Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-05-07
ARE SELDOM SENT BACK
Right Of Ownership in Borrowed Books
Soon Disappears
Human Weakness That is rs Wide
spread rs the Ability
to Read.
From the New York Times.

The popular recognition OF the fact that
Umbrellas are common property has crys-
tailized into the umbrella joke, time-hon-
sored and hourishirg Institution. But no
/ humorist has taken up the kindred subject
! OF the borrowed bcok-rerhaps because it is
| felt TO be too serious for jest. or else be-
cause book is regarded as of less practical
/ Importance than an umbrella-surely not
| because the rule is thought to apply less
i widely! There are to be recorded instances
/ OF the return of a borrowed umbrella, but a
book once lent is too apt to be lost to
/ sight, however dear to the memory of the
owner. If the latter attempts to recover
Ills property, he is regarded as a Gisagreea-
bly, exigeant person. and usually in any
case GOES not succeed, the book having
been passed on in the interval to some one
OF the borrowers relatives or acquaintance.
Persons VINO can distinguish between rneun
and tuum. in regard to other species of
property are perfectly obtuse to any such
distinction in the case of a book. This
failing is as widespread as the ability to
read. church members in regular standing
being among the most hardened offenders
though. perhaps, literary people, so called
are the worst Probably no person who
peruses these lines can profess himself en-
tlrely exempt. He has Gn common with
the writer guilty consciousness of GER
tain volumes which. however long they
may have dwelt upon his Shelves yet wear
to his single eye the look of aliens. Per-
maps he Is still waiting Cor alleges that he
Isl an opportunity to return them Per-
maps he has forgotten Gin the case of those
rot having the original owners name
written inside) whence they came In such
a case he is apt, provided the book is one
that he does not care particularly for. to
lend it to some enc else. in full confidence
that he will have seen the last Of an intru-
sive souvenir. Here the owner has per-
1fxy Of hi -alo
ness, though as a rule his name or even
ms bookplate will avail nothing toward the
return or the wanderer. The writer has (or
naG copy of a recent popular novel.
ie gibIy Inscribed, which copy in the past
two years has proe1 essed from hand to
hand and from Maine to California, and is
still travelling. The chances of its return
riay be calculated as one in seventeen mil
mons, and these figures express very nearly
the average ratio in similar cases.
Public circulating libraries operate per-
haps as slight check. tending to inculcat e
the idea that borrowed books NAV be return
ed and to cultivate the habit of returning
ITEM But these have to contend with an
other and much worse idiosyncrasy of book
Borrowers. to which the owner of privately
circulating volumes is less exposed namely.
the disposition to annotate by marginal re-
marks CT pencled interlineations of the
text. Of which more anon
Let us say nothing of the habit of
dog Soaring. for this is by no means con-
| ..
Neither are crumpled pages or an occa-
SIGNAL discoloration prima facie evidence of
the culprits low mentality. Among men
OF many books a delightful habit of read
ing at solitary meals and in bed is very
prevalent-fsee Ella, There is absolutely
no such thing as reading but by a candle y
Further. proficiency in literature bv no
means implies either personal tidiness, or
unfortunately. any respect or care for the
external. the body. of book
SO. then, there are excellent presidents
Tor keeping books borrowed of ones ac-
quainfances. for dog Soaring and otherwise
ma!treating books borrowed from a public
library. Was it not Lamb who thought
thomson S Seasons and classics generally
looked best "a little torn and dog-eared?'
He certainly puts a premium on untidiness
HOW beautiful to genuine lover of read
Ing are the sullied leaves and worn-out
appearance, nay, the very odor (past Rus
sia) II we would not forget kind feeling in
IaStldlouSness of an old circula ling
library Tom Jones' or Vicar of Wake
field"
Very well. The genera US lover of books
can afford to see them creased and soiled
thinking of "the thousand thumbs that
nave turned over their pages with delight. ("
VINO has read himself to sleep over them.
DIRT and dog's-ears are at any rate imper-
sonal. But what shall we saw of the hour
seols who writes in books which do not
belong to him. who underscores passag es
which meet with his approval perhaps
adding the marginal note, How truer'
Even Lamb could not defend this propen-
slty OF the hopeless plebeian mind Ohe lone
seamstress, milliner or harder-workiny
mantua makerl. 1t is an unmistakable
mark of the lowest mental standing com
patlble with The desire to read at all