The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-18
PLAGIARISM.

PLAGIARISM.
Senator Ingalls, is on the stand in his
own defense and the charge is plagiar-
ism. Whatever opinion may he formed
of the merits Of his reply, there can be
no doubt that this weakness, like many
another scapegrace, is of most respect
able and long descended parentage. AS
a matter of fact, though it cannot boast
of being coeval with man himself, it can
certainly lay claim to having come into
the world little later than Adams first
born. That interesting child-he turned
out badly afterwards-was the first
plagiarist, for he deliberately appropri-
ated, we may be sure, not only the Ian
guage, but even the thoughts Of his par
ents, such, at least, as they thought fit
to communicate to him, afterwards re-
failing them to his younger brother as
his own, and in this tendency, we may
be equally certain, his mother not only
allotted, but encouraged him. 1t may
bo matter of reasonable doubt whether
every subsequent mother has not more
or less gladly followed in her footsteps.
It is true that as he grew to manhood
this remote ancestor Of all later plagiar-
lists, more fortunate in this respect than
his descendants of this and recent CEN
turtles, had in the course of his wander
ings over world unexplored except by
his own rowing footsteps ample and ex-
ceptional opportunities for original OBJ
servations, conclusions and expressions.
That at very early age he did strike out
new ideas and new methods of action,
his history plainly tells us, and the re-
suit of his enterprise was far from en-
couraging.
The fault, once engrafted on the HUI
man mind, took to the new soil in most
kindly fashion, and has never since
ceased to flourish. What a crop of
plagiarists there must have been in Sol
omon's time. The wise king committed
himself = to the somewhat premature
statement that there was nothing new
under the sun, and elsewhere he assures
us that the cacoethes scribendi ragged as
fiercely in his day as we know
it does in ours. "Of making
many books there is no end" Still,
there was possibility of originality OF
thought and expression even as late as
Solomon's reign, for we are assured on
what we must consider respectable au-
thority that "they didn't know every
thing down in Judee." But as time
rolled along, as mans possible sphere Of
original, untrodden observation became
narrowed and as his desire to talk and
write increased, the difficulty kept in
creasing. So hard had it become, even
in the days of the Roman power, to
avoid trespassing on these unfenced
fields of literature, and SO many were
the eager eyes anxious to arrest the Of
Tending trespasser that we'll known
Latin author exclaimed in dismay,
"Confound those fellows who have said
my good things before me-" And ever
since, down to this present year of
grace, the fields and highways of thought
and expression have continued to ex-
tend their boundaries until it is an
actual impossibility for any writer to
lay claim to the tiniest by-path of
knowledge as his own special ground.
The truth is that, at this late stage OF
the worlds development, when men for
centuries have been ransacking history
and: imagination, philosophy land sci.
ence, the depths of the sea, and even
the heavens themselves with the avowed
object of wrestling from them every
scrap of observation, theorizing about
each, and clothing it for us in descrip
tive words, we are somewhat visionar,
in hoping to extract from any writer
on any subject whatever absolute
novelty of thought. Unconscious plaglar
ism there must be. We are like boys
who have used up every particle Of
snow they can get at in the construc
ton of huge snow ball; we have got
our ball and We grumble because the
snow, as snow, is gone. Or, to change
the figure, we are the heirs Of men who
have owned precious diamond mine
from which gem after gem of rares,
value has been taken; the gems are al
in our own possession, but We make il
matter of complaint that we cannot ado
to our pile. To barefaced theft we hav,
every right to object, but we ought t.
be thankful that we have still written
who can present to us the old Thoughts
in new and charming dress, artists VIII,
can transfuse them with the light Q
their genius, workmen who can reese
our precious gems for lis in changed an
brilliant style. This power was ascribe
to Shakespeare for genius; has the MOI
atty of tho literary world improves
since his day?
THE savage attack in the republica
prass unon Messrs Jopes Toller an