The weapon with which the binder deals the most deadly blows to books
is the "plough," the effect of which is to cut away the margins,
placing the print in a false position relatively to the back and head,
and often denuding the work of portions of the very text.
This reduction in size not seldom brings down a handsome folio
to the size of quarto, and a quarto to an octavo.
With the old hand plough a binder required more care and caution
to produce an even edge throughout than with the new cutting machine.
If a careless workman found that he had not ploughed the margin quite
square with the text, he would put it in his press and take off "another
shaving," and sometimes even a third.
Dante, in his "Inferno," deals out to the lost souls various tortures
suited with dramatic fitness to the past crimes of the victims,
and had I to execute judgment on the criminal binders of certain
precious volumes I have seen, where the untouched maiden sheets
entrusted to their care have, by barbarous treatment, lost dignity,
beauty and value, I would collect the paper shavings so ruthlessly shorn
off, and roast the perpetrator of the outrage over their slow combustion.
In olden times, before men had learned to value the relics of our printers,
there was some excuse for the sins of a binder who erred from ignorance
which was general; but in these times, when the historical and antiquarian
value of old books is freely acknowledged, no quarter should be granted
to a careless culprit.
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