consider any serious
wounds which go deeper than the surface of the leather. One often sees
covers of calf, sheep or morocco deeply stripped or even pierced like the
coats of Diogenes and Ruy-Blas; the back, the sides and corners,
especially the lower ones, broken away even to the point of exposing the
boards. This is a state of cynicism which calls for some remedy; the
simple smearing on of starch is powerless to heal such damages.

It is often possible to restore missing fragments by means of new pieces
of the same kind and tint of leather. I will assume that the amateur
possesses a collection of odd scraps of morocco, brown calf, old vellum,
etc., removed with more or less right from books whose pages have been
unfortunately ruined, to be devoted to more humiliating uses. These should
be searched for a suitable piece; sometimes this is found. The essential
point is to match the grain of the leather. When the tint is too light, it
can easily be darkened with water-colors; when it is too dark, one must
search further. One may, however, lighten a little piece of calf which is
too dark by means of very weak acid.

Suppose the desired patch found. The hole or broken place in the cover is
cleaned and the edge cut sharp to prevent further tearing, and in this is
set a piece from the patch, cut exactly to fit. If the amateur has not
time to do this careful mosaic patching, he may, with a small, thin blade,
raise the edges of the leather about the hole and, applying paste or glue
directly to the board, slip in a patch piece which has been roughly cut a
little larger than the hole and pared thin around the edges. The edges of
the hole should then be moistened with paste and firmly pressed down into
place over the patch. A patch made in this way is less agreeable to the
eye than when made by the first process, for by this latter method there
always remains a sort of raised pad which accents the form of the hole.

Let us consider now the repair of bruises, more or less deep, caused by
rough contact with some hard, sharp or rough body.

When the stripped parts are still hanging to the cover, they should be
straightened out and pressed back into place after being given a light
coat of thick starch paste. But if the stripped parts corresponding to the
bruise are missing, how shall the furrow, which reveals a spongy
appearance, be brought up level with the surface of the cover? With a
corresponding patch inserted in the fissure? T