The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1900-11-09
A BOOK SURGEON.
That Is what Woman Who Re-
pairs Broken Volumes
Calls Herself


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 compare.
lively uneXplored 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 renovating books, and her
discovery of this as a profession wa
the outcome of the knowledge than
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-
gested that if she We're proficient in
this line of work she could easily OBJ
tain the order. Miss Cook. who is a
lover of books, Immediately began to
nit herself for the place by studying
bookbinding with one of the most ex-
pert binders in Paris.
"ln order TO repair books you must
know how to bind them said Miss
Cook the other day. 81 devoted the
winter to the study of bookbnding
and gliding, or tooling, as it is called.
The lessons cost small sum and |
found the work delightful. The man
from whom | took lessons lived in
what had at one time evidently been
sort of palace. His wife was an
expert binder and helped him. In
France they do not have the prejudice
against letting women learn trades
IN, 4
woman attempts to learn the trade
in regular bfndery the men refuse
to work with her"
A specimen of Miss Cooks work
manship which lay on the table was
book bound in white parchment. dec
GRATED with a finely executed design
Of trailing grapevines. with clusters
of grapes. The design was originated
by Miss Cook, who stated that the
book entire. with its rich binding.
had cost in materials just IA cents.
In the cours. of binding you take
up the book 60 times" said Miss Cook.
land in the finest kind of binding
the book has to be in the press for
two weeks in all during the different
For three years Miss Cook has been
the binder for the old Aston library
IN Lafayette place, where her work
Dom is situated, on the ground floor.
" hen the library books get torn or
n need of repairs they are sent down
o Miss Cook, who repairs about three
looks a day. When the bindings are
I'D and valuable every effort is made
o preserve them. Some come down
With one board" or cover, off ard
'thers with the strings which bind
he pages to the cover broken. The
looks that are most often in need of
epairs are the genealogical books and
peerages."
When book comes down l Judge
+ the condition of the invalid and
i've it the necessary treatment
aid Miss Cook. There is always
lenty of work to be done and it is
uprising to note how viciously some
eople will treat the books. The
Their day one of the finest and rarest
ooks of reference came down with
'ur pages cut clean out. close to the
hiding. In order to get those four
ages out the person had pressed
ard with the knife and cut away
other pages, which, however, had
ot been taken away. The loose
ages had to be bound in again, but
lie four missing ones were never
en-, received the appointment
ire when I had completed my
udies in Paris, so l never applied
T the position 10 repair the private
orary which had been the cause of
Y undertaking the work There are
W women who can do binding and
pairing, and if more would take the
Drk up | am sure they would be
pit busy all the time at private
'raries, and find it remunerative,