THE CAMBRIDGE WITS

An old book containing marginal notes made by Thomas Carlyle was sold at auction recently for a sum approximating two hundred dollars. George Washington's autograph, whenever and wherever found, is treasured away in a museum. A baseball with George Herman Ruth's signature brought a price of five hundred dollars. But the ordinary mortal who reads books in Widener Library and makes notes in their margins is not and it is possible never will be, as great as the three celebrities mentioned above. His comments, to be sure, arouse an interest in those who read them to know the name of the author; but the interest is one not skin to admiration and usually find, expression in somewhat vigorous language. This though a third marginal commentator finds the space to add: "Crude but Correct!"

Book-marking is a form of self-expression which, unfortunately, does not need encouraging. There is more than enough of it already. The man who advises Professor R. B. Perry not to discuss Nietsche's philosophy, until he learns how to spell his name, is no doubt well informed, but hardly modest. He goes on to improve the book by inserting a "z" in the name wherever it occurs, and incidentally expresses some views of his own on Nietzsche. A second reader opines that the first reader may not know so much about "Nietche" as he thinks he does. And all this on the margins of a book on "Moral Economy"! In a history book, a former reader has cleverly transposed the letters of the name "Kaiser Max", and shifted the order, so that the passage reads: "Max Keezer went forth to battle."

This marginal controversy may be interesting to those who take part, and in some cases amusing to those who follow, but it seldom adds to the literary value of the book. It is not conducive to the best study, for we note that the author of the above remarks did not continue them beyond the first chapter, and so, presumably, did not read further. Subsequent readers often waste much time in trying to decipher the pencilled comments. Even if all the witticisms were of the order of those mentioned above, there might be some excuse; but the average comment, and the most frequent one, is "to Hell with Yale". The sentiment is undoubtedly patriotic and shows that all this talk about "Harvard indifference" is greatly exaggerated. But it might be suggested that the college patriots of the marginal note express their overflow of feeling in some more effective way.