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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



a libertine, is like the sword in the hand of a 

 despotic tyrant. There is positively no cal- 

 culating the extent of mischief it may do. 

 Admitting that many very good things acci- 

 dentally find their way into these cheap 

 periodicals — there can be no " Editor" to 

 such papers — do we not in every number 

 find, side by side with a fine sentiment, some- 

 thing of the most revolting kind ? Atheism, 

 materialism, obscenity, and impurity, are 

 generally commingled with romance, history, 

 murder, seduction, and the wildest of love- 

 tales. The morale of these latter is horribly 

 subversive of the feminine purity which we 

 so much delight in. 



These publications, be it observed, circu- 

 late to an extent hardly credible. Ladies' - 

 maids, milliners, dress-makers, boys, girls, 

 man-servants, maid-servants, — aye, nearly 

 all who can read, and who enjoy the sensual, 

 revel in them. What is the necessary conse- 

 quence ? Why, that society, who are in the 

 hands of these individuals — live in the same 

 house with them, employ them, entrust their 

 children to their care (and morals!), suffer 

 to a degree that it would be really cruel in 

 us to inquire more closely into. 



Thus is society constituted. Thus do they 

 grow up. Thus do the seeds of " early edu- 

 cation," so carefully sown and harrowed in, 

 produce the fruits which all thinking people 

 so shudder to behold from day to day. 



The real and only cause of our Journal 

 not finding favor in the sight of the book- 

 sellers and newsvendors, is — its high moral 

 tone. We decry what they deal in. We 

 spoil their gain. The louder we cry out 

 against immorality, the less chance they 

 have of selling the pernicious trash which 

 fills their coffers with money. They 

 have vowed to annihilate us ; but we 

 are backed by the good and the virtuous. 

 We (fo make way, though slowly: and if our 

 friends will only stick to us, our patience 

 must eventually triumph. 



We have gone through a martyrdom of 

 suffering in this little venture of .ours. 

 Opposed by a powerful body — a most power- 

 ful body we admit, yet has our sheet-anchor 

 been the approval of an honest conscience. 

 This, and the heartiest of all hearty wel- 

 comes that awaits us wherever we are 

 known — both in town and country — makes 

 us, under all our trials, the happiest of happy 

 men. 



We have disguised nothing ; and now rest 

 heavily on our friends for support. Every 

 additional Subscriber gained, is another nail 

 in a bookseller's coffin ; the grand struggle 

 being — " Eight against Might ! " 



Beauty. — A lovely flower. Yet is it a flower 

 without smell, unless its possessor has a heart 

 rich in other graces of the mind. In the one 

 case, we admire ; in the other, we adore. 



ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Swallow. — Knowing how interested you 

 are in everything that relates to the feathered 

 tribe, I send you two anecdotes of the swallow — 

 which species however, for I am no ornithologist, 

 I am not able to say. Attached to the house I 

 occupied at Cour, in the Canton de Vaud, in 

 Switzerland, was a very large wood-house, or, as 

 the French more neatly express it, Bucher, per- 

 haps between 30 and 36 feet high. Across the 

 ceiling of this Bucher ran some very strong pro- 

 jecting beams; and against these beams, year 

 after year, some swallows built their nests. 

 Others occupied their old quarters. This opened 

 into a large court-yard, and never did I lock the 

 door of the Bucher till our little friends were 

 housed. Generally, before four o'clock in the 

 morning, it was opened again. In due time we 

 had a family of little swallows, and then began 

 the fun. I had a tabby cat, that used to stoop 

 near the door, and leap up ; trying to catch the 

 swallows as they dived low along the surface of 

 the ground. In spite of puss, however, they 

 swept through the door and brought food in for 

 their young families. On their return, they at- 

 tacked " puss," and, having no insect to lose, 

 they darted at her two or three times as quick as 

 lightning, and then away they flew for more food. 

 When they came back, "puss" renewed the at- 

 tack, but with no more success than before. The 

 birds were too quick for her ; and eventually, she 

 was always fairly beaten off the field, the swal- 

 lows triumphant. 1 he best of the joke was, I 

 had, and still have, a large black Swiss dog. He 

 used occasionally to stretch his goodly carcase in 

 the court-yard, and would very harmlessly watch 

 the sport between the swallows and puss. But 

 this neutrality the swallows would not admit; 

 and they attacked poor "Eino" so vigorously that 

 he was obliged to make a bolt of it, giving them 

 rather an angry growl. You know my faithful 

 "Fino," Mr. Editor. — [We do, indeed! and a 

 most noble, affectionate creature he is!] — At this 

 very moment he is laughing at the remembrance 

 of having been fairly put to flight by a few swal- 

 lows! In course of time, the young ones were 

 to be taught the art of flying. Unfortunately, 

 one of them, in his first attempt, fell from his 

 nest to the bottom of the Bucher. He was not 

 hurl, however, nor did "Puss" witness the cat- 

 astrophe. Had she done so, doubtless she would 

 have had ample revenge. My eldest daughter 

 happened to be in the Bucher at the very moment, 

 and took up the unfortunate little bird. It could 

 only just keep itself on her finger. She went out 

 with it in the court-yard, when the parent birds 

 came and rested a moment on her finger; depo- 

 sited some insects in the beak of their offspring; 

 returned to the chase; and again to their young 

 one. This they repeated until, by means of a 

 long ladder, the unfortunate little creature was 

 safely replaced in his nest, whence he probably 

 did not again venture till he felt himself perfectly 

 secure on his wings. — Bombyx Atlas, Tot- 

 tenham. 



Belgian Canaries. — Can any of your readers 

 tell me, Mr. Editor, where these birds originally 

 came from? How was it that the Germans, and 



