Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-08
TRIALS OF A L0ANER
HOW BOOK LOVERS TRY TO MARK
THEIR VOLUMES.
How One College Girl Chose a Prov
erb in Warning to Careless
Borrowers.

Written for The Star
Are you book collector or a book bor-
rover?
The summer colonist belongs to one OF
these two classes
The book collector and lover lays rorth
her favorite volume before her wardrobe
is brought out for packing. She puts her
toilet articles one side of her bag
suit case and the new magazines and re-
views on the other. Then she spends part
of her vacation Tending off borrowers and
securing the return of books from bor-
rowers too crafty to be denied.
Numerous the devices employed by
book lovers for retaining and recovering
their beloved possessions; for be it known
the true book lover has a dual nature
He disikes to loan books, because he fears
they will be injured or lost. yet he loves
to see his favorites appreciated and longs
to introduce them to readers who have
never known them.
Nearly every collector has his book plate
In this age of cheap engraving. This may
consist of a die showing his monogram,
or his name In full, or II combination of
name and family crest II so fortunate he
be as to possess crest. Such a reminder
Of the books owner pasted inside of the
cover can be engraved for about dol
lar a hundred, and the plate will cost
anywhere from $50 to SlUo. Real faddists
in book plates have fanciful designs. such
as man seated by his fireside, pipe in
hand, reading. Such artists as Maxtield
Parrish and Henry HUT receive costly or
ders for book plate designs.
Women in particular have their own
ways of marking their property. A real
book worm who has gathered some rare
editions in Paris has had made a tiny rub
Der stamp, with her name and address.
and she stamps these books. not only on
the inside of the cover. but at the tail or
each chapter.
Another girl has pasted in the front OF
each book a couple of fly leaves headed
with little designs of her own pen and Tx
work, asking borrowers to write a ten
word criticism of the story on one of these
loose leaves. She takes great pleasure,
and ofttimes amusement from their criti-
cisms.
One college girl who always takes a
stack of books on her summer vacation has
had this rubber stamp made for marking
the iyleaf of each book: The wicked man
borroweth. but returneth not
The all-year suburbanite suffers from
the demands of the summer suburbanite
who never counts books among her hot
weather furnishings. One woman who
lives in the outskirts OF Chicago and has
large library turns the keys of the
latter over to her second daughter, who
keeps record of every book loaned ana
asks It's return within a reasonable time
The neighbors, who consider this most ds-
courteous treatment. are the very ones who
forget they have ever borrowed book,
who loan it to a third party without con-
sulting its owner, who turn down leaves 10
mark the place, who leave the book open
and face downward rather than slip a
marker in between the pages. or who set
a glass of water or a plate of ice cream
on the closed book mo!stenng its pretty
cover until the colors run. Such are the
sins of the summer book borrower and the
woes of the book lender