just been assassinated by an agent of the Governor of Missouri, and was in consequence occupying a good deal of space in the newspapers.  Cheap histories of him were for sale by train boys.  According to these, he was the most marvelous creature of his kind that had ever existed.  It was a mistake.  Murel was his equal in boldness; in pluck; in rapacity; in cruelty, brutality, heartlessness, treachery, and in general and comprehensive vileness and shamelessness; and very much his superior in some larger aspects.  James was a retail rascal; Murel, wholesale.  James’s modest genius dreamed of no loftier flight than the planning of raids upon cars, coaches, and country banks; Murel projected negro insurrections and the capture of New Orleans; and furthermore, on occasion, this Murel could go into a pulpit and edify the congregation.  What are James and his half-dozen vulgar rascals compared with this stately old-time criminal, with his sermons, his meditated insurrections and city-captures, and his majestic following of ten hundred men, sworn to do his evil will!

Here is a paragraph or two concerning this big operator, from a now forgotten book which was published half a century ago—­

He appears to have been a most dexterous as well as consummate villain.  When he traveled, his usual disguise was that of an itinerant preacher; and it is said that his discourses were very ’soul-moving’—­interesting the hearers so much that they forgot to look after their horses, which were carried away by his confederates while he was preaching.  But the stealing of horses in one State, and selling them in another, was but a small portion of their business; the most lucrative was the enticing slaves to run away from their masters, that they might sell them in another quarter.  This was arranged as follows; they would tell a negro that if he would run away from his master, and allow them to sell him, he should receive a portion of the money paid for him, and that upon his return to them a second time they would send him to a free State, where he would be safe.  The poor wretches complied with this request, hoping to obtain money and freedom; they would be sold to another master, and run away again, to their employers; sometimes they would be sold in this manner three or four times, until they had realized three or four thousand dollars by them; but as, after this, there was fear of detection, the usual custom was to get rid of the only witness that could be produced against them, which was the negro himself, by murdering him, and throwing his body into the Mississippi.  Even if it was established that they had stolen a negro, before he was murdered, they were always prepared to evade punishment; for they concealed the negro who had run away, until he was advertised, and a reward offered to any man who would catch him.  An advertisement of this kind warrants the person to take the property, if found.  And then the negro becomes a property in trust, when,