A RELIC OF THE DARK AGES.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

AN abuse prevalent here has long been a source of very general annoyance, and I have often thought that it ought to be brought before the College public through one of the papers. Still, it hardly seemed sufficiently important to call for an article; but I notice that in your last two issues you have established a department of "Correspondence," and here, I think, is the suitable place to make my complaint.

I desire to protest against the custom of marking up the Library books. I very seldom take out a book but I find it defaced by some would-be commentator; such highly aesthetic notes as "Good," "Admirable," "This is fine," are met on almost every page. The only historical precedent for such action I can think of is the appropriation by the schoolmen of the manuscripts of the classical authors for their own worthless scribblings. But then the schoolmen lived at a time when parchment was scarce and dear; now, when stationery is so cheap, the impropriety of any such mediaeval practice is too apparent to admit of further comment.

X.Y.Z.