Smyrna times., 1866-12-19

ptenGge; give him the keys of the wine cellar;
let him, before going down to work for his
daily bread, order it Of the baker, and select a
joint from the butcher; let him, like perfect
husband as he is, return from business in time
to see the cloth laid for dinner; and if, while
ne Is waiting for it las in LAND at Last J,
his hitherto gentle wife coolly tells him she is
gong on with her first misunderstanding to
him the precious burthen of their mutual child,
and appealing to his sense Of propriety not to
stop her, now he knows she is only his mistress
let his great manly chest only heave a lit
tie; his fine, honest clear, blue eyes fill with
tears which roll down on his blowSy beard let
hlm Stagger under the unexpected blow; let
hlm fall to the floor filled nigh unto death by
the discovery that this sweet and timid crea-
ture, who has SO oft cOnfidingly lain on his
bosom with the soft innocence of a newborn
babe, is hOwling fend whose only excuse is
that she has red gold hair, a dead-white
face" Having been born with these unpIea-
SAINT, distinguishing characteristics, her de-
pravIty Is not to be wondered at or, perhaps
like IOpSy, she wasn't born, she grow so, !"
and therefore cannot be blamed nor held re-
sponslble tor any hideOus crime it may enter
her fair head and guilt-steeped mind to com
NIT As there is prejudice against capital
punishment for women, you have only to give
her heart disease or consumption, anything, i'll
fact, that kills quickly, except such unroman-
tic maladies as cholera, diptheria, &C., and you
get her out of the way in time for the manly,
chest -heaving hero to recover and pop the
question to Miss Namby-pamby, who has kept
the keys aud taken care Of his mOtherleSs, de-
serted babes while he was recovering from her
treachery but having been born with brown
eyes and dark hair, it is not to be wondered at
that Miss y. T. Is such pattern ofyirtue and
reyels i'll the most diSagreeabe sick room.
| Even Miss Edwards, through whose books
there usually runs u sweet, healthy purity, has
made the heroine of . My Brother Wife"
the lnstigator of murder. If we may take
the ladies depicted by ''Onida," Miss Brad
don, Mrs. Wood, Wilkie Collins, &C., &C., as
truthful, the fair sex Of the nineteenth century
must live and riot on illicit love and murder :
1t such an unwholeSome false taste in books
gains ground and increasing popularity, it will
soon crown its Disgusting prototypes upon the
stage the tine-honored heavy william will sink
into mild Swlndler the heavy female villain
will suppl liant him the forest-wood robberess
will displace the male thief; while everywhere
the fair sex, in right of its superior and more
daring depravity, will drive back the sickly
masculine cut-throats Oh, for few more
authOresses like the sweet and pure Miss Mu-
lock John Halifax, Gentleman" May
your unsulied name ever stand first on the list
Of novels Let us have more such books as
The Head Of the Family, fewer of Adam
Bede with seduction and infanticide as pivots
to the too intensely exciting plots.
1t is taste for the horrible, criminal and
blood thirsty which has raised cry that the
first Of English novelists, Dickens, can write no
more Alas if it be so, when shall we again
welcome to our tiresides such chaste Christmas
stories? Where find such touching morality,
pathOS and exquisite humor blended in our
pen? Not in any of the powerful sensation
writers Of to-day compared with whose he
rOines the once detested George Barnwell, Jack
Sheppard and Eugene Aram, were lambs of
prOpriety. But we no longer fear or hate
crime and depravty. 1t is proclamation to own
to disliking Adam Bede y not to worship
Armadale, " Lady Audley's Secret and
vile East Lynne" shows one to be not only
ridiculously old fogy, but without taste and ap
probation of the best modern writer's. Truly
has it been said
Vice is a monster Of such hileous mien
That to be hated needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first abhor, then pity, then embrace"
-Suaddy Dispatch.