Zion's Advocate - with a straight pin

Zion's Advocate was a religious periodical published in Virginia beginning in the 1850's and originally edited by Elder John Clark. (It later combined with some other publications and was known as Advocate and Messenger.) I have been blessed to acquire quite a number of the issues of this paper. It served a very important function over the decades among the Primitive Baptist people.

I pulled down one to read this morning - the August 15, 1879 issue. I noticed that the spine of the paper had a straight pin thrust through it, to act as a staple would in our modern saddle-stitching. I started to remove it, but then thought better of it. It is an interesting historical phenomenon, so I left it alone.