MAKING UP A ‘CURIOSITY.'

Temuka Leader, Issue 1046, 21 December 1882, Page 3

MAKING UP A ‘CURIOSITY.'

A -1, irv wh i ' , l' vio Id fain beli vp ie ex

a 22 er'i.i pfi or wSollj' untrue is reUtect in a Bii'n.ii’gliam c mt.'iu uii-ury, and it certainly redo'inrlji 1,0 tli -* in-, p uity, if ’ft, (tic honesty, of a local tradesman. It would up vicar I hat. a customer recently wrote to a wholesale dealer in the button city wanting some curiosity to put in his shop window that would bo sure to attract the notice of persons passing by. The order was a somewhat perplexing one, but the dealer was equal to the emergency, and after some correspondence it was decided that the ‘ curiosity ’ should take the form of a Bible with a bullet embedded in it, and that an announcement should bo attached to it stating that the volume was one that had alwnys been carried by a soldier through a dangerous campaign, and upon one occasion had saved its owner’s life by acting as a shield against a well aimed shot of the enemy. A small Bible bearing the aspect of having been much used wie obtained, and to write a suppositions name upon the flyleaf and a short dedication from any imaginary Sunday School teacher was of course an easy matter. The difficulty then arose as to the placing of the bullet in the Bible without penetrating it altogether. If a rifle were discharged at it a little distance away the bullet would, of course, go right through it, and the theory that, it had saved the life of the gallant and pious soldier who was supposed to hare carried it in his breast pocket could not be supported; on the other hand) it was impossible to hit so small a mark at a long range. This difficulty, like the initial one, was speedily solved. Between th# last few pages of the volume some iron plates were introduced and then a bullet was fired at it from a Martini-Henri rifle, the result being that about three-quarters of the leaves were penetrated. The iron sheets were then removed, and the book forwarded to its destination, where, if we may believe the narrator, it has been a great success. Crowds surround the shop where it is exhibited, men of position in the town make special pilgrimages to see it, and ladies beg for a piece of one of the leaves of such an interesting relic, ©no clergyman even alluded to it in the pulpit as an almost miraculous instance of Providential watchfulness, while the local press gave a most circumstantial account of the original owner’s life, the whole particulars of which were, it is needless to remark, supplied by the enterprising tradesman who exhibited it. It would be intercstingl-e know whether the tradesman or the newspaper was the victim of fraud. If the former, then the swindle was most audacious.