Notes and Reviews 
depends. So it was at Chicago. The citi¬ 
zens will do well to punish the managers 
and owners who opened the theatre, and the 
building commissioners who permitted the 
opening before red lights at exits and ladders 
to fire-escapes were adjusted. Later on,other 
persons should be made to answer upon mat¬ 
ters relating to the curtain and the number 
and width of the aisles and doors, what 
building laws were ignored and why they 
were ignored. Laxity implied in the last is 
entirely within the control of the people of 
Chicago, as it is in anv other city. 
The Artistic Crafts Series, which the 
Appletons are bringing out under the editor¬ 
ship of Professor Lethaby, though announced 
as “ Technical Handbooks,” merit,on account 
of their scope, a much wider epithet. The 
subjects are so admirably introduced and 
presented that there is a fair chance of their 
making an appeal to even general readers, 
as well as to artists and craftsmen. H erein 
lies unexpected power. There is no more 
potent cause for the present-day degradation 
of craftsmanship than ignorance : ignorance 
on the part of the public that orders work, 
demanding gold for the price of lead, and 
requiring what falsehood alone, on the part 
of the worker, can supply. These books 
show by the direct language of practical men, 
who know their subjects in all details, the 
possibilities and limitations of materials; what 
is good workmanship and what is not; that 
design is an essential part of good workman¬ 
ship; that art is workmanship plus inspiration. 
11 is especially appropriate that Professor 
Lethaby, himself a member of the circle 
which gathered in devotion to the minor 
arts about William Morris, should have a 
controlling hand in this undertaking. His 
voice is now supreme upon the activities 
which Morris set in motion. Moreover, 
his connection, as a director, with the Lon¬ 
don Central School of Arts and Crafts and 
his professorship of design at South Ken¬ 
sington give him a perfect opportunity to 
know what is required of handbooks upon 
such subjects as bookbinding, silverware and 
jewelry and wood-carving. 'The result is 
that these have been treated by the most 
capable men in England, men whose names 
are coupled with genuine success at a crafts¬ 
manship which has produced the most dis¬ 
tinguished work shown at the London yearly 
exhibitions. 
Bookbinding 1 has been written by Doug¬ 
las Cockerell, who was a student at Cobden- 
Sanderson’s bindery and there executed the 
remarkable cover designed by William 
Morris for the famous Kelmscott Chaucer. 
In his conveniently small and complete vol¬ 
ume Mr. Cockerell tells how a good bind¬ 
ing should serve in the preservation of a 
book, why most bindings are unfit for the 
wear and tear to which they are exposed, 
why they have to be renewed in eight or ten 
years when, if more were expended upon the 
material, implying a less meretricious appear¬ 
ance of the covers, they should last for two 
or three hundred years. To those who love 
books,—and it is to be supposed that all 
who read do love the object of their enjoy¬ 
ment,—the explanation given upon the differ¬ 
ent methods of binding is of great interest 
and practical use. The major part of the book 
is devoted to these methods in the form of 
directions to the beginner; and so well are 
the successive steps explained and illustrated 
that the reader is tempted to turn part of his 
library into a private bindery and put in last¬ 
ing form the volumes especially prized. The 
author’s comparison of the different materials 
of binding and his series of specifications 
should be of great assistance to librarians. 
'The excellent collotvpe plates of old and 
modern bindings with which he concludes 
the work are a valuable addition to the 
volume. 
111 Bookbinding and the Care of Books, a Handbook for Amateurs, 
Bookbinders and Librarians," by Douglas Cockerell ; with drawings by 
Noel Rooke and other illustrations. No. i of “The Artistic Crafts 
Series." 341 pp., izmo. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1903. 
Price, $1.25 net. 
48 
