The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-17
ARE SELDOM SENT BACK.
Right of Ownership in borrowed
Books soon Disappears.

BOOKS soon Disappears.
from the New York Times
The popular recognition of the fact that
umbrellas are common property has crys-
tallized into the umbrella joke tlme-hon-
ored and hourishing institution. But no
huorist has taken up the kindred subject
of the borrowed book-perhaps because it
is felt to be too serious for Jest, OIL else be-
cause book is regarded as of less prac-
teal Importance than an umbrella-sureiy
noJ because the rule is thought to apply
less widely. There are to be recorded in
stances of the return of a borrowed UNI
brella, but a book once lent is too apt to
be. lost to sight however dear to the mem
DRY of the owner If the latter attempts
to recover his property, he is regarded as
a disagreeably exigent person, and usually
in any case does not succeed the book
having been passed on in the interval 70
some one of the borrowers relatives or ac-
quaintances. Persons who can distinguish
between meum and tuum in regard to 9th
er species of property are perfectly obtuse
10 any such distinction in the case of a
book. This falling is as widespread as the
ability to read church members in regu-
lar standing being among the most hard
ened offenders, though perhaps, literary
people, so called, are the worst. Probably
no person who peruses these
lines can profess himself entirely
exempt He has Din common with
the writer) a guilty consciousness of GER
tain volumes which, however long they
may have dwelt upon his Shelves yet wear
20 his single eve the look of aliens. Pei
haps he is stlll waiting (or alleges that
he Isl an opportunity to return them. Per-
haps he has forgotten lin the case of those
not 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, 90
lend il TO some one else, in fun confidence
that he will have seen The last of an intru-
siye souvenir. Here the owner has per-
Snaps deserved the penalty of his careless
less, though as rule his name or even
his bookplate will avail nothing toward the
return of the wanderer. The writer has Tor
had) copy of a recent popular novel,
legibly inscribed which copy in the past
two years has progressed from hand o
hand and from Maine to California, and is
still travelling The chances of its return
may be calculated as one in seventeen mil
lions, and these figures express very near
ly the average ratio in similar cases.
Public circulating Libraries operate per-
haps as a slight check, tending to incui-
cate the .dea that borrowed books may be
returned and to cultivate the habit of te-
turning them. But these have to contend
with another and much worse idiosyII-
Grassy of book borrowers, to which the
owner of privately circulating volumes Is
less exposed namely, the disposition 10
annotate by marginal remarks or penciled
interlineatIons of the text. OF which more
anon.
Let us say nothing of the habit of dogs
earring, for this IS by no means confined to
the lower intellectual ranks. Neither are
crumpled pages or are occasional discolor-
alton prima facie evidence of the Gull
prit's low mentality. Among men of many
books delightful habit of reading at soil
tary meals and in bed is very prevalent
(see Ella There is absolutely no such
thing as reading but by candle.') Fur
ther proficiency I'm literature by no means
implies either personal tidiness, or, unfor-
tunately, any respect or care for the exter-
nal, the body of book.
So then, there are excellent precedents
for keeping books borrowed of ones ac-
quaintances, for dogs-earing and other
wise maltreating books borrowed from a
public library. Was it not Lamb, who
thought Thomson's Seasons" and classics
generally looked best "a Bttle torn and
dog-eared?" He certainly puts a premium
on untidiness. How beautiful to a genuine
lover of reading are the sullied leaves and
worn-out appearance, nay, the very odor
(past Russia) If we would not forget kind
feeling In Righteousness, of an old circu-
lating library Tom Jones or Vicar of
Wakefield.
Very well. The generous lover of books
can afford to see them creased and soiled,
thinking of the thousand thumbs that
have turned over their pages with delight"
or of the devotee of the dumb candle"
who has read himself to sleep over them.
Dirt and dog sears are az any rate i'm
personal But what shall we say of the
bourgeois who writes in books which do
not belong to him, who underscores pas
sages which meet with his approval, per-
haps adding tho marginal note, How
truer' Even Lamb could not defend this
propensity Of the hopeless plebeian mind
(the lone seamstress. milliner or harder
working mantua maker) II Is an unmistak-
able mark of the lowest mental standing
compatible with the desire to read at ALL
His Soliioquy. -Bennie Cwhose wee baby
sister has lat~.y arrived dojected'y):
Mamma ALWAYS said before baby came