Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — How to Make a Scrap Book. [ARTICLE]

How to Make a Scrap Book.

A scrap book should not be composed of miscellaneous materials, but confined to some special purpose. Let tho collector decide rightly whether pictures or printed texts are to be collected. In pictures the collector should confine himself to a definite subject, whether portraits, historical landscapes, or some branch of natural history. A book of famous authors may be collected from publishers’ catalogues alone. In almost every city or country a volume of local scenery may be collected. The collector should especially seek to save what is likely to be lost. For a book in which to paste the cuttings almost any bound volume will do, especially if its pages show a wide margin, and the print caji be readily covered by two widths of ordinary newspaper clippings. The margin may be used for notes, including dates, and a few explanatory memoranda. The clippings should be kept for a week or so before they are pasted down, because a second judgment may rule them out. It is quite safe to advise collectors that no cutting will do unless it bids fair to be fresh and intelligible a year after it has been honored with a place in the scrap-book. If the pages become too thick for the cover, cut out two or three leaves after each page filled with th> clippings. When there is the slightest possibility that the scrap-book may be used for publishing purposes,or that any of its entries may be cut out for other uses, cover one page only. But on the page used the clippings should be packed closely together. If jrossible, each clipping should retain the “rule” which marks the end of a printed paragraph or poem. The column lines need not be retained. In fact, it is best to cut newspapers always along these lines. Ragged edges, of course, should be avoided, and the mucilage with which the clippings are pasted down should be used sparingly, lest it ooze through the paper or exude under the edge. Flour paste is better than mucilage, and what is known as a photographer’s paste is excellent.