Excerpt from:
A Book for All Readers
An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books
and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries
BY: AINSWORTH RAND SPOFFORD
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK & LONDON 1900
A librarian of New York gave it as his experience that some ministers are not to be trusted any more than other people. Some of them like to write their opinions on the margins of the books. He found one of the library books written on in thirty pages, recognized the hand-writing, and wrote to the reverend gentleman asking an interview. He came, admitted the fact, and said that his notes made the book more valuable. This ingenious excuse did not satisfy the librarian, who said, “others do not think so, sir; so if you will get us a new book, you may keep the more valuable one.” He soon brought in a new copy, and the matter ended.
Full text of book available at Project Gutenberg.
PDF file
You can also get this book as a PDF file here:
http://cid-8fdc5fb8c58f75e1.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Libraries.pdf
Google Book
Google Book has also scanned this book. You can see the actual page images here.