ewspapers. The use of buckram has been
mostly abandoned by the libraries. Morocco cloth is American, but has no
advantage over plain muslin or book cloth, that I am aware of.
Leatherette, made principally of paper, colored and embossed to simulate
morocco leather, appears to have dropped out of use almost as fast as it
came in, having no quality of permanence, elegance, or even of great
cheapness to commend it. Leatherette tears easily, and lacks both
tenacity and smoothness.

Both feltine and fibrette are made of paper--tear quickly, and are unfit
for use on any book that is ever likely to be read. All these imitations
of leather are made of paper as their basis, and hence can never be
proper substitutes for leather.

All torn leaves or plates in books should be at once mended by pasting a
very thin onion-skin paper on both sides of the torn leaf, and pressing
gently between leaves of sized paper until dry.

Corners made of vellum or parchment are more durable than any leather.
When dry, the parchment becomes as hard almost as iron and resists falls
or abrasion. To use it on books where the backs are of leather is a
departure from the uniformity or harmony of style insisted upon by many,
but in binding books that are to be greatly worn, use should come before
beauty.

In rebinding, all maps or folded plates should be mounted on thin canvas,
linen, or muslin, strong and fine, to protect them from inevitable
tearing by long use. If a coarse or thick cloth is used, the maps will
not fold or open easily and smoothly.

The cutting or trimming of the edges of books needs to be watched with
jealous care. Few have reflected that the more margin a binder cuts off,
the greater his profit on any job, white paper shavings having a very
appreciable price by the pound. A strictly uncut book is in many American
libraries a rarity. And of the books which go a second time to the
binder, although at first uncut, how many retain their fair proportions
of margin when they come back? You have all seen books in which the text
has been cut into by the ruthless knife-machine of the binder. This is
called "bleeding" a book, and there are no words strong enough to
denounce this murderous and cold-blooded atrocity. The trimming of all
books should be held within the narrowest limits--for the life of a book
depends largely upon its preserving a good margin. Its only chance of
being able to stand a second rebinding may depend upon its being v