The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-10

| donkey. Dickens, too, made what in these days would be called pretty bad breaks" In "Sicholas Nickelby" the boys of Squeers' school are set to, work hoeing turnips in midwinter, and in the "Tale of Two Cities he speaks of the chief functionary of the guillo- tine" as of the same name as the strong man of old Scripture" regard less of the fact that the former was named Samson and the latter Samson
 These are blunders of mere forgetful- ness, the writer fancying, in some eases, that he sufficiently remembered what he had already written, and so, not taking the trouble to verify the accu- racy of his knwoledge, blundered along into an error, sometimes laughable in it's absurdity, and at others relying on
 his recollection for a historic state, ment in which his memory was entire-
 ly at fault. A few moments work in verifying a date or making certain of a quotation, or confirming the accuracy, of a historical reference, would have saved the modification of bad blund- CT as we'll as the credit of the writer,
 for mistakes in plain historical state- ments the facts Of which can be ascer- tained from ordinary books of refer
 ence, cast discredit on the entire work of an author a. careful reader instantly concluding that the same carelessness would be shown e1ewhere as in the in- stance which fell under his notice.
 , To be detected in appropriating the words and phrases of another is certain ly professional misfortune of no small proportions, yet such a. calamity
 has befaMen more than one literary man of marked abilities. As 8 rule,
 well proven case of plagiarism has either greatly damaged or closed the literary career of the culprit, but there Is at least one prominent instance to the contrary for Benjamin Disraeli be- gan his literary life by fragrant pla-
 ggiarism which was instantly detected and pointed out in the daily press. Dis raeli made but a lame excuse, and the
 occurrence would probably have term- mated the literary life of a less able man. but he survived 1t, and the story is now found only in the curios of lit-
 erature. There is another brilliant plagiarist whose sin has been condoned in virtue of the elegant use he made of his stealings. Lucille" had not been in print six months ere some one discov-
 cred that the plot, the story, most of the incidents, and much of the lan- guage were "lifted' bodily from novel by George Sand. Of course the discov- | erer instantly rushed to the nearest newspaper office with his discovery, and equally of course the editor saw a good item in the information, and made as much of it as he could. Other jour
 nals copied the exposure, and Owen Meredith was subjected to a belaboring at the hands of the critics that would
 have extinguished a literary light of less magnitude. But somehow the peo- pie had taken fancy to Lucille" and the charges of stealing made not the slightest impression. People even went so far as to say they did not care if he did steal it, it was good, and showed
 that he knew how to steal with taste and skill. So little by little critics got tired of bowling about the literary
 WickedneSs of a man who could steal
 8 whole novel and pass it off for his own; the plagiarism was forgotten, and is now remembered only in books of literary anecdote. In his caSe there
 fore, being caught stealing proved no
 misfortune; indeed it rather proved an
 advantage, for the controversy result
 ing from the charge widely advertised
 the book which it was intended to ruin. Speaking of running a book recalls the fact that one of the most serious pro- fessional misfortunes of literary men l has been the ruin that not a few
 brought on themselves by investing all had in rni1hlinafinra nf oir