Harper's indoor book for boys

by Joseph H. Adams

After the prints are mounted, they should be pressed until dry. Then the cover of the book should be carefully removed with the aid of a sharp knife. Never mind about ruining the blank pages or fly-leaves, for they will be replaced by the binder when he puts the cover on again; but care should be taken to avoid cutting or tearing any of the printed pages. When the cover is removed, it will be found that the book is put together in sections laid one on top of another. These sections consist of sixteen or some other number of pages each, and a section is known in a printing-office as a “signature.” The threads that sew the book should be cut, and the signatures should be carefully separated from each other.

Then the mounted prints should be laid in as nearly as possible opposite the incidents they illustrate. The prints should always be inserted face up, and the sidewise full pages with the bottom of the picture towards either the outside or inside margin of the book. Now your book is ready for the binder. Perhaps your extra-illustration has been so extensive as to increase the bulk of the book so much that the original cover will not go on again, and perhaps enough has been added to make the one volume into two, in which case your binder can supply you with simple covers at a very slight expense.

Books of travel, or stories of hunting, fishing, etc., may be beautifully illustrated by photographs. Unmounted prints are to be desired, although it is possible to take prints off mounts by a liberal soaking in warm water. The soft-finished photographs, such as bromide and platinum prints, are vastly better than the shiny albumen prints.

Photographs should be mounted in the same way as other prints, except that no openings are to be made in the mounts. The prints should be pasted on flat and pressed until dry. Albumen prints have a tendency to curl up, and it will require a pretty stiff paper to keep them flat. This is one of the reasons why platinum or bromide prints are so much better. When albumen prints are used they must be mounted wet, and should afterwards be burnished, which can be done by any professional photographer. An amateur photographer can have the fun in many cases of making the pictures himself for the book he wants to extra-illustrate, and the finished work will have an added interest and value to him.

The use of photographs, especially if many are included, will greatly increase the thickness of a book, and it will generally be found advisable to have the binder make it into two volumes of equal size.

A Circulating Library

In a small town, or in a residential section of a city where most of the young people are acquainted with one another, a circulating library may be formed at a nominal cost. This can be done in two ways: the first plan is for the members to contribute the books—from one to ten volumes—as may be agreed upon. Many people hesitate to lend books, because they “fly off and never come home to roost,” but by the circulating-library system law and order can be maintained. One of the most successful libraries of this kind was carried on for a number of years in a New York town. The young people, in due time, became married men and women, but through the association of the library they continued to hold together like a great big family.

A regular set of by-laws were established and lived up to. Books could be drawn each week, on a day set for this purpose. A librarian was selected, and in his house the bookcase was located. There were three locks on the case. The key of one was held by the librarian, another by the president, and the third by the secretary and treasurer. Regular dues were assessed on each member—twelve cents a year at first; then fifty-two cents, and finally one dollar. Books kept over two weeks were charged for at the rate of one cent a week, doubling each week for four weeks. This fine made it imperative for the subscribers to return books at the end of three weeks or suffer a heavy penalty.

Another popular scheme was carried out by the children in the Glenwood section of Greater New York. They held a fair some years ago, and made quite a little money. They then purchased paper-covered books by good authors and rebound them in cloth. A bookcase was constructed that held over one hundred volumes, and the same co-operative plan was inaugurated that has just been described.