Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1885-05-12
BOON lsOkKOWE Nse.
Our r crental Ancestor Scored

LnOSe VINO purchase their DOOkS \Ol
steal them, } and those who borrow
If you are a biblomaniac, look back
| oyer the twenty years of your past
life and figure what a fine business
you could buy into, if you had Dor
rowed all your books instead OF
bought them.
Book buying, is a habit, once
contracted, as hard to break off as
swearing, drinking too much claret
at dinner, or voting split tickets at
an election. Passing along book
ish locality in big city you are
seduced into stepping inside book
stall by wink or leer from an old
w!zened antiquarian, and before
you realize it, you are in the tolls.
You remain an hour enjoying the
stolen pleasures Of his den, and
emerge dead broke, with an armful
of rare literature, which you take
home and devour at leisure.
Safety follows the glut of en-
joyment, and you begin to realize
that you should have purchased
shoes with that ten dollars and had
a certain seedy coat reconstructed.
Then you swear to avoid the book
stalls for month, but you are soon
there again, and falling a victim
to the temptations Of the street
where boekstalls lie in wait ON
every side, with new seductions
awaiting the weak and unwary
You know that the harpics who
whet their beaks here, are merciless
and cunning, and fleece their vic
tins as coolly as a pirate would cut
a throat, and that they charge just
in proportion as you want the book,
but still you linger around the fatal
spot, and soon become a regular
habitue Of the resort. As long as
your money lasts you are welcome,
but when you reach the bed rock
formation the seductive smile of
the old fellow, whose face is as
leathery as the binding of the
Talmud, changes to a sphinx-like
of non-recognition, and
il you attempt to pick up volume
and bum your reading. now and
then he will drop some expression
which will cause you to avoid the
place for months, if your sensibili-
ties are at all tender. But as you
get older you pass beyond the stage
where you can be so easily be-
,uiled, and know when to purchase
ldvantageously, and to buy bread |
md shoes before you squander your
earnings in riotous living with
books.
But when you have ceased to in
lxlge in these luxuries, and call a
lalt, the store you have amassed
nelts like the snow before the re-
entless attacks of the borrowing
lend. OF course, he is always
lear friend Of yours, man you
ant refuse, and the nearer he is TO
'ou, the more he despoils you.
There, for instance, is our respected
ancestor, man who would
rot wrong a fly knowingly, but a
'ook borrower of the most pro-
and dangerous type. He
ut beyond the asking stage long
go. He walks in with the cool as
urance of professional burglar.
ills his ample grip-sack with plum
Ter and hastens away rejoicing.
20 any of these books ever come
Jack !? Hardly. They become as
lead and lost to us as the four dol
ars We wagered sixteen years ago
N a walking match in Chicago Do
ot think that he takes these spoils
rom sordid motives. AS soon as he
las finished. he passes them along
he line, right down through the
'arish Of St. Peter and parishes
djacent.
Sometimes we stumble across
ne in Virginia City or Reno, and
intimate that it is ours, but are
net with such convincing proofs
hat it is not, that We retire abashed
nd covered with confusion We
bought once to start an Office IL
'rary, and all the books that came
o be reviewed We hid away in a
Iuiet out of-the-way place in the
but the old borrowing