Iowa territorial gazette and advertiser. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa Territory [Iowa]) 1840-1846, 1844-04-06

The Harpers PtCtOxlaH DiO1e.
Tho following letter from Major Jsch
Downing is a capital "take orr upoA tn
fastid;ousness Of those four New Jersey
c'ergymcn who issued their nnnifesse
Fcondcmning the work in question as I'm
mora' ia It's tendency, On account Of the
splendid illustrations with which Il i
emhcllished. The letter is dated, sDnwn.
ipgville, State Of Maine, January 10th,
1914. III.
One Of The last new things we 20,
here was the first number of Norper's
'spic:ur Bible.n There was nigh alcar,
load Of 'cmt ONE, and they al went of
as fast as Zeb could toss 'em over the
counter For my par, liked The looks
Of il q good deal, for I'm naturally fond
Of Pic,ers, and though, mostof en- was
about the pretiicst piciers I'd seen ia any
book this great while. AMI cant help
feeling sorry that the book can't 90 on,
and be published, but has got to Be cut
rite of in the bud, and all the FIRST nun
bers throwsd away or else burned At the
sake. And that protest against il, BY
them four ministers out there in the Jar
seys, has killed il as dead, as dead as .
door nail. 3 = 81 i'19Ails9 3''s'
Every body here was delighted with
the book for week or two and every
body was reading il sand ioolkin a: he
pic,srs, and as glad as could be, 10 think
we was going To have SIGH handsome
bible. Till one day Deacon Snow 60,
hold Of a newspaper thai had that protest
IN II. And he cnmesinio The house all out oil
breath, aud found his wife reading the
book, and showing the children the pic
ieis. -a
snow Sally says he, IS soon as he
cruld get breath enough to spcak, .shn,
that abomlnab.e book right up, and don,
lei It be seen again.
The dcacon's wife was thunderstruck
"Why Mr.. Snoww says. "what d.
you meant are you crazy" .HHoi N7c
s.i"Why, don, you sec.'; says The idea
con, that i :sa very indecent book 10
have Iboul?n
'sWhy Mr.. Snow, how can you say SO
about iile bibie?,f hH9fasaee ~ .ag'sa
"Becsuse il is so" says the deacon,
"and here j, is in the newspaper, signed
by four ministers = 49, 49,. -.
'Marcy on u.s." said Mrs. Snow,
"where abou;s Isl, 50 undecen,g't tsad
a ''Taerc,' - said the deacon, "thas avrrv
pictcr youparc Iookin Al, now, a, the be
ginning Of The frs, chapter OF genesis.
Don't you see that Adam hasn't got any
coat on; and there's horses running
about without my Blankets on; and tina,
there's deer standing BY tlis side OF the
wnter there, with his h'nde n parts right
towards uss'' ;,j.;aa ~, ~, -.
"Marcy on u.s." said Mrs, SNOW, and
she put her hand right over the picter,
and would not let the children look al il
|allerward. aHs asewts5 sslNorcnes 4
And this isn't the worst Of it neither,
The deacon didn't stop here; he wen,
round the next day and called . meeting
OF the parish, men, women, and all hands.
DeaconsSn was called 10 the chair, or
rather he took tho chair, and he read the
protest TO The meeting and said he per.
fectly agreed with them. ministers, that
II was a very indecent book; and cllled
upon the meeting to express their minds
freely ab0utiit. aHt NiF .ani'ra.ann
u As no one seemed ready 10 speak, he
turned to Miss Rider, the schoolma rm,
who is a middle aged lady, and has a
good deal Of larnin, and they say has un-
common taste about SIGH matters, and
asked her 10 express her opinion about
the undeccntness or the pic,ers.
Miss Rider said, for her rar', she
thought them horrid great elephants tina,
was going into the ark ought To have
blankets over en- And besides, one Of
the picters had 4 baby ip il. lhat wasn't
dressed. which she thought was highly
improper .a9ersa 'sssfs7rs ses
iFhis brought aunt Kexiah ups She
said, Tor her part she didn't think TWAS
any worse 70 look at them elephants than
Il was to look ct the cows in the COW
yard And as FOR the baby, she had scsn
babies without clothes on before TO day,
and she said she guessed thers wasn't
many IN the meeting but what had. BIZ,
still she had IN objection to tina, bible,
and great objection, and she feltit her
duty to state Il.
"Cer,ainly,s said Deacon Snow, ri, is
the duty Of every one to bring up their
ob)eciions Inos, SO TINT the thing can be
stopped in the bud"
1"Wel, my objection, said aunt Kczlah,
de, tina. Il isgoing 10 ruin AZ the chill
dren and alIithc young Iolks, " keeping
en- reading ,heit'ble 90 sduehthst they'll
never have time 10 do any thing else"
Eyes" said Mrs. Shaw, "that tits; my
Sally leg whole oven full ri pies burn
up yesterday, because she was reading
that 'pictefs biBtes and forgot all about
em.S eseo,ug sdt mi bslEass7 is1l vnhnpF
ii ,aaYs, 4 agree to SHAH 4 said Mr.. Jones,
s:i,sis goinR 80 be she ruina,ion Iof our
children. I've had 10 ctop ail the wood
10 keep my fire agoing q week past, he.
cause The boys have bscu 20 busy read
ing ahsf picier bible, they eoUld'nt gil
time 70 cut q stick ".a sisW.. xapq
Finally, aiter ? number more speeches
and arguments about the matter, HE
meeting voted 10 send on q protest to tho
IIarpers against printing any more 81
EN-, moi, % much on account ~ tho pic
sers, but. because us aeoinR ~ make sve
ry body spend too much time in reading
the bible. 50 you may Jest tell the tior
p~rsthcy better hang Or their fiddler ant
let picaer Diblcs elnne. tfv 49, sAstaHssehi
szfff. .s..Ks. -. 1890 L. -, 80 q.