MAKING UP A "CURIOSITY."

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3546, 20 November 1882, Page 4

MAKING UP A "CURIOSITY."

A story which we should fain believe is exaggerated or wholly untrue is related iv a Birmingham contemporary, and it certainly redounds to the ingenuity, if not the honesty, of our local tradesmen. It would appear that a customer recently wrote to a wholesale dealer in the button city wanting some curiosity to put in a shop window that would be sure to attract the notice of people passing by. The order wss a somewhat perplexing one, but the dealer was equal to tho emergency, and after some correspondence it was decided that the "cariosity" should take the form of a Bible with a bullet embedded in it, and that an announcement should be attached to it stating that the volume was one that had always 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 tho enemy. A small Bible bearing tho aspect of having been much used was obtained, and to write a suppositious name upon tho flyleaf and a short dedication from an imaginary Sundayschool teacher was of course an easy matter. Iho 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 have carried it m his breast-pocket could not be supported ; on the other hand, it was impossible to hit so small a mark at a long ran«e. The difficulty, like the initial one, was speedily solved. Between the last few pages of the volume some iron plates were introduced, then a bullet was fired at it from a Martini-Henri rifle, tho 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 belive tbe 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. One clergyman even alluded to it in the pulpit as an almost miraculous instance of Providential watchfulness, while the local press gave a most circumstanial 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 interesting to know whether the tradesman or tbe newspaper was the victim of fraud. If the former, then the swindle was most audacious.