The sun., 1901-07-21
NOT 50 MUCH PLAGIARISM,
xAGAsxxs sDsrens NOT OFTEN SWIM
DIED IN TRIS WAY.

NVl W MUM LIN hOAa isASNA'
xAoAsxxs sDsrens NOT OFTEN SWIM
DIED IN TRIS WAY.
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PhsIarism might seem TO Offer great
opportunities for swindlins the masa-
nnes. For . person 10 copy q story or .
poem from an old magazine. afnx his name
to Il - author. send II In to another mAsa-
sins have II accepted and pocket the money
might seem . simple thing. apart from
the question Of dishonoty. In case OF
discovery. the psrpstrator Of the fraud
would be practically safe from prosecution.
for. although tho magazine which unwit-
tinsly printed the stolen contribution
might be held liable for violation Of copy
right by the periodical from which It was
taken. It would obtain little redress against
the swindler
In spite Of this publishers Of magazines
cay that oases Of attempted literary swim
dles Of the sort are rare. and successful
ones raror still. The man who makes
fraud . business does not daily with this
sort Of thing He prefers . quicker and
easier way Of making money. even though
II carries risk
Enough attempts ooour. howev~. 70
keep the magasins editors on the guard
and Q newcomer among the contributors
whose story or poem has been passed upon
favorably y often required to show hh
oredsntials before being admitted to print
Each magazine has its own method OF
procedure In asosrtaining the Identity
Of an unknown contributor. Some conduct
their Investigations through the CONNER.
cial agencies, unknown to the subject Of
the Investigation. Some inquire through
the banks and others request references
from the contributor himself. Several
have form Of letter which runs something
Ike this:
II! D.ss :s, s: y: wa f S.Ss
The came finally .s yi,h 70 ass our y y'ss CUSTOM %
.sin.,loc. q v based upon somssAlns you have
"tS IA o. n xho,v or in mart ever spp,sr,d in print,
is q COPY i Of in othsi hand; tSsn osisi and u
your real name OF pen nane'
n.ens cn ySS s'I roS3 ss IN Win
our inheIibie rule place contributors on record as
70 the originality Of hs!r ,,or,ss NO. &C upS'
Prior TO its acceptance or rejection.
every manuscript submitted to q maga-
zine which gives promise Of availability
goes under the eyes OF several editors or
readers, a. they are termed. Publisher
readers are supposed TO keep In touch
with the matter appearing In oonte mporary
magazines Ii u hard matter for stolen
manuscript to undergo the scrutiny OF the
readers without detection. story taken
from magazine ten or twenty years old
might safely pass them all, but fashions Ia
literature change and what was available
matter ten years ago would In many cases
be useless now. Professional readers cay.
too, that there " something about the
appearance OF Q manuscript that enables
them to form an idea as to whether or not
| ii Ia the writer's own work. Just what
the something Is. II is hard 70 tel. but
| II has aroused suspicion and led TO the de.
lection Of several cases Of plagiarism in
| the magazine offices
Eve never have, TO our knowledge. &C.
| cepted or printed contribution that was
| not original with the person who sent 1t
| in said the assistant editor Of q magazine.
we never learned OF more than one at
tempt to swindle s that way, although
! how many OF the contributions that we
rejected were original Of course no one
| knows The attempt I spoke Of was this:
Several years ago we printed poem
| by Philadelphia physician that attracted,
| and merited considerable attention and
praise 1t was copied very extensively
| the Offices OF one Of the plate matter con-
Germs which copied and stereotyped II with-
out giving M credit, and sent out the
plates TO their subscribers among the
| country papers.
Three years after ts publication In
our magazine l received an exact copy
Of the poem in manuscript form. accom-
panied by a letter from New York busl-
| ness man, in which he offered the poem
az his own work. The letter was written
from Western resort where he was spend
| ing the summer | returned the poem,
informed him AZ politely as ! could that
| It was stolen from our own magazine and
we knew It. | figured II out that he had
| seen the poem-wlth no credit given
| in some country Newspaper. and realizing
that It was Of extraordinary merit and
believing that 1t was the work Of some
rural scribe born TO blush unseen. had
determined TO rescue IL from ohecurity-
and get the credit himself.
in the return mail got letter from
| MN saying tnat ule poeii buDHnttS,l Wuh
a revision OF one written a year before
our magazine printed the Philadelphan'e
| verses, and enclosing the 'or ginal draft
from which he said he had made the re-
vision The draft was the same excepi
for some material changes in meter and
In the wording OF severe stanHas, He
must have faxed II up in one night, for &C
| coriing 70 tho mail schedules between here
and there, he couldn't have had any more
time than that. Now cones the odd part
| of the story. That fake original draft
| written In one night was In the judg-
| ment Of a half dozen critics better thar
tho original poem.
"A railroad station agent up tho State
took one OF our stories once upon time
cut of the head and wrote new introduc-
ton, changed the names OF the character
and sent II To = Boston periodical. They
did not discover the fraud. Their reader
passed upon it favorably and II was &C.
cepted, and ultimately printed the station
agent receiving a liberal check for his
work. We discovered the story as soon az
printed and notified the Boston people
that we should hold them responsible fol
violation Of copyright.
There was considerable correspondence
over the affair. The Boston people ex.
planned their innocence In the matter, anc
the affair was finally dropped, but not
until that station agent had been frightened
so thoroughly that l do not think he wll
ever try II again. 40
The plagarists catch us once In . while
said young woman suh,,editor on another
magazine |We take pains o learn some
thing about all OF our strange contributor
hut even then some ono fools us occasion