Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-11
, OLD BOOKS I.AuNDERED.
Public Library Puts Thousands of
Volumes in New Dress Yearly.

VoAuAhSS Ia &NV" 6ASoS - VdAAy
From the Chicago Tribune.
A large room on the first floor of the Chi
cago Public Library building reminds one
Of a laundry with soiled clothes at one end
and washed and ironed ones at the other
Two or three long, wide tables are covered
with books torn, frayed and dirty. Other
tables and rows of shelves are filled with
volumes just from the bindery, in spick,
span, new Clothes with black, blue, green.
purple, maroon orfred backs; not as gaudy
or as gilty as in their original array but
far more solid and substantial.
Last year 5000 volumes were reclaimed
and reclad. and this year 5000 will be-
Most of them are novels, an occasional his
tory or work on, practical arts feeling as
lost in>the tattered rank of fiction as ped
igreed dog among the ours of the pound.
The original binding seldom lasts more
than six months But stout boards in
place of cloth is substituted. and the leath-
er backs instead of cloth ones. The thread
Is much stronger, and each TOKEN" or
cluster of pages, Is sewed separately, so
that the renovated book of this grade and
sort lasts four or five times long as It
did in It's original covers. Each new book
costs an average of So cents, and it's new
suit 35 cents, or taking into account it's
longer endurance, about cents.
The chief damage done Is the tearing OF
the leaves. the tearing Of the covers from
the leaves. the soil and the writing in
them. The writing mainly consists of
blame. Lovely book" Fine story BE
sure and read it." isn't she just lovely"
II think Reginald is splendid fellow"
| lust too fine for anything" Adverse judg-
ments are briefer and less explicit. Bum"
and mo good" sums 1t up
These commentaries have all to be erased.
which Is sometimes made impossible by
their being written in indelible ink Occa-
SfODally the cha of the hook
controversial inscriptions. Books in favor
of secession excite emphatic protests from
Union readers. The. history Of Belle
Boyd. the spy, has been fearfully marked
up with frank opinions of her secession
proclivities Professionals and Catholics also
give vent to their sentiments in regard to
each others creed and conduct. So do those
Of socialfstic or anarchiStic beliefs when
the rare chance of their presence in fiction
offers. Frequently these voluntary COM
mentators are satisfied to draw line UNI
or Interrogation mark in the margin. These
expositions are generally in poor writing.
bad spelling and bad English Occasional
~ they are bitter. and even profane.
curiosities. One. is: 40 History by Senator
Lodge of Massachusetts IT was run over
by the wheel of street car and a hundred
odd pages cut sheer ACROSS diagonally. An
Register, from WHich9some one while in
400 pages containing the list of post Offices
and postmasters HI the United States, prob
ably for a mailinsuist b.Many of the books
are badly stained with the compound of
streets. When Book Has been defaced or
damaged. but is fIbt Yet far gone enough
for reminding, theroneowho draws it from
the library after the defects have been seen
is protected by az staqped line reading.
Pages las to 1853 OF this book were cut out
previous to June is, 1901" or whatever the
date may have been. D g.
OF Dickens works 'Ibavid Copperfeld" is
most frequently rebought and rebound OF
the more modern books Mark Twains Tn
nocents Abroad, "~Roughing 1t" and tom
Sawyer" Churchill,s Richard Carvel' and
1.-The Crisis. though "Bsn-Hur" beats
them all in the length of time during
which 1t has been replaced on the shelves.
Sometimes the public fools the library Of
ficials as it does the publishers. OF the
seventy copies of Kipling's kim"
thirty-five are on the shelves as good as
new. and there are forty such of Weir
Mitchell's Hugh Wynne." The supply of
James Lane Aliens Reign of Law" like
wise exceeds, the demand The last supply
nf David Harum' Is not yet exhausted