It ought to be stopped.

....  In the telegraphic account of a distressing railway accident in New York, we find the following:—­“The body of Mr. Germain was identified by his business partner, John Austin, who seemed terribly affected by his loss.”

O, reader, how little we think upon the fearful possibilities hidden away in the womb of the future.  Any day may snatch from our life its light.  One moment we were happy in the possession of some dear object, about which to twine the tendrils of the heart; the next, we cower and shiver in the chill gloom of a bereavement that withers the soul and makes existence an intolerable burden!  To-day all nature smiles with a sunny warmth, and life spreads before us a wilderness of sweets; to-morrow-we lose our business partner!

....  Mr. J. L. Dummle, one of our most respected citizens, left his home to go, as he said, to his office.  There was nothing unusual in his demeanour, and he appeared to be in his customary health and spirits.  It is not known that there was anything in his financial or domestic affairs to make life distasteful to him.  About half an hour after parting with his family, he was seen conversing with a friend at the corner of Kearny and Sutter-streets, from which point he seems to have gone directly to the Vallejo-street wharf.  He was here seen by the captain of the steamer New World, standing upon the extreme end of the wharf, but the circumstance did not arouse any suspicion in the mind of the Captain, to whom he was well known.  At that moment some trivial business diverted the Captain’s attention, and he saw Mr. Dummle no more; but it has been ascertained that the latter proceeded directly home, where he may now be seen by any one desiring to obtain further particulars of the melancholy event here narrated.

Mr. Dummle speaks of it with perfect frankness and composure.

....  In deference to a time-worn custom, on the first day of the year the writer swore to, affixed a revenue stamp upon, and recorded the following document:—­

“I will not, during this year, utter a profane word-unless in sport-without having been previously vexed by something.

“I will murder no one that does not offend me, except for his money.

“I will commit highway robbery upon none but small school children, and then only under the stimulus of present or prospective hunger.

“I will not bear false witness against my neighbour where nothing is to be made by it.

“I will be as moral and religious as the law shall compel me to be.

“I will run away with no man’s wife without her full and free consent, and never, no never, so help me heaven! will I take his children along.

“I wont write any wicked slanders against anybody, unless by refraining I should sacrifice a good joke.

“I wont beat any cripples who do not come fooling about me when I am busy; and I will give all my neighbours’ boots to the poor.”