earnest man, he who will act when other men shrink from acting, takes the lead and the rest follow.

And the influence of such men is unbounded. It was not till Luther took the first step that the Reformation commenced. Other men were ready for it, the times were ready for it, but the earnest, acting man was needed before it could be commenced.

And how this earnest man influenced the hearts of all around him! He awakened his age to serious, manly thought on the most serious of questions, and his influence is still moving us. Being dead, he still speaketh. There is something grand in the life of Luther; looking at him we are reminded of those words of Milton, "He who would write heroic poems, must make his whole life a heroic poem." Luther did write poetry; but his greatest poem was epic, and that was his life.

M. S. E.

The Press Gang.

A YEAR ago the first day of this month of November, the Presidential campaign was drawing to a close. We all remember the enthusiastic meetings, the torch light processions, the rockets, transparencies, campaign songs, the many excitements of those autumn nights. A different kind of life seemed to pervade the community. Persons only met to argue, and separated only when they were mutually shocked at each other's principles, for to convince anybody was a thing never done, rarely expected. Nothing was talked of but Kansas, Compromises, rights, chattels and Administration. The newspapers of course were filled with the same things, the same hackneyed arguments, the same 'appalling facts,' the same convincing truths,' backed by enormous black lettered headings and exclamation marks. Every torch-light procession was heralded forth in the morning papers, as a "splendid display," "immense multitude," &c., &c. Every mass meeting had "10,000 people on the grounds!" Every speech was a "triumph of eloquence!"

Such intense excitement, it seemed, must be deep-seated and lasting, but yet November passed, the meetings vanished, torch-light processions went out, and staring capitals, exclamation marks, roosters with trumpets, all were packed away in dusty heaps in the back part of the printing office, the devil knows where, there to wait till some railroad train rushes off the track, changing, like the letter S, (a fatal one to rail

road corporations,) 'passengers' into 'sassengers,' by the hundreds. We say by the hundreds, for, in this age of blood, small caps will suffice to head a fifty or seventy-fold railroad accident; indeed, accidents have disappeared from our newspapers, and, in their place, we have only awful sacrifices of life,' and 'heart-rending catastrophes.' These are headed with huge capitals and placed in a conspicuous part of the paper to attract attention, so that the newsboy, whose papers bear the blackest title-pages, will get the most custom.

We have a lazy but somewhat philosophic friend, who will tell you the amount and relative importance of the news of the day, by simply measuring the length of the capital letters at the top of the first page of the New York papers, with a little two inch rule which he carries in his pocket, designating it as the "Rule of the Day." He had it made during the last campaign, and it was then one inch in length, but since the advent of the "bogus baby," he has had a joint of another inch added, and now considers himself prepared for the worst. Perhaps he is, though better judges think that the coming winter, with its hard times,' its failures,'' cases of suffering' and 'hunger riots,' will put it to

a severe test.

Suppose, my dear reader, a la Guizot, that you and I had been sent on an embassy from the Moon to the Earth, to learn what had taken place here during the past year. Suppose that our time was limited, and that we were to gain our knowledge from the newspapers, a file of which lie before us. We first take up a newspaper of the Campaign. Here we find so many staring headings that we are at a loss which to seize upon; we cannot read them all. However, the Moon being a satellite of the Earth, and we, having enough of earthly nature to be greedy of the savage style of literature, are naturally enough attracted by such a heading as

66 A LIE NAILED TO THE COUNTER!

"Last evening, a committee of our most respectable citizens, headed by a brass band and carrying transparencies and torches, waited upon Mr. Buchanan, the Democratic candidate for Presidency, and had quite a conference with him, in the course of which he EXPLICITLY DENIED ever having killed his grandmother with an axe, when a young man. We take pleasure in announcing this fact, as it will settle forever the BASE REPORT by which the Republicans have already secured many thousand votes in the rural districts." of the oppo

But we must be impartial, and so we select from a paper site party:

"We learn by Telegraph, that John C. Fremont, under the advice of several prominent members of the Republican Party, in order to secure the vote of New York city, decided at a late hour last night, to deny publicly that he eat dog-flesh while at the Rocky Mountains. Gentlemen of the Fifth Avenue! Will you any longer refuse to cast your votes for this far-famed traveler, a gentleman of wealth, taste and refinement, from your own midst ?"

Having thus gained a clear idea of the state of politics, we turn over the papers in search of other items. After December the capitals disappear and the current of life runs smoothly on, nothing breaking the monotony save perhaps an extra " embezzlement " or execution of some important criminal.

We look farther on, passing by several weeks, stopping however to glance for a moment at such headings as "New Developments!" “A Young Man lives in Style!" "He drives a fast horse !" "He gives Champagne Suppers!" "Extensive Forgeries!" "Huntington in Prison !" "Sale of his Furniture!" These, a friend tells us, are nothing new, and so we will not stop to read, but turn over till we come to a set of papers for several weeks, headed in large letters, "31 Bond Street!" Here capitals are so common and bloated, items are so numerous and exclamation points so abundant, that we are in doubt as to which we will select, and finally choose two or three at random.

66 APPEARANCE OF THE House.

"Half of the upper front corner-room blind has been opened since our last edition. In other respects, the appearance of the house does not vary from that described in the morning's issue of Wednesday."

·

"One woman was heard to remark, by our reporter, 'Oh dear! my bonnet's all smashed to a pancake! A man near the door cried out in a tone of great anguish, Get off my corns! It is supposed from the depth of feeling exhibited by this man, that he is a relation of the victim. Small boys were crying on all sides, in a very excited toneEres the Herald! Times! Tribune!"

66 SHOE OF THE SERVANT.

"It has been extensively reported among our citizens, that there is a large hole in the sole of the left shoe of Bridget, the servant girl. Whether this is true or not, we have been unable to ascertain, but it is

certainly the duty of the Coroner to look into such matters and unravel the mystery which may lie concealed there."

"Since the above was in press, we learn that several anonymous letters have been received by the Chief of Police and others, which, instead of tending to solve the matter, only wrap it in secrecy more profound. We give below one of these:

"cheef of The polees. fe faw fum i Smel the Blud uf An englishmun! blud! Bewaire uf grumpey jim !"

Our taste for "blud" is satisfied; let us turn on and see what will bring out the exclamation marks next. But what is this? We haven't turned far, when we suddenly behold the "BOGUS BABY" staring at us from the page? What can it mean? As for the 'BOGUS,' the age of humbug has gone by, Barnum has fled to Europe, and people are beginning to learn that "truth is stranger than fiction," and the 'BABY,'— why, babies never were interesting outside of the family, and yet here we have in enormous capitals

"THE BOGUS BABY AT BARNUM'S!

"Our reporter has just returned in time for this edition with the following items, which we take pleasure in laying before our lady readers:

66 THAT BLESSED BABY'S EYES!

"There has been a great dispute about the baby's eyes between Mrs. Q-, of Fifth Avenue, and the elegant Mad. R—, of Madison Square. Mad. R insists that they are of a light blue, and Mrs. Q- is equally certain that they are a light shade of black. What the final decision will be we cannot tell, but we would advise fashionables not to side with Madame R, for it is whispered in gay circles that Mrs. Q contemplates giving an elegant entertainment early in the season."

MISS C - OF 14TH ST., KISSES THE BOGUS B!! "As our reporter, pencil in hand, waiting for items, was standing near the spot where the baby was, he heard-'Oh you little dear! I can't stand it any longer! I must eat you up!' and turning, beheld the graceful and accomplished Miss C., of 14th st., kissing the baby with the greatest warmth."

66 ADDENDA.

"Since yesterday morning the baby has received several elegant gifts

of clothing and jewelry. Among these our reporter noticed an elegant baby-cape from the celebrated firm of Brag, Toady & Co., No. 9992 Broadway; an expensive finger-ring from an 'upper ten lady;' and a richly chased silver cup from a female friend.'”

"Who can this baby be?" we, citizens of the Moon, innocently ask, but receiving no answer, not having time to pursue our inquiries in that direction any farther, we turn the file of papers till we come to September. Here, "Statement of a Passenger," "Condition of the Machinery," "Last half hour before sinking," lead us to infer that we have struck upon a shipwreck, and so we have, as we discover when we glance over the items and find them for the mo t part, scenes of terror and misery, described with all the sickening Paul-Pry detail and heartless exaggeration which 'hard times' can hammer out of a penny-a-liner. Here we find a Pictorial slipped in by chance. It has on one side

a huge picture of the accident, at least, so it is entitled. Let us examine it. Clear up, on one side of the page, rises a wave, more faithful to the engraver's pocket than to nature. It curls over and is about to engulf a great number of small irregular black things which are scattered about beneath, and which, we judge from the connection, are intended to represent men, when, it is suddenly arrested by the pencil of "the eye-witness who sketched it on the spot." On the next page we have imaginary portraits of " Capt. Soandso, as he appeared at the pumps "-"Hon. Whatshisname, buckling on his life-preserver,"--taken from the bandit pictures of yellow-covered literature, woodcuts sold by the wholesale to Pictorial publishers, to be used as occasion demands. But our time is growing short, and as we turn over the last few pages of the year, we see nothing but "MORE FAILURES!" "CLEARING HOUSE!" "HARD TIMES!" "HUNGER MEETINGS!" "EXTREME DESTITUTION !"

We have finished, and now comes the summing up of the year's

news.

Here we find as much difficulty (and of the same kind) as does Guizot, in tracing the progress of civilization in the few isolated facts which he selects from history. We look in despair through the article headed "Hard Times," hoping to find some sort of a general glance at the history of the past year, but no! we find nothing but complaints of the "fast age," "extravagance," "vitiated tastes of the public," &c. What, then, shall we tell the inhabitants of the Moon about the Earth? Shall we not tell them that we find their leading newspapers printing supplements containing "full and accurate details of the late murder," that we find them filling three fourths of their sheets with reports of Coroner's inquests, and striking off extra editions of these, fit only for