To the Editors of the Crimson:

I wish to call attention to one respect in which the privileges of the library are abused by some members of the University. I refer to the habit of marking books. Many books, especially those which are reserved in the reading room, and which all the members of a course have to use, are disfigured throughout by underscorings and marginal lines, and even by marginal comments, which become in some cases little controversies between unknown critics. Aside from the distracting effect of these marks on the reader, causing him involuntarily to emphasize portions usually least important, the practice is morally wrong. No man has any right whatever to injure and deface property not his own. And no man would mark up a book borrowed from an individual if he expected ever to borrow another from the same person. It is the doing of a comparatively small number of men who are thoughtless, or careless of the rights of others,- some of whom may be in the habit of annotating and marking their own books. The difficulty is that, so many evidences of the practice existing, men assume that it is a harmless and common custom. A general disapproval of the practice would do away with it.

It may not be out of place in this connection to suggest that the more general and not less careless habit of throwing ink all over the reading-room floor be abandoned. A few spots on the floor seem to invite more and some places are nearly black. A very little care would remedy this had habit.

A JUNIOR.