The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-02-08
From the New York Rover.l
MAJOR JACK DOWNING'S OPINION OF
v HARPER'S PICTORIAL BIBLE.

H nv rs& & ~ ~ n ~ ~
One of the last new things we got here was
the first number Of Harper's great "pcter Bible"
There was nigh about cart load Of EN- Gomez
and they all went off as fast as Zeb could TOSS
EN- over the counter. For my part, liked the
looks of it good DEAL for Pm materially fond Of
picters, and thought most Of EN- was about the
prettiest picters I'd seen in any book this great
while. And can't help feeling kind of sorry,
that the, book can't 60 on, and be published, but
has got to be cut right off in the bud, and all the
first numbers throwd away, or else burnt at the
stake. But that protest against it by them four
ministers out there in the Jarseys has killed it as
dead as door nail.
Everybody here was delighted with the book
for a week a. two, and everybody was reading it.
and lookin az the pcters, and as glad as could be-
to think we was going to have SIGH handsome
bible, till one day Deacon Snow got hold Of a
newspaper that had that protest in it. And he
came into the house all out Of breath, and found
his wife reading the book, and showing the chill
dren the pcters. sH9a a ss aa6
snow, Sally" says he, as soon as he could get
breath enough to speak, "shet that abominable
book right up, and don't let it be seea agin." ~
The deacon's wife was thunderstrlck "Why,
Mr. Snow says she, "what do you mean! Are
you crazy?" 9r sft' II
.Why, don't you see,'' says the deacon, sit is
very indecent book to have about ?" II
Why, Mr.. Snow, how can you say SO about
the bible - Flb
Because it is so," says the deacon, and here
it is in the newspapers, signed by four ministers"
"Mercy on u.s. said Mrs. Snow, "where-
abouts is it so undecent?"
"There,'' said the deacon, athat very picture
you are lookin at now at the begnnn Of the first
chapter Of Genesis. Don't you see that Adam
hasn't got any great coat on I; and that there's
horses runnin about there without any blankets
on; and that there's deer standing by the side
Of the water there with his hinder parts right to-
wards us % 4s
Marcy on u.s." said Mrs. Snow, and she put
her right hand over the pictur, and wouldn't let
the children look at it afterward. -
And this isn't the worst Of it neither The
DEACON didn't stop here he went round the next
day, and called meeting of the Parish, men and
women and all hands. Deacon Snow was called
to the chair, or rather he took the chair, and he
read the protest to the meeting, and he parfectly
agreed with them ministers, that it was very
indecent book; and called upon the meeting to
express their minds freely about it, But no one
seemed to be ready to speak, he turned to Miss
Rider, the schoolmarn, who is a middle aged lady,
and has good deal of farming, and they say UNI
common taste about all SIGH matters and ask
ed her to express her opinion about the indecent
ness of the picters.
horrid great elephants that was going into the
ark ought to have blankets over EN-. And be-
sides. one of the pcters had baby in il that
wasn't dressed, which she thought was highly
improper tis ,.4't
This brought aunt Keziah up. She said, for her
part she didn't think it was worse to look at them
elephants, than it was to look at the cows in the
COW yard. And as for the baby, she had seen ba-
bies without clothes on before day, and she
guessed there wasn't many in the meeting but
what had. But still, she had an objection to that
bible, and great objection and she felt it her
duty to state it.
Certainly" said deacon Snow, " it is the duty
of every one to bring up their objections now, so
that the thing eau be stopped in the bud"
"Well my objections" said aunt Keziah, I" is,
that it is going to ruin all the children and all the
young folks, by keeping EN- reading the bible so
much that the'll never have time to do anything
else" hst tst trl8 +s.tne ,ssS. ,5 I'LL
"Yes," said Mrs Shaw, that it is my Sally
let whole oven full Of pies burn up yesterday,
because she was reading that pictur bible, and
forgot all about en-" nsa