The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1885-04-08
elBLlo.kLgProMANlAos.

'Uc,psciabie" Thieves who HInto spoc-
ihity of Liternture-A Taste for Title
Pages.
Ell I fndyou stealing my books again,
Tu have you looked up. Get out. now,
quioSl and don let me see you in here
again.
The speaker was a bookseller who
thus addressed a nicely dressed, vcner-
able looking old man.
"Steal it? Why, bless you Of course
be- meant TO steal it, ne said. owe
havo those fellows come hero SD often
and carry or our books without being
calgd., that when we do catch them at
/. we wan tO call the police, and ] sup
pose we ought 10 do so, but we don't
We lind so many people who are thor
upgnly honest in other respects, who
will steal books, that we are apt to be-
come suspicious of everybody after be-
iur ju ih- business awhile. Why. only
short time AGO clergyman was ar
rosJed right here i'm Boston for book
Sc aOng, You don't hear of all the
cases that we do, for, you see, whom we
catch party stealing he IS always
anxious TO pay for the books and husl
co.. ,hp matter DO we sJStie in this
way? o, Yes, we Let most of them go,
although ! suppose we should prosecute
them But then it takes a good deal of
time and trouble TO bother about the
courts prosecuting. / have seen all
kinds of people come in here and steal
books. Indeed book thieves are almost
always of the sO-cal.cd respectable
classes. for the ignorant clover class
dou't take iuterc q enough in books to
know their value. The poor ones that
are caught are arrested, convicted aud
brande as thieves. Just as If they had
stolen q loaf of bread or a pOcket-bOOk,
Che ones tlut have q good enough social
standing to get them out of the sCrape
are simply 'bibliomauiacs." Itsapt to
make one cynical and lose all confidence
in humanity when he finds such cases.
There are several classes of people
thar steal books. Some steal the whole
booas, while there are others who only
have mania for iiueplales and cngray-
inCs. have known numerous in
stances of parties who stole simply the
ttle-pages OF rare and valuable books.
lud ed, | have seen one or two bound
books made up entirely of those precious
ttle-pages. Thus taking Oua the title
page from an ancient work Of course
makes it worth very much less. Let me
,iuI cheap old book and I'll show you
how they do it, if YOU don't know
The dealer picked up a dilapidated
pamphlet and piece of string. Wet
Jng the string he opened the pamphlet
and placing the wet string between two
leaves me closed the pamphlet tightly
again for few seconds, after which he
drew thc string quickly out Opening
the book. the pages ut the place whore
the string had been placed were quite
easily removed, and without the noise Of
tearing.
Now, you see how they take out en-
cravings, titlc-plges, etc. BY the way
spnaEn- Of this mania for stealing
ti.ln-rugcs / ought TO tell YOU that in
London there is a man Gin the British
museum / think he is), who has CON
siderable to do making title-pages for
old books that are mutilatcd in this
way.
Another trick that book-thieves
make use of is to have extra pockets
made in their coats OF course, when
we find these efcllows with extra pockets,
seemingly made for the purpose of
making book-stealiug a business, we
have no pity on them. We just hand
them over to the police, but there are
very few who go to work Systematically
to steal books. A good many who buy
Gght literature at news depots, it is said,
roll two books together and carry them
when .hcy have oaly paid for one. So
BOgioW G1Obc.