e Sketch in the number for
July 16, and the following week he refused to print at all. He announced
this decision after all the type was set up and the "formes" were
almost ready for the press. Only forty-eight hours remained before the
_Freethinker_ was due. During that period, in company with my friend and
sub-editor, Mr. J. M. Wheeler, I made desperate efforts to get a printer
to undertake the work. At last I discovered a Freethinker who placed his
inadequate resources at my disposal. He could only set up four pages of
type, and only print copies with a hand-press. Even that was better than
nothing; anything being preferable to lowering the flag in the heat of
battle. But alas! fate is stronger than gods or men. I was foiled at the
last moment, just as victory seemed within my grasp; _how_ I forbear
to explain, although the incidents of that eventful day would form an
interesting chapter of my Autobiography. Enough copies were pulled
to constitute a legal issue of the paper, and one of these is safely
deposited in the British Museum; but none were printed for the market,
and it was everywhere reported that the _Freethinker_ was dead.
Christian Evidence lecturers joyously announced the fact at their
meetings, and Mr. Maloney ironically alluded to it in Court. I bore all
these taunts with grim silence, which was at last broken, not by words,
but by deeds. These people did not know that the _Freethinker_, like the
founder of their faith, had disappeared one week only to reappear
the next. With the aid of Mr. Ramsey, who again stood by our side,
we succeeded in restoring our paper to the light of day. Type was
purchased, compositors were engaged, and a little shop was taken in Harp
Alley. The _Freethinker_ for July 30 struck astonishment into the souls
of those who had rejoiced over its death when they saw no _Freethinker_
for July 23. From that moment our issue was never once suspended,
although we had some desperate close shaves.

In the number for August 6, as I could not get our machiner to print any
Comic Bible Sketches just then, I published a serious one, reproduced
from an old Dutch Bible of 1669. It represented Moses obtaining a
panoramic view of Jehovah's back parts. Below the text I inserted the
following notice: "As the bigots object to our Comic Bible Sketches, we
shall publish a few Serious Bible Sketches, copied accurately from
old Bibles of the ages of faith, to show what the Christians have done
themselv