swinging at Ty-
burn. The rich man or the book-worm who
hordes and does not use Is the exception.
He belongs to the limited class OF misers.
Shall we plunder the many because of the
'ault of a few? These matters, too, gener-
ally regulate themselves. Tue spend-thrift
heir comes and scatt-ls wealth or knowledge
broadcast, and the community gets its own
il it be its own-asain. The man who never
reads book may have family OF children
made scholars by bis library. At the worst
the books be has are preserved and inevita-
bly, fall, sooner or later, to men who can
make good use of them. They are not sunk
en- treasure.
The philanthropic plea is very well, but
philanthropy must have regard for vested
rights or it will produce "tbe friend of man"
Of the first French revolution--a noxious
thing. Yorick has dealt in philanthropy, to
his cost. Actuated by the purest of motives
and with the laudabIe desire to improve bor-
rowers minds, he has lent books. The books
have not been seen since ihe borrowing, and
to the best of Yorick's knowledge and belief
the minds have not improved cents worth.
Yet he was cautious, and lent to people who
could be trusted-with anything but books.
With the view of assisting in the spread of
sound principles of political economy he lent
Summers History of American Currency-a
valuable monograph-to rising young states
man who professed and really seemed to feel
the wish to promote good financial doctrine.
The borrower has yet to learn the first prin-
ciples of the law of property. He is radically
unsound on the rights of proprietorship. o
for the good old days when books were
chained to desks, or shut in iron safes, and
when the borrower" had to be equipped
with set of burglars tools in order to acs
complish his nefarious purpose! In these de-
generate days, when neither great virtues nor
great crimes are possible, the borrower" of
books is only confidence man."
OF course there are people to whom one
very readily lends books,-is is very glad 10
lend. even seeks opportunities; but they are
almost as raie as people who eau move their
ears voluntarily. We should know a man
a long time before We offer to lend him
q book-and 10 that case generally know
enough 10 refuse. There are persons,
1t Is true, who inspire confidence from
the fist. One of these has Yorick's
"Money, and Mechanism OF Exchange" and
unless he wishes to create cold. suspicious
man who has lost all faith In other men, be
will restore the book.
-"Dick Swiveller"-clay evidently un-
Observation-Disclosures that Yorck has not a
profound acqu .inlauce with cribbage. He says
1t is 't,oO for his heels" when the jacK (in
literary language we should say knave ''R.
G. W.") is turned as the deck-head The
amendment is unanimously accepted. Yorick
only pretends to what may be called "liter-
arg acquaintance" with the game-such an
acquaintance, for example, as many Of us
have with rouge ct noir. We feel tolerably
familiar with that game, not because we ever
played it. but because we have read so much
about 1t. We all know how in a certain hind
OF novel we invariably come across "The
game is made, gentlemen, ,"-le jsu est fat,
messieurs; rouge gagne-and we have come
to believe that we know how to play it. Few
OF US, though never having seen table,
would hesitate to put down few napoleons
on our iavorise COLOR. Somehow we always
associate napoleons with rouge ct noir, as the
croupiers do to their advantage. By the
way, why is it that in the novels rouge al
ways gagne and black is the losing color? Is
it survival OF the sun-myth, of the over
throw OF darkness and the triumph of
warmth and light?
This ''literary acquaintance with things
Is broken reed to lean upon, though good
swtch-cane. Yorick has in mind fellow
Of infinite knowledge, who prides him 'elf
upon his familiarity with literature, and has
taken to reading with all the industry and