To those who ask of what possible utility it can b cultivate so unfruitful a pursuit as the devising or the lecting of book-plates, it may be pertinent to state claim made in behalf of the amateurs of this art, by a noisseur, namely, "Book-plates foster the study of art, tory, genealogy, and human character." On this the we may add, the coat of arms or family crest teaches 1 aldry; the mottoes or inscriptions chosen cultivate taste for language and sententious literature; the engr ing appeals to the sense of the artistic; the names of ea or ancient families who are often thus commemorat teach biography, history, or genealogy; while the great riety of sentiments selected for the plates illustrate t character and taste of those selecting them.

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On the other hand, it must be said that the coat of ar fails to indicate individual taste or genius, and might be ter be supplanted by original and characteristic design especially such as relate to books, libraries, and learning.

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CHAPTER 5.

THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS.

We have seen in former chapters how the books of a library are acquired, how they are prepared for the shelves, or for use, and how they are or should be bound. Let us now consider the important questions which involve the care, the protection, and the preservation of the books.

Every librarian or book owner should be something more than a custodian of the books in his collection. He should also exercise perpetual vigilance with regard to their safety and condition. The books of every library are beset by dangers and by enemies. Some of these are open and palpable; others are secret, illusive, little suspected, and liable to come unlooked for and without warning. Some of these enemies are impersonal and immaterial, but none the less deadly; others are personally human in form, but most inhuman in their careless and brutal treatment of books. How far and how fatally the books of many libraries have been injured by these ever active and persistent enemies can never be adequately told. But we may point out what the several dangers are which beset them, and how far the watchful care of the librarian and his assistants may forestall or prevent them.

One of the foremost of the inanimate enemies of books is dust. In some libraries the atmosphere is dust-laden, to a degree which seems incredible until you witness its results in the deposits upon books, which soil your fingers, and contaminate the air you breathe, as you brush or blow it away. Peculiarly liable to dust are library rooms located in populous towns, or in business streets, and built close to

the avenues of traffic. Here, the dust is driven in at windows and doors by every breeze that blows. It i omnipresent evil, that cannot be escaped or very lar remedied. As preventive measures, care should be ta not to build libraries too near the street, but to have an front and side yards to isolate the books as far as may consistent with convenient access. Where the librar already located immediately on the street, a subscript for sprinkling the thoroughfare with water, the y round, would be true economy.

In some cities, the evils of street dust are supplemen by the mischiefs of coal smoke, to an aggravated degr Wherever soft coal is burned as the principal fuel, a bla fuliginous substance goes floating through the air, a soils every thing it touches. It penetrates into houses a public buildings, often intensified by their own interior of the same generator of dirt, and covers the books of t library with its foul deposits. You may see, in the pub libraries of some western cities, how this perpetual cur of coal smoke has penetrated the leaves of all the book resisting all efforts to keep it out, and slowly but surely d teriorating both paper and bindings. Here, preventi measures are impossible, unless some device for consumir the coal smoke of chimneys and factories were made con pulsory, or the evil somewhat mitigated by using a le dangerous fuel within the library.

But, aside from these afflictions of dust, in its most as gravated form, every library and every room in any build ing is subject to its persistent visitations. Wherever car pets or rugs cover the floors, there dust has an assure abiding-place, and it is diffused throughout the apartmen in impalpable clouds, at every sweeping of the floors Hence it would be wise to adopt in public libraries a floor covering like linoleum, or some substance other than

woolen, which would be measurably free from dust, while soft enough to deaden the sound of feet upon the floors. Even with this preventive precaution, there will always be dust enough, and too much for comfort, or for the health of the books. Only a thorough dusting, carried on if possible daily, can prevent an accumulation of dust, at once deleterious to the durability of the books, and to the comfort both of librarians and readers. Dust is an insidious foe, stealing on its march silently and unobserved, yet, however impalpable in the atmosphere of a library, it will settle upon the tops of every shelf of books, it will penetrate their inner leaves, it will lodge upon the bindings, soiling books and readers, and constituting a perpetual

annoyance.

It is not enough to dust the tops of the books periodically; a more full and radical remedy is required, to render library books presentable. At no long intervals, there should be a thorough library cleaning, as drastic and complete as the house-cleaning which neat housewives institute twice a year, with such wholesome results. The books are to be taken down from the shelves, and subjected to a shaking-up process, which will remove more of the dust they have absorbed than any brush can reach. To do this effectually, take them, if of moderate thickness, by the halfdozen at a time from the shelf, hold them loosely on a table, their fronts downward, backs uppermost, then with a hand at either side of the little pile, strike them smartly together a few times, until the dust, which will fly from them in a very palpable cloud, ceases to fall. Then lay them on their ends, with the tops uppermost on the table, and repeat the concussion in that posture, when you will eliminate a fresh crop of dust, though not so thick as the first. After this, let each volume of the lot be brushed over at the sides and back with a soft (never stiff) brush,

or else with a piece of cotton or woolen cloth, and so stored clean to the shelves. While this thorough meth of cleansing will take time and pains, it will pay in the lo run. It will not eliminate all the dust (which in a la collection is a physical impossibility) but it will reduce to a minimum. Faithfully carried out, as a periodical su plement to a daily dusting of the books as they stand the shelves, it will immensely relieve the librarian or boc owner, who can then, (and then only) feel that he has do his whole duty by his books.

Another dangerous enemy of the library book is dam already briefly referred to. Books kept in any baseme room, or near any wall, absorb moisture with avidity; bo paper and bindings becoming mildewed, and often cover with blue mould. If long left in this perilous condition sure destruction follows; the glue or paste which faster the cover softens, the leather loses its tenacity, and th leaves slowly rot, until the worthless volumes smell t heaven. Books thus injured may be partially recovered before the advanced stage of decomposition, by removal t a dry atmosphere, and by taking the volumes apart, dryin the sheets, and rebinding-a very expensive, but necessar remedy, provided the books are deemed worth preserving

But a true remedy is the preventive one. No librar should ever be kept, even in part, in a basement story, no should any books ever be located near the wall of a build ing. All walls absorb, retain, and give out moisture, and are dangerous and oft-times fatal neighbors to books. Le the shelves be located at right angles to every wall-with the end nearest to it at least twelve to eighteen inches removed, and the danger will be obviated.

A third enemy of the book is heat. Most libraries are unfortunately over-heated, sometimes from defective means of controlling the temperature, and sometimes from