Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-08-20
Rare Old Books,


ton of old books, ETC., as any person in
this village. Among them are volumes
of history, poetry, bound volumes of
| newspapers, some OF the latter being
sixty years old, periodicals, etc., and
| last, but not least, an expose of Free
Masonry, by William Morgan, printed
| from the original manuscript in Buffalo
way back in the fOrties. A BANNER
representative accepted an invitation
given by Mr. Marsh, few days ago, and
spent several hours looking these relics
over and making few extracts. Nearly
all of the books are bound in leather
and are in good state of preservation,
! although many of them are more than
one hundred years old.
One of the first things taken up was a
copy of the New York Observer, printed
January %, 1892, Sidney E. Morse & Co.,
editors and proprietors. It.was then a
sheet 25x1S inches, there being seven
columns, three inches wide, on page.
The first page contains quite an inter
esting article headed, PORTER the Mail
Robber," from the diary of a prison
chaplain, who visited him few days be-
fore his execution, Porter, with two
companions, robbed the United States
mail from stage coach, near Philadel-
phia, in 1880. The three robbers were
soon apprehended. One of the three
turned states evidence. The other two
were publicly hanged few days after
their trial. The paper is largely made
up of clippings from domestic and for
eign papers, mostly religious. The lead
ing editorial is headed, "The Oldest Re-
| ligiOus Newspaper" There are letters
from England and France, dated. the
| November before. The latest foreign
news in it is up to January 18th. There
are but two columns of advertisements.
The price is stated at 50 per year, and no
subscriptions taken for less than year.
An interesting old work is a copy of
Hymns and Spiritual Songs-three
books I, Collected from the Scriptures
II. Composed on Divine Subjects; III,
Prepared for the Lords Supper, by 1.
Watts, D. D., printed in London in III.
Another is headed "Psalms carefully
suited to the Christian worship in the
United States of America, being an i'm
provement of the old version of the
Psalms Of David. Allowed by the rev.
erend synods of New York to be used
in churches and private families and
printed and sold by Jacob D. Dietrich at
his book store in Winchester, Va.
There are two volumes of Essays and
| Letters by DR.. B. Franklin. The books
are Gx3 inches, bound in leather and
have heavy fancy gilt borders. They
were published in New York in 1922.
The famous blue laws of Connecticut
are all contained in work ateled, "The
Code of 1850, being a compilation of the
earliest laws and orders of the General
Court of Connecticut, also the constitu.
ton of civil compact entered into and
| adopted by the towns of Windsor, Hart
ford and Weathersfeld, in 1888, to
which is added some extracts from the
laws and judicial proceedings of the
New Haven Colony, commonly called
the Blue Laws" published in Hartford,
Conn, by Andrews and Judd. Included
in this work are the proceedings of a
trial held in New Haven, A. D. 1913,
when young woman was tried for sit
| ting in mans lap after the wedding of
her sister, and both severely reprimand-
ed and fined. There are also the pro-
ceedings of trial held Nov. 3, 1889, and
one Dec. 4, the same year. Some of
| these old laws seem to be in existence at
the present time.
A Memoir of Roger Williams, printed
in 1884, contains fac-simile of his writ
ing.
lessons in Rhetoric" by Hugh
Blair, D. D., was published in Bratte
borough in 1924, by Holbrook and Fes-
sender.
Sermons to Young Men," by William
Dodd, LII. D.. chaplain to his majesty,
was printed in London in 1772.
| A small book with wooden covers,
covered with paper, is entitled, ''Divine
Breathings, or Pious Soul Thirsting
after Christ, in Hundred Meditations,"
nineteenth American edition, Benning-
ton, printed by Darius Clark, 1920, with
an introduction by Christopher Perrin.
Another Bennington work is "a To-
ken for Children" by James Janeway,
Minister of the Gospel" published by
Joseph Dix, Bennington, VT, 1915, NJ.
B. Cusack, printer.
There is also a pamphlet containing
the covenant, articles of faith, ETC., of
the First Baptist Church, with brief
history of the same up to the date of
printing, February, 1884. Up to that
time the Church, which was organized
April II, 1927, had received II members
by baptism and 40 by letter, making
total of 149, and the membership then
was one hundred.
There are many other books fully as
interesting as the above, and of which
more here hereafter.