The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-26
Printing, Limited Edi-
tons in Pine. Woods.
INTUITION
How She Surprised the
Press Room Foreman.

The pine woods of northern Wiscon-
sin is about the last place in the world
that one would look for the production
of exquisite hand made books, and that
such should be the work of a woman
from start to finish does not lessen the
anomaly. Indeed, Mrs. Helen Bruneau
Van Vechten of Wausau, Wis, is in all
probability the only woman bookmaker
in this or any other country. OF women
writers there are many, of women
bookbinders not a few While here and
there women decorators are beginning
to dot the literary horizon; but it re-
manned for Mrs. Van Vechten to fall
in love with the art of printing and
one has but to look through some of her
limited editions to realize the far
cry between books made con amore and
books made to sell.
Merely as an incidental, says the
Chicago Record, Mrs. Van Vechten's
husband became a partner of William
H. Ellis. who had Just begun to issue
the Philosopher. and who had under
consideration various plans for publish
ing books. 1T soon became evident that
there was too much work for the limit
ed force of the office, and Mrs. yam
Nechten who had nothing to do, of
fered to take care of the correspond
ence. In this way she gradually proved
that her judgment upon all commercial
points was clear, sound and far-seeing
Her taste, too, upon margins, arrange
ment, the use Of COLOR. etc, was found
to be fine and discriminating, and
thus came to be the deciding voice. In
short by the mere process of evolution
Mrs. Van Vechten beSame the firm, not
only speaking the final word in all mat
tiers involving business discretion and
artistic judgment, but doing a large
part of the manual labor herself.
a single example serves to illustrate
how woman's intuition is frequently
more than a match for years of manly
experience. 1t seems that deckle-
edged handmade paper, used in ex-
pensiye editions, is for some good and
sufficiena reason not cut exactly on
the square. This makes it exceedingly
difficult to so arrange that the print
ing on one side the page shall be ex-
actly opposite that on the other-a
matter of little import to the ordinary
reader, but defect which the con-
noisseur is quick to discover by hold
ing the page up to the light, and is es-
pecially noticeable in the case of deco
rated margins. The new firm was not
long in running up against this very
difficulty. Try as they would, each
page upon being held to the light re-
vealed that on one side the margin
here and there extended beyond and
above that on the other
Upon advising with some OF the best
publishing houses in the country the
universal verdict was received that the
matter of uneven register YVES a diff
ficulty that had never been obviated;
that it was one of those minor defects
due to conditions which simply had to
be accepted This, however, failed to
satisfy Mrs. Van Vechten. She contin-
ued to think, measure, plan, evolve, and
finally one day said to her foreman:
Henry just remove that peg that
holds the paper in place to the right
and let me feed from the left"
why, madam, that can't be done -
said the printer Of Is years experience.
mo professional printer was ever
known to feed from the left"
well, let us try it, urged Mrs Van
Vechten.
IMPOSSIBLE replied the foreman.
what did you say?' asked Mrs. Van
Vechten,, with a strong suggestion Of
command in her tone and the unwilling
foreman transferred the peg.
From the left side went through one
sheet, which, when held up to the light,
revealed perfect uniform register, not
hairs breadth difference between the
two Sides
constituent as he ventured:
well, it did happen to strike lust
right that time, didn't ito"
Another and another went through
until the whole edition was printed with
out blamish or variation, and Mrs. Van
Vechten's reputation was forever estab-
lished as a practical workman