The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-11-26
How 40 Keen n scrap.Book,

The first and most important direction to
he given on this subject is identical with Lord Dun
dreary's emphatic command to his snee2e - Either
do it, or let 1t alone That is to say, 1t doesn't
pay 10 made Spasmodic attempt at collecting and
preserving scraps buy expensive books for their re-
ceptOn, and then give up the experiment in disgust.
The work Of keeping i scrap-boOk to realize its
highest usefulness must De continued for long
series Of years; II "A lifetime the better Young people
can therefore he especially recommended To take mp
this interesting and useful labor. AS for the requ
sites, they are two n book and some mucilage The
scissors every well .regnlaed family Is supposed to
have In advance. The book may he very elaborate
one bought especially for the purpose a
port other volume of the interesting variety
from the Government printing onlCe. AS for the
matter To be preserved, the difficulty lies usually In
getting too much rather than too little Carefully
scan the Items, lest that which is bulky, useless, and
silly disgraces the pages Of the book. or course,
scrapbOOk to lie OF any Interest At all to the
must he a faithful index OF his own mind. This WILL
of course largely determine the character of the vol
ume. one VIII contain p0ems-this Is usually the
worst varlety-auother short stories, another cooking
receipts, another valuable household hints, culled
from the columns of the Times and other sources,
another bits uf statistics and curious Information,
another tables Of election statistics, another the facts
bearing on the RECORDS ~ OF candidates, another
matters sanitation, drainage, health, and disease;
another matters of scientific Interest. The best of all
would be the scrap book containing each and all OF
these In their proper proportion, graced here and
there by pctures--only the very best-cut from the
illustrated weeklies mOnthles, unless the latter
bound and preserved, aS they always should be.
Some enthusiastic collectors Of scraps have several
volumes each devoted entirely To certain class of
twentysiX classified volumes of the sort. That does
| not pay. Scrap books, like most other things are
good servants but bad masters. Let such
example terribly, however. In any case, PACED
index at the beginning Of the book viii be found very
useful, especially after the volume has grown large
and fun. When the second volume Is begun II is
better to continue the index In the FIRST instead of
having separate index In each volume Otherwise
much time would be lost In looking In the wrong
volume for scrap that tho owner knows must be
somewhere, but does not know where exactly. II
one attempts To paste each selection rs made
ttl1l
The better plan by far Is 10 keep the scraps they
collected until quite quantity Is got together.
There viii surely come rainy day or blue day
suky day when the pisting In OF scraps viii prove
welcome occupation. For this purpose nluciage
will he found convenient. II should De quite thin
spread we'll. The indexiDg should be done at the
same time. Properly cared for a scap-book, or
rather series Of Them, win he found extremely in
teresting. Tho work is considerable, but scattered
long term of years In little bits and suatches, II
is not noticed, aud II Is work which pays cent per
cent In added knowledge aud enjoyment