"NOT MINE, BUT MY FRIENDS."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1294, 24 November 1911, Page 4

"NOT MINE, BUT MY FRIENDS."

A new Irague has been founded -Franca entitled "The League Against tfa Lending of Hooks," and possibly were ifc-iyixted in Wellington there would be manyjnembers. Authors ami publishers strongli'support it, as well as tlie infinitely chm-Int, or tho constitutionally too liberal, owjers of libraries. M. Paul Reboux andOl, liena Blum, in a manifesto issued to synipathisers, remarked: "Our friends do net borrow our pictures, our cushions, and ofuLknickknacKy, but they do ask for our ljDqks. Wa have not the courage to refuse, l; t(>,:"lend them, and our volumes disappeaV;Rivd do not return to our shelves. . . livery borrower may be considered as oit.-b'uye? less, whilst every woukl-bo borri?,v»s to whom we refuse our books, may gained." Another approving membfli'adds, with much French politeness, that when it is a lady who wants to borrow a book a man has only to reply that "it-shjjl-, be sent to her the following day." Ift tlien buy her a volume, without brooking the rule, or giving. up his owu ; jsqv. v - • "Taetfiil pooplo will soon tako tlid fiiui, ; and this will teach them the way w tbo book shops.". This method is not quite original discovery. Tho Parisian ™le&< tor, Guibert do Pixcrecourt, whose dtfcjlsdvo motto, inscribed above his libftry door, was "Go to them that sell, andliiiy for yourselves," possessed many volunibs , which ""they that sell" would part" wil'h! only at enormous rates, yet of deep importance to many a needy man of lettteW If'very hard pressed, rather than bit'ak tho law of non-lending, Pixerecourt make a friend a gift of the book desiiw, '■ "This courso had the effcct of prevents people from wishing to borrow." In a very different spirit another good collector,, labelled all his books, "Not n))' own, bvt J my friends'." Much of, tho friction bW. tween borrowers and lenders, statesman e'x-, 4 change, arises from" a difference of nitty 1, tudo towards book- in many volumes. Tlife" borrower who modestly carries off one, and forgets to return it, soothes bis con. , science apparently by reflecting, "Oh well, ' he lias three more : to console him," jusi'.. as tho world refuses to mourn over a in a largo family whereas tho romaimn&<< ; volumes soem nothing, because theyaro't inoomplfete, and to its parents h the lost;-•< child is always the flower of tho flock,-. Sometimes stray volumes have'their od-. ventures, as, for instance, when n: buyer at Sotheby's paid grait sums to completes again a friend-mutilated set, and feuii'l in. ; the new acquisition his own book-plate, Tho French League, by (ho way, distri- - butes a. little engraving on parchment, which each member places on .-his'book'* shelf, as a. polite signal tlifit "Books cannot be lent." And after all, its .prosenes may serve to accentuate tlip joys of boolclending. As the French lady thought that strawberry ices would be' the; greatest pleasures in life "if theV woro'ibnly sinful," so this practice would acquire its last dangerous charm. To lend your best books to your best friends, agiiinst all'-oaths to (lie league, would be life enjoying the-il-licit corpse-reviver in a."prohibition State 1 i .* . .