The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-09-15

The New York Times tells how many of the
snowy books pcddled through the country are
illustrated 1t says:
Not long ago subscription house got out
an illustrated work on the East. Wanting
representation of one Of the giant cedarS on
Mount Lebanon and not having any cedars on
hand, it substituted therefor the Charter Oak
at Hartford, and the trick escaped detection
On another occasion, ii is said that in an illus
tratcd volume of the theological order an old
cut of the MatterhOrn was compelled to 90 dl-
ty for Mount Ararat and an Erie Canal boat,
with some alterations was put forward rs Il
ffe sil15Ie Of Noah's Ark There has been no
end to the pictorial deception put of upon pi-
Gus folks, who have received i'll II reverent,
and therefore an unquestioning, spirit. Cuts
OF common New England gardens have been
raraded in place of GethSemane, and Mount
Holyoke in place of the Mount of Olives. An
cient blocks, used in school Biographies, are
reputcd to have rendered service in depicting
Biblcan scenes to which they had not the re-
motcst allusion Thus the noted Ruins of Pal
myra, familiar to every child of the past gen
Grafton, has gone into books rs SOdom and
GOmorrah before they were destroyed by fire
from heaven, according to the Scriptural &C
count and became the Buried Cities of the
Plain Sacred history is in this manner be
lied because nothing like description of
those cities has ever been given, nor has any
trace of them been discovered by curious ar
ChpolOgiStS
Some subscription publishers Of the unrc-
generate kind are understood to have taken I'M
warranted liberties with their tellow-country-
men. Two or three years since publishing
house issued a trashy, sensational volume,
claiming to be the lives OF notorious criminals
during the last half century Any blanks in
The careers of the culprits were filled up with
imaginary horrors, and all their miSdeedS were
grossly exaggerated in order to present the
lovers of such refined and ennObing literature
with the most highiy-spiCed mOrsels. When
the manuscript was finished and the proper IL
,ustratOnS were looked for, it was found that
only a certain number of the scoundrclS' like.
uesses wcr. obtainable The question was
now TO supply their places with assumed por-
rats that should Rot jetray the cheat. After
considerable search, old volume, long out of
print, OF liOgrai - / evangelical clergymen
# a bygonc day, Ii portraits, was oppOrtune-
" discovered. l.'Se were coarse wCOd-CutS,
and so wretchcil, zone that it seemed to the
publisher that "Ould pass current for vii
uns of the dec ,ye. The work was issued,
and as i; was e. Siycy advertised as Il mora.
publicaticn-to Ia the Young from the be
ginning Of vic, D.. I 50 torth-it fell into the
hands of many ,... do. people, who had no
difficulty in reat.. inc yhaTaC;ers of the raS-
Gals by their utt,. j, &. prayed countenanccs.
Before long some OF the readers detected the
likeness between the criminals and certain az
Cd preachers still lingering on their earthly
stage. Discovery after discovery was made,
and finally the whole fraud was revealed; but
The exposure, it is asserted, only increased the
sale Of the noXious book