The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-04-11
BiBLIO-KLEPTOMANIACS,

"Resrectable" Thieves Who Make Spss.
ialty of Literature-A Taste for Title
Pages.
IF l find you stealing my books again,
I'll have you locked up. Get out. now,
quick! and don't let me see you in here
again"
The speaker was a bookseller, who
thus addressed a nicely dressed, veneer
able looking old man.
''Steal it? Why, bless you, of course
he meant to steal it." he said. 1--WE
have those fellows come here so often
and carry off our books without being
caught, that when we do catch them at
it we want to call the police, and | sup
pose we ought to do so, but we don't.
We find so many people who are thor
oughly honest in other respects, who
will steal books, that we are apt to be-
come suspicious of everybody after be-
ing in this business awhile. Why, only
a short time ago a clergyman was ar
rested right here in Boston for book
stealing. You don't hear of all the
cases that we do, for, you see, when we
catch party stealing he is always
anxious to pay for the books and hush
up the matter. Do we settle in this
way? o, yes, we let most of them 90,
although | suppose we should prosecute
them. But then it takes a good deal of
time and trouble to bother about the
courts prosecuting. L have seen all
kinds of people come in here and steal
books. Indeed book thieves are almost
always of the so-called respectable
classes, for the ignorant CLOVER class"
don't take interest enough in books to
know their value. The poor ones that
are caught are arrested, convicted and
branded as thieves, just as if they had
stolen a loaf of bread or pocket-book,
the ones that have a good enough social
standing to get them out of the scrape
are simply ''bibliomaniacs." It's apt to
make one cynical and lose all confidence
in humanity when he finds such cases.
There are several classes of people
that steal books. Some steal the whole
books, while there are others who only
have mania for fine plates and engrav-
ings. l have known numerous in
stances of parties who stole simply the
title-pages of rare and valuable books
Indeed, have seen one or two bound
books made up entirely of those precious
title-pages. Thus taking out the title
page from an ancient work of course
makes it worth very much less. Let me
find a 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
ting the string, he opened the pamphlet
and placing the wet string between two
leaves, lie closed the pamphlet tightly
again for a few seconds, after which he
drew the string quickly out. Opening
the book, the pages at the place where
the string had been placed were quite
easily removed, and without the noise of
tearing
''NoH, you see how they take out en-
cravings, title-pages, etc. BY the way
speaking of this mania for stealing
title-pages ought to tell you that in
London there is a man lin the British
museum, | think he is), who has con-
siderable to do making title-pages for
old books that are mutilated in this
way.
'Another trick that book-thieves
make of is to have extra pockets
made in their coats. OF course, when
we find these fellows with extra pockets,
seemingly made for the purpose of
making book-stealing 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
light literature at news depots, it is said,
roll two books together and carry them
when they have only paid for one. -
Boston Globe.