Item - The New House that Jack Built. An Original American Version

Printed on sized and calendered paper, with 11 original illustrations by H. L. Stevens and G. G. White. The date when it was deposited for copyright was not found, but the year given on the verso of the title page is 1865. It must have appeared early in that year, for it was advertised in Dime Novel No. 79, which appeared April 15, 1865. It was also advertised in the New York Tribune, in a list of miscellaneous publications, September 9, 1865. The booklet is 6 3/8 by 4 1/8 inches in size, has orange wrappers with a black line woodcut on the front cover (Fig. 144), and has 29 pages plus three that are blank. The printer's name is given as Alvord.

This version of "The House that Jack Built" is a patriotic parable in which the bags of malt are free speech, free labor, free press, free schools, etc.; the rat is slavery, the cat is vigilance, the dog is secession, etc., etc.

A Tenement House on a National Plan, So Jack had designed, ere the House he began; And so deep and so wide did he lay the foundation, That it took half the continent for its location. No matter; the larger the better, thought Jack, For millions of Freemen will soon find the track.