ple from immoral books and
disgusting newspapers, not guard them equally from such a disgusting
sight and sound as this Tyrolian exhibition? These Tyrolians sold
printed histories of the fearful crimes and calamities which were
depicted on their banners. These histories are very exciting and
romantic reading, as you may believe when I give some of their
titles:--"The History of the Great and Terrible Monster, who cruelly
murdered his Beloved, his Child, his Father, his Mother, his two
Sisters, and his Brother, on the 8th of July, 1850." "Heroic
Self-sacrifice of a Bohemian Hussar Officer, and the Punishment of his
Murderers." "A true and dreadful History which occurred on the 14th of
March, 1850, in Schopka, near Milineck, in Bohemia." "The Might of
Mutual Love: a highly remarkable event, which occurred at Thoulon, in
the year 1849." "The Cursed Mill: a Warning from Real Life." "The
Temptation; the Deed; the Consequences!"

If you care to know any thing of the style of these remarkable
productions, I will give you a specimen. One begins thus:--"In
Ross-dorf, in Hanover, lived the criminal Peter Natzer. He was by trade
a glazier, his father having followed the same calling. Peter was
five-and-twenty years old, and was, from his earliest youth, addicted to
every species of crime. He had a sweetheart, named Lucie Braun, a poor
girl, &c., &c."

Again:--"Silent sat the miller, Leverm, in his garden; thoughtfully
gazed he into the distant valley. He was scarcely thirty years of age,
but heavy cares had bowed him, and robbed him of his fresh, youthful
bloom. Beside him sat his wife, who cast many an anxious but
affectionate glance on her husband. How tender and lovely was this young
wife! The inhabitants of the neighborhood called her 'The Rose of the
Valley.'" In this way begins a most awful tragedy.

Of course we did not read these things in the fair. It was enough for
us, there, to listen to the mournful chant of the mountaineers, till our
blood was frozen in our veins. I took home with me these printed
histories, as many another simple soul did; and now, after I have read
them, and been filled with horror and disgust by them, I have put them
away from me as unholy things. But think of the effect they will have in
many a lonely village, this winter--in many a desolate farm-house or
cottage--on the wide plain, or among the mountains! These papers are
productive seeds of murder and crime; of that one may be certain.

The