The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-04
EXPERT LIBRARY THIEVES
PERSONS WHO MAKE BUSINESS
OF MUTILATING THE
BOOKS
CAN ROB ANY COLLECTION
They Are Usually After Rare Pic
lures Which Have Been
Sold in Adj
vance.

~ AbCSA
Sold in Adj
vance.
"a man who is willing to pay enough
for 1t can get portrait from any book
in any library i'll the world" they say
at the Astor library. speaking apropos
of the case of book-cutting which &C.
Cured at the LenoX library last week.
says the New York Times. There are
people who make a special business of
this sort of thing. There is not doubt
but II they We're certain of their market
there would be twenty thieves every day
here and at the LenoX library This
work is not continuous. 1t comes in
spasms which occur now and then.
When there is demand a supply is OBJ
tanned. A man is illustrating a book
which may be history of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence
which is popular work to extra illus
trate." AS is usually done, he will get
the book and take it to pieces and get
portraits, letters, and other matter to
incorporate. Perhaps he wants a certain
portrait that he knows is in a certain
book. He goes to a leader and says:
There is a portrait of one of those
men that l haven't been able to get. 1t
Is to be found i'll such and such Il work.
Volume IL, page 49, If you can get it
for me l will pay you we'll
1t is charitable to suppose that he eX-
poets the dealer to look around In second
hand shops, find the book and get the
portrait. 1t might be possible that the
dealer would get it in another way.
The greatest book thieves. and those
who are the most expert and have lcne
the most work in literary swindling and
forgery and stealing book plates ard
prints, are the Greeks and Armenians.
The numbers Of them who are in this
business is quite out of proportion to
their numbers in the community These
men are not naturally over and above
honest, ard they have business shrewd-
ness which enables them to dispose Of
their plumber. Stealings which come
from library are not good property,
only few places where such books will
be bought, and there is too much risk to
make it worth while ordinarily to take
them. But there is more or less Of it
everywhere. They steal in all the Iibrar-
les of Europe When they get a chance.
1t is not only portraits that are stolen.
mere is one library that keeps q special
lookout for Journalists Who clip old
newspaper flies. They want a death
notice OF some one who died q, year or
so ago, and it saves them the trouble
of writing it. 1. had one man who was
waiting outside to see me, and as he wait,
ed he took up a document that Lad plst
come in, looked it over, saw something
that he wanted, and cut out part Of
page and took it off with him.
These are the people who have not y
consideration for the rights of others. IL
IS a general telling in regard TO books
Inc courts look at these things with 4
len1ent eye. They have a feeling that it
IS not such a bad thing, for man WAC
steals a book or part of a book does.
so with good motive He does it to
improve his mind Book thieves are not
confined to any particular class. There
are certain number of book thieves
among clergymen, and theological libra
ries suffer. All kinds of people steal.
Cook books are good things to steal ann
cooking recipes are cut from them and
patterns of new stitches in fancy work.
Who takes them? One would not expect
man to take those.
The illustrated books which require
so many plates and which have been the
cause of the spoliaton of many books,
are source of great pleasure to the pee
pie who make them, and very little t.
any one else, except in the case of por-
traits. There are certain classes Of read
ers who take a great pleasure in seeing
the portraits of the people they read
about; they like to know how the queen
end princesses of France have looked ii
tiACS SlIC lScldliiS NeADDttIee mat. country v,
The business of extra -ilustra ting books
is a regular one now II is probably
not increasing, but it is a regular bus
ness. The scholarly man doesn't care.
for such books for his own use; it ise.a.
current arrangement of books for The
drawing room. 1t is a fashion that comes
and goes. 1t was the fashion 100 years
ago, it was the fashion fifty years ago,
and it is the fashion now A man who
iC 81 i1cfI, tiOp'
his orders to one dealer, and he provides
the Illustrations for it.
we haven't had any cases of mutil3-
lions of books in the Astor library for q
good many years." said another man.
I'VE have one man whose duty it is to
look out for such things. He has other
things to do but that is one of his spa-
citic duties. Now that no one is allowed
in the alcoves there is not much chance
for anything of the kind to be done. We
had a few cases a good many years ago.
There was one man who cut clipping
from a copy of a Scientific American. =Ta
was arrested and got six months on the
island. 1t was a little thing to do; he
might as well have bought the book and
he could have done 1t. He was a sort OF
library Ioafer, but he could have afforded
to buy the book. This. thing is a sort
of mania. 1t is very seldom that people
steal from the library because they are
in need. There was one case of a man
who stole Il number of check books be-
cause he was in a state of misery and
starvation. We looked after him and a
place was found for him on farm in the
West. But usually the people who 10
these things are cranks and well-to-do
They have perhaps the feeling that the
books are public property and every
bodys property.
As a matter of fact, clergymen and
women are the most feared by librarians.
With the clergymen it is perhaps the
idea of the peculiar rights of the clergy.
A clergyman never expects in going to Il
library to wait his turn for anything
of their pgofes ion, TO be the most humble
are exactly the opposite, and feel that
they are more privileged than other peo-
pie. As for the women, it is matter of
statistics that thev are the largest pa
irons of Libraries. When the reference
shelves We're in alcoves there was a good
opportunity to make any use desired of
the books. Still. in the course of the
past twenty years in the Astor library no
woman has been found destroying books"
At the LenoX library, where the books
in the reference room are now free to VS.
itors, who are at liberty to help them
selves, only two books have disappeared
in the past two years and a few plates.
1t has been said that books have been
lost at the Columbia library, but the IL
brarian, DR.. James A. Kenfeld, says that
Columbia is surprisingly free from trou-
BILE of that kind
ct may be said" said DR.. Kenfe!d,
that in the past fifteen years there has
been on an average a loss of less than
seventy-five books a year. and this while
the students and members of the faculty
have the privilege of the stackrooms, and
any one known TO the librarian or recon-
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