Legend has it that President George Washington never told a lie. Still, he was not perfect. A library in New York has a document to prove it. According to a written record of the library, Washington checked out two books on October 5, 1789, and never brought the m back.
More than 220 years have gone by since Washington borrowed the books, and a lot has changed since then. Back in 1789, there was no Washington, D. C. The U.S. capital was New York City, and that was where the President lived. There was only one place in the city to borrow books, the New York Society Library. It was there that Washington checked out the two books that were never returned. Washington had been President for just five months when he borrowed the books. One book was about international relations, and the other focused on lawmaking, which helped with his new job.
The librarian wrote down the titles, the dates and the name of the borrower. Washington was listed simply as “President”.
Under the rules of the library, the books should have been handed back by 2 November that same year, and their borrower would have been faced with fines of a few cents a day ever since. Over time, Washington's fine grew and grew. Today, the library is owed about 200,000 dollars for the two missing books. “We're not actively concerned about the overdue fines,” the head librarian Mark Bartlett said. “But we would be very happy if we were able to get the books back.”
As for Washington's reason for failing to return the books he borrowed, we may never have an answer. Perhaps he was too busy and just forgot about them. Maybe they were lost. Even though he were alive today, Washington might prefer to keep the truth a mystery. After all, it was he who famously said, “It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”
