Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1853-11-09
Mlislcllaneous.
THE BIBLE HOUSE.

/ HE DlDLE 1OUoE.
To Fator offhe Gozetfe:
If you will take the cars which run up the
Bowery in the crowded city of New York, af-
ter passing up from Chambers Street some
mile, or it may be d mile and half, but still
in the bustling city-you will come to Aston
Place, where they are erecting the Cooper
| Institute--near to the location of the Astor
library and in an op n space your eye is
struck with a massive building Of brick
chaste in architecture, blu. not gorgeously
adorned like the palaces in brown stone and
white marble, of the upper town a lofty pile
of five stories, forming of itself an isolated
| building-looking useful and business like
Bookstores and neat shops are in the basement,
and along its facade in large letters, you read
1.-The American Bible Society',-The For
eign Missionary Society"-"Dome Mis-
sions'' and the like. This imposing but mod
est--large but handsome house, is the BIBLE
! House.
FROM this house there issues every day, two
thousand copies the Holy Scriptures with
in its walls three hundred operators are bus
lily aud constantly at work at various employ
lnents, under minute division and allotment
of the several kinds OF l,hor, in making bi
bes and nothing but bibles--from the melt
ing of the metal for stereotype plates, to the
last touch of the burnisher upon the gilded
leaves of the completed volume, al the work
is upon all sorts and sizes Of tcstaments and
| bibles.
/ saw this wonderful, aud to me deeply in
teresting establishment under favorable cir
cumstances.
Twas invited, with others, by the managers,
to go all over the establishment, under the
conduct of the intelligent president and SUI
perintendants--and | had thus the advantage
of full explanation and description Of every
process-ot tie history Gifts origin and pro-
gress--its financial condition and future pros
poets.
! saw nothing in the great Commercial Me-
tropolis,( much as there is to see there, now, J
whic,. could compare in interest with this visit
to the Bible House. III
/ have thought, that some of your readers,
especially those who look for great results
from this wholesale scattering of the Holy
| leaves, would be interested TO hear something
about the mighty engine for the making and
4 diffusion Of the great Book.
1 In attempting to give this information, l
cannot enter into minute details of the won
derful arrangements and process by which,
with most intelligent system of economy
admirably printed bibles aud testaments are
produced at prices SO small, that the poorest
man in the land can get bible for the wages
of days work, or if he cannot afford to give
that--tor nothing, for the society can afford
sometimes to bestow it. have nothing to
rely upon but my Impressions produced by q
rapid progress through the busy rooms of this
noble nan factory, and can therefore only
touch upon the most srikisg features.
The Council room where the directors
and managers meet every neutrality-suspicious.
once week--a spacious lofty celed room
is adorn d with portraits of the great benz
factors and presidents Of the Bible Soci-
ety. before the rostrnm is glass case, con.
tanning five or six large elegantly bound BIZ
bles the gift of the Society to the building
committee of the Bible House. We saw on
one, the name Of IIon. Luther Bradish. oul
polite and intelligent Conductor through the
establishment -eonfertable, spacious Offices
and rooms we're all around for the Off ,ers Of
the society-Fire-proo safes for the account
books of the great concern--all warmed and
lighted BY steam and gas in the most com
plete, but economical manner
We passed through the printing rooms :
and saw the sheets of the bible struck off al
fast as the female attendant could lay the
sheet of white paper upon the machine
: Steam, the great motor was generated BY {
f mighty engine far down in the building, which
moved the printing presses--the machines fo
stamping the covers and backs of the book
and for various other purposes. ~
Scores of neatly dressed, modest looking
women, were engaged in folding, stitching an'
asserting the printed sheets after they wer'
brought from the spacious drying room--an(
t@ F