the most
economical. Of course, it is subject to the drawback of not being, when
done, a _bona fide_ or genuine copy of the book as published. This
diminishes the commercial value of even the rarest book, although so
fully restored as to text that the reader has it all before him, so that
it supplies every requisite of a perfect copy for the purposes of a
public library, or a private owner who is not a connoisseur in books.

When the corners of a book are found to be broken (as often happens by
falling to the floor or severe handling) the book may be restored by a
treatment which will give it new leather corners. With paste or glue well
rubbed in, apply thick brown paper on the corners, which, when dry, will
be as hard as desired, and ready to receive the leather. Then the sides
may be covered with marbled paper or cloth, and the volume is restored.

When the back of a book becomes loose, the remedy is to take it out of
the cover, re-sew it, and glue it firmly into the former back. This will
of course render the back of the volume more rigid, but, in compensation,
it will be more durable.

In these cases of loose or broken backs, the study should be to save the
leather cover and the boards or sides of the book intact, so as to
diminish by more than one-half the cost of repair. As the volume cannot
be restored to a solid and safe condition without being re-sewed, it may
be carefully separated from the cover by cutting the cords or bands at
their junction with the boards, then slowly stripping the book out of its
cover, little by little, and treating the sheets when separated as
already indicated in the chapter on rebinding.

One of the most common defacements which library books undergo is marking
up the margins with comments or references in pencil. Of course no
thoughtful reader would be guilty of this practice, but thoughtless
readers are often in the majority, and the books they read or fancy that
they read, get such silly commentaries on the margins as these:
"beautiful," "very sad," "perfectly splendid," "I think Becky is horrid,"
or, "this book ends badly." Such vile practices or defacements are not
always traceable to the true offender, especially in a circulating
library, where the hours are so busy as to prevent the librarian from
looking through the volumes as they come in from the readers. But if
detected, as they may be after a few trials of suspected parties, by
giving them out books known to be clean an