The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1914-12-24
THE HAsKIN LETTER
Old Books and Manuscripts.
BY Erederiek 3. Haslkin.

When p1ge from a book or man
nscript Is in bad condition the first
thing done Is to repair all holes and
to give It a perfectly smooth straight
edge by grating on paper in a man
ner that seems almost magical. Then.
to strengthen 1t, delicate layer OF
q silk gauze known to repairers as
lcrepeline, is applied with flour paste.
This gauze is SO delicate that 1t is
not to be detected by the naked eye.
yet It holds smoothly together paper
that otherwise would be crumbly
fragments. In applying the gauze to
the illuminated page. Mr.. Berwick
took a fine camels hair brush and
carefully outlined each bit Of color
with the paste which was applied to
cover all the uncolored surface. The
result has so far exceeded his expec-
tations and will no doubt attract con-
siderable attention from experts In
the fine art of manuscript repair.
The facilities of the repair shop
|of the Library Of Congress ar so we'll
recognized throughout the world that
requests have come from Europe to
have fine commissions executed here.
One Of the most important of these
was a large volume of manuscript
record of the apprenticeship Of the
old Cutters Guild Of London dating
back to 1925. An exhibition Of the
repair work done in the Congress
sional Library was taken to. a con-.
yention OF antiquarians several years
ago by Gailard Hunt, the chief of
the Division of manuscripts in the
Library Of Congress. It's excellence
made SO strong an impression upon
those who examined it that when
this important old book was discov-
erred In seemingly hopeless condi-
ton, permission was asked to have It
repaired In the Library Of Congress,
a compliment which was greatly APP
preciated by those in charge.
The repairing OF an old page,
whether printed or written, goes
through practically the same process.
although each specimen presents
some new difficulty. In making re-
pairs care is taken to use old paper
having the precise grain, and water
mark Of the sheet to be repaired.
New paper could not be used for this
purpose. Consequently, every scrap
OF old paper which can be secured
from old books and manuscripts OF
no value in themselves is carefully
preserved as 1t may be worth many
times its weight in gold. One lady
employed in the repair room IS espe-
cially interested in the collection Of
scraps Of old paper for this purpose.
One day she had assembled a u{lanti-
ty of these fragments upon her desk
intending to have them assorted,
when she was called away for a few
minutes. During her absence an 40.
tive charwoman, thinking they were
of no value, brushed them into the
waste basket. They had been taken
down stairs to be destroyed before
their collector returned. Consider
able excitement prevailed throughout
the entire library for time before
the entire mass Of waste paper col
lected for the day could be assembled
and the precious scraps regained.
The repairing OF the, will Of.
George! Washington is a fine specimen
of the repair work of the Library Of
Congress. This old document had
rested in the Fairfax court house for
over century and during most of
that time could be freely handled by
visitors. Good sized fragments were
missing from it. presumably because
some of the visitors were so DESTROYS
Of owning scrap of paper upon
which the first president had written
that they were guilty of tearing Off
bits to carry away with them. The
document was worn through along
the creases where it had been folded
and had been crudely repaired by
stitches of coarse thread and adso by
little strips Of gummed paper place..
at irregular intervals. Through the
courtesy Of the librarian OF Congress,
Herbert Putnam, Mr. Berwick was
permitted to repair the old will. He
was Obliged to go to the old court
house to do the work because the
law OF Virginia prevented the docu
ment being removed from the county
in which 1t was probated. The will
contained forty-four pages. Each
was put into a perfect condition and
all were bound into a book This
book is now enclosed in steel case
with a glass front. IT is open at the
front page so that it may be read by
visitors.