Cochise review., 1900-11-14
ODD OCCUPATION.
"Book Surgeon" Is What One
 Woman Calls Herself.
ProAtable and Pleasaa.t Employment for Women Who Have to Sup port ThemscIyes - I'm
 valid NUlames

Who can devine what book sur
 geon" is? Miss Mabel Cook, of New
 York. has explained the meaning of
 the term and says it is a ,eompara-
 lively uncxplored field of activity for self-supporting women and one which can be made profitable. The work of
 the book surgeon" consists of mend ing and renoyating books, and her discovery of thus as a profession was
 the outcome of the knowledge that
 a certain private library needed re pairing. Miss Cook was spending the
 winter in Paris. where the owner of
 the library resided, and it was sug- ge ted that if. she were proficient in this line of work she could easily ob- tain the order. Miss Cook. who is q lover of books, immediately began to fit herself for the place by studying bookbinding with one of the most ex- pert binders in Paris.
 ys "In order to repair books you must know how to bind them" said Miss Cook the other day. T devoted the winter to the study of bookbinding and gliding, or tooling, as it is called. The lessons cost small sum and found the work delightful. The man from whom I took lessons lived in what had at one time evidently been . sort of palace. His wife was an Isxpert binder and helped him. h France they do not have the prejudice against letting women learn trades in shops as ill New York, where II 8 woman attempts to learn the trade in a regular bindery the men refuse to work with her" VI. ...
 A specimen of Miss Cooks, work manship which lay on the table was . book bound in white parchment, dec orated with finely executed design of trailing grapevines, with clusters of grapes. The design was originated by Miss Cook, who stated that the book, entire, with it's rich binding, had cost in materials just l4 cents.
 "1n the course of binding you take up the book 60 times" said Miss Cook, "and in the finest kind of binding the book has to be in the press for two weeks in all during the different processes" .. 1, For. three. .ysars Miss Cook has been the binder for the old Astor library on Lafayette place, where her work room is situated, on the ground floor. When the library books get torn or in need of repairs they are sent down to Miss Cook, who repairs about three books day. When the bindings are old and valuable every effort is made to preserve them. Some come down with one ''board," or cover, of and others with the strings which bind the, pages to the cover broken. The books that are most often in need of repairs are the genealogical books and "peera ges." sa.
 When a book comes down judge of the condition of the invalid and give 1t the necessary treatment" said Miss Cook "rhere is always plenty of work to be done and it is surprising to, note how viciously some people will treat the books. The other day one of the finest and rarest books of reference came down with four pages cut clean out close to the binding. In order to get those four pages out the person had pressed hard with the knife and cut away 60 other pages, which, however, had not been taken away. The loose pages had to be bound in again, but the four missing ones were never seen. I received the appointment here when I had completed ny studies in Paris, so I never applied, for the position to repair the private library which had been the cause of my undertaking the work There are few women who can do binding and and if more would take the work up l am sure they would be kept busy all the time at private libraries, and find it rsmunerative, too" " a,t --. ....a .-