Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1900-01-20

Treasurer Judge 11nnccy declined to
speak for publication.
W. ID. HOwells, in Literature. warns
those who are addicted to the use OF
others literary ideas that plagiarism
Is invariably detected. You can take
a mans hat and cont and pawn them.
you can take mans horse out Of the
stable. ride away on 1t. and sell 1t; or
steel a purse In n crowd, pass 1t to n
pal and prove your innocence; but II
you take q sermon, essay, poem or n
bit of literary work Of any kind you
cannot hope to escape. "The world Is
full Of Idle people reading books" says
Mr.. HOwells. "and they IRE only too
glad to act as detectives; they please
their vanity by showing their alert
ness and IRE proud to witness against
you In the court Of parallel columns"
But the curious phenomenon In plng-
iarlsm Is the fact that detection and
exposure have few terrOrs. Plagiarism
instead Of being what the dictionary
calls II, "crime' or "theft." IL often
more Of disease and the plagiarist Ia
often honestly convinced when the case
Is proved against him that he Is the In.
jured person. There lives In this city a
highly respected old gentleman who Is
perfectly convinced that he Is the au.
thor Of the Bohemian Girl" As no
body pays royalties for Balfe's work
the deluslon Is harmless one. In mod.
ern literature. however, the pleasant
habit Of borrowing another persons
literary work Is more annoying. Per.
haps the most extraordinary defense Of
! plagiarism was that offered by a friend
Of Hall Caine. Concerning the apprO.
priatlOn Of q given passage In 'The
Christian" without creditlng It to Its
real author. his defense was that Mr..
Caine was 80 In the habit Of using ma.
terial In the rough that he could not
bother to answer critics on such
score. Aud so calloused IL public Opin.
lon to plagiarism that Its defense win
probably be generally accepted and
Mr.. Gaines book will not suffer In the
least thereby. Literary theft seems to
be the only form of peculation In which
1t IL not crime to he found out. 1t
carries with 1t little stigma. except In
the minds of the hypercritical book.
| worm. Will someone explain the causes
of such looscness Of literary con-
| science?
There Is Significance In the fact
that the new treaty between Mexico
and China Is written In English instead
of. as customary. In French. 1t Is In
line with the recent instances In which
English has been substituted for
French as the language Of diplomacy in
international conferences, but has still
deeper Significance than that. French
was formerly tho universal language of
diplomacy, and all conferences between
the powers were conducted In 1t, as
matter of course. but English has be-
come so moro the language Of the world
than the French that 1t Is superseding
the latter even In that most cOnserva.
tive usage. English Is also the Ian
guage Of commerce to much greater
extent than French, as English and
American commerce far Outrank any
that Is carried on under any other form
Of speech. Lastly, the most important.
an English.speaking nation, the United
States, Is not only the nearest neigh
Dor to both Mexico and China, but In
rapidly becoming the most important
one with which they have to deal;
while second to 1t In some respects.
first In others. Is England. Both ma
tons, therefore, having far more Occa-
sion to use the English than any other
foreign tongue, they are bound to be-
come more familiar with 1t than with
any other, and 1t Is 30 nearly a COM
mon language between them that 1t Ia
very wise for the diplomats to use 1t
for the purpose of common under
standing. They will avoid cOmplica-
lions better In this way than by adopt
ing French or any other tongue.
Those who give the promptest an
swers are not always the most correct,
but the habit of arriving at q personal
opinion on a controverted question Is
both soldierly and statesmanlike. Mr..
Reed, whose to speak-abdicated the
Speakers chair, says that his exam.
inatiOn for admission to the bar con.
sisted OF two questions. The first was
whether no had studied law; the Sec
0nd: us the legal tender act c0nstitu-
tiOnalY' Eyes. sir, 1t undoubtedly is."
was the reply. "That IL all right"
said Judge Wallace. "Y0u may c0nsid-
er yourself admitted to the bar. Any
body who can answer offhand q great
question like that. upon which 20 many
mighty minds are divided. ought to b
able to practice In any country"