A Penny Dreadful for the Pioneer

Chance placed a copy of one of the latest sensational story papers in our hand the other day. We are not in the habit of reading such trash as a general thing, but somehow or another our eyes lit on the heading of a new story and curiosity prompted us to read a portion of the opening chapter. The story describes a woman standing in a vault beneath a house with a blazing torch, surrounded by barrels of gunpowder, intent on wreaking revenge upon her enemies. She lights a match, there is a silence for a moment, a dull thud, and a ghastly light lit the midnight sky as all the sleepers in the house met their death. We do not profess to be much of a judge of stories; but this one seems to open pretty well. We cannot recommend it cordially to Sunday schools, of course; but for a simple little tale to cheer the family circle, and scare a superstitious hired girl's hair up on end, we think it might do. If the story continues many chapters, and the author has slaughter of this kind in every paragraph or two, he will have killed off the population of the whole earth before he concludes. This, it seems to us, is to be guarded against. Some few people must be left alive, or everybody will know that the tale has no foundation in fact.