Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 217, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1917 — PASSION THAT MAKES THIEVES [ARTICLE]

PASSION THAT MAKES THIEVES

Emerson's Peels ration —tJoncemtng BOOtr Coffsctefi Wourd "8«m io Have Been Amply Justified. Ralph Waldo Emerson once declared that book-collectors were all thieves. “The passion of classification masters the mind and makes rogues of honest men.” The case of a professor of theology in the University of Berlin, who had just been convicted of stealing books from the University, reminds a writer In the Boston Transcript of Emerson’s saying and of the following Incidents:— “W. S. Shaw, the founder of the Boston Athenaeum, used to steal from the private libraries of his frlendß any books he wanted to make his darling Athenaeum complete. Collectors of shells steal ‘oranglas’ from the Grlnnells’ mantelpiece and Mrs. Coffin’s house at Slnsconset. Melllsh Moore told me that the books stolen from the Boston Athenaeum are mostly from the theological department, so that they are forced to keep those locked up. BuOhe books most often taken are patent reports, by lawyers.” Professional and collecting morals must have improved since Emerson wrote those words in his Journal in the fifties; he goes on and adds: “But even In comparatively late days I have seen some queer Instances of collecting zeal —as, for example, this: A couple of respectable Boston business men, one of whom collected weapons, visited a very swell house in Rhode Island once In the absence of family; they were admitted by the aged caretaker; while in the drawing-room, one of these reputable gentlemen engaged the old custodian in conversation while the other slipped under his coat the authentic tomahawk of a noted Indian chief —ami got away with it. And the queerest part of the matter was that the collector used to boast of the achievement when exhibiting the tomahawk as an item of his treasures.’ ”