New-York tribune., 1908-08-14
OF Interest ~
" TO 6Uonen.
NOVEL OCCUPATION
Tvo Women Repair School Books
During Summer Vacation.

now ,ocunstion for women seems TO have been
invented by the school board of Bloomfield, n j.
1t follows ss natural consequence OF free text
books and has been found TO save great deal OF
money to the taxpayers. Each summer two women
members Of an old Bloomfield family, go through
the eight school buildings of Bloomfield and put
every book in order. The books which neeo re-
a,r ar. sorted out by each teacher before the close
OF school and placed grade by grade. in great piles
in an ONCE with long table There with paste
pot agi and needle the repairers make them al
as good as new before the summer is over
If the leaves loose. no careless paste brush
hastily attaches them TO the next leaf The cover
is carefully removed. Then. with saddlers awl-
they tried shoemakers at first. but found it too
heavy-holes punched through the back ana
the leaves firmly sewed- If the back is ragged
or broken IL is rejuvenated by a strip OF mushh-
Then the cover is attached more. If any leaves
are torn they are rnended with strips OF transpsr-
ent paper through which words be seen.
summed neatly over the edges II the edges OF the
leaves are worn or thumbed away. they are
clipped and neat. fresh strips of onion skin pa
per pasted round the edge TO ill out the page. If
the leaves are soiled, mixture of equal parts of
vinegar and water, applied with a sponge only
slightly and dried with clean cloth. will
leave the pages clean and sanitary So treated. a
book is good for another years use. Formerly hun
dreds of small books were rebound every summer
Now few rebound except large, heavy books
like dictionaries and aliases All the common text
books used with only the summer repairing
until leaves missing or actually 1lleglDle, When
bought Even then many books are saved
for out Of five old books from which leaves are
missing the skilful members will make perhaps
three At for further use by supplying leaves from
the discarded volumes Different publishing houses
II seems. have each their defects and the book
pairers mention instantly what they The
school books just put out by one big house always
come loose at the back In others the leaves fall
speedily. In others the muslin comes loose on
tic cover
School books are not bound they used to be-"
said one Of the book members. When
children books were PASSED from child to child
and were good for years Of in the fam
fly Now the books will hardly stand ordinary
wear and tear. When books which neither
soiled nor torn come in with backs all loose that
shows il is the books fault. the childs. And
when 2 certain publication always comes in with
the back loose. and another always comes with
the leaves loose, that indicates specific faults in
binding"
The little books from the baby classes the
hardest TO mend. they dlapidated- Those
from the upper grades and high school. however.
rarely show any hard usage, q strict system of
fines inculcating respect for public property the
part Of the older pupils, Significant reminders Of
the schoolrocm be read between the applica-
tion Of awl and pastepot Arithmetics come in
with the middle part of the book bulgfng an inch
beyond the covers All the earlier and later por-
tions Of the viii ba clean and sound but that
irritating section dealing with fractions percentage
and United States money will be found wrenched
loose from its moorings by the hands of
and brain racked youth Histories come in, clean
and whole Christopher Columbus and George
Washington and Mckinley. but sadly mauled and
soiled TO the Civil War; Biographies. immaculate
as 10 Asia and Australasia but suspiciousIy grrny
America and Europe
The Bloomfield books are repaired at average
cost of seven cents apiece It costs from is TO 20
cents rebind a child's first reader, and CORE
spondingly for the larger books The saving
on two Thousand books the average number bound
each summer. easily be reckoned. There seems
reason vhy this should not be a suLimer occu-
patton for women all over the country.