New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-10-01
LITERARY THEFT.

The Overland Monthly Is certainly unlorCu-
nate. Not long ago it published as an orgl-
nal essay upon Bret Harte a pasticcio COM
pounded principally of two well-known essays
of Mr. Stedmans upon Edgar A. Poe and
James Russell Lowell, and the absurdity OF
the affair was aggravated by the fact that the
culprit was person connected with the man
agement of the magazine. 1t has now become
the vehicle of still more Imprudent, II less
amusing, plagiarism by female contributor
WHO has palmed off upon it one of Mr.. Low
ellis poems as her own. Detection III both
these cases was swift. Mr.. Warren Cheney,
who robbed Stedman, retired from the maya
zine and it Is safe to say that the lady who
robbed Lowell will hereafter not be well
come visitor in any well-cOnducted publica-
ton Office. 1t was inevitable that such
fragrant thefts as these should be promptly
discovered and the wonder is that for few dol
lars, or for a fleeing qualification of vanity, the
culprits should have exposed themselves to
certain disgrace Yet just such reckless
rogueries are committed every day.
Literary thieves seem to hug the delusOn
that literary property is not easily identified,
although hardly month passes that the hue
and cry is not started after some of them.
duties of a magazine editor is to make sure of
the honesty of new contributors. He is con-
stantly asked to buy stolen goods; and we
have heard of an appropriation impudcnt
enough to offer magazine a story from one
of its own back volumes. recent historian,
of ample pretensions, decked his pages with
ornaments pilfered from Macauay, and con-
viewed the substance of long passages from
other writers. An ambitious person in the
West a little while ago robbed Taine in order
to make a rubbishy book on English litera-
ture. Both these transactions were eX-
posed in The TRIBUNE. If their authors
had given a few moments Of careful re-
Election 20 the matter, they must have
foreseen that sooner or later some reader OF
Taine and Macaulay would recognize the bor-
rowed fnery Plagiarism is common also in the
pulpit With certain newspapers it is an affair
of every day. We have known the editorial
page of an out.of-tOwn newspaper to be made
up entirely of paragraphs and articles stolen from
the editorial page of THE TRIBUNE. Undoubt-
edly some of the subscribers to the offending
sheet recognized the theft-for there are 10
considerable towns in the United States IN
which The TRIBUNE is not read
The faulty which drives plagiarsts to the
most harefaced thefts is hard to account for.
Sometimes, of course a shiftless scrih-
bier. living from hand to mouth, with
ont reputation or the hope of any,
steals for the cake of money! but in most of
the instances which have become notorious
some other motive than this must be sup
posed. Intellectual Incidence tempts an author
TO appropriate the work which ne finds done
Tn dishonest courses he reads something good
on the subject he has set himself and there
after he is incapable OF considering 1t under
any other aspect, or even of expressing the
borrowed ideas in any other tran the original
words He steals because he is not smart
enough to initiate. In many cases he is NOR
ally Obtuse. He does not quite realize the
nature of literary property. He looks upon
printed books as great heap of materials
from which the public may help themselves;
there are limits to tins privilege, but he does
NOT know where to place them, and he has an
elastic conscience. Yet, after all, we suspect
that the most frequent incentive to plagiarism
is mere coarse, common, fat-wltted vanity
The aspiring author cannot fOregO the sweets
of public applause. The chance OF decorating
himself with the rich robes of literary rcpu-
tation is too much for his virtue and his
common sense. Like the industrious book
makers whom Irving dreamed that he saw III
the library of the British Museum purlOining
the wigs and mantles and gold lace and
Jewels OF old authors, he will strut in stolen
clothes, though it is certain that the owner
will presently fall upon him, strip him to his
original rags and expose the scraps of parch-
ment wiCh which he has patched his breeches.
Perhaps it is the law of Providence that he
shall BE punished through his fayOrie sim
Vanity made him thief and no penalty can
be more severe to him than the ridicule and
disgrace which will follow the inevitable ex-
pOsure.