Treasure in the Trash

My friends know I have a knack for discovering treasure in the trash. When I lived in my favorite apartment in Oshkosh I shared a dumpster with many of the businesses on Main Street and the things left protruding from and beside our dumpster were always interesting to say the least. I once stubbed my toe on some reel-to-reel recording equipment that was nearly as big as me, but I imagine this little gem must have been discarded from the used bookstore.

I found this book on the ground beside the cardboard recycling, where it had probably slipped from the rest that had been deposited there, I picked it up to put it into the recycling and while it may not exactly be a treasure the book wooed me and I brought it home with the intention of salvaging the illustrations inside.

It was missing its cover, starts on page 157 and continues only to 572.  It is probably a piece of a much larger manuscript, and I've been unable to find a title or author so I've reached an impasse in researching it.  When I flipped through it again this morning I came across something I hadn't seen before - a leaf that had been pressed and dried between the pages.  It's things like this that make me smile, knowing that the object in my hands had a life before me.

edit: Google books is my hero - I now know that the book is "Wife and mother: or, Information for every woman" by Pye Henry Chavasse and was first printed in 1888 and is still printed (without illustrations) today.