onist. The whole idea was copied from a caricature
which had appeared in a widely circulating pictorial whose only aim and
pleasure it has been for years to destroy the innate religious
nobleness of the German people by means of shallow wit and vulgar
caricatures. And this very sheet, leagued with a daily organ equally
degraded, can boast of no inconsiderable success. The rude and vulgar
applaud its witticisms, the low and infamous regale themselves with its
pictures, and its demoralizing influence is infecting the land.

The principal feature of the procession was a wagon, hung with garlands
and bestuck with small flags, drawn by six splendid horses. In it sat a
youthful woman, plump and bold. Her shoulders were bare, the dress
being an exaggerated sample of the style _decollete_; above her head
was a wreath of oak leaves. She was attended by a number of young men
in masks. They carried drinking-horns, which they filled from time to
time from a barrel, and presented to the _bacchante_, who sipped from
them; then these gentlemen in waiting drank themselves, and poured what
was left upon the crowd. A band of music, walking in front of this
triumphal car, played airs and marches. Not even the mock pope was as
great an object of admiration as this shameless woman. Old and young
thronged about the wagon, feasting their lascivious eyes on this
beastly spectacle which represented that most disgusting of all
abominable achievements of progress--the emancipated woman. And perhaps
not even progress could have dared, in less excited times, so grossly
to insult the chaste spirit of the German people; but the social
atmosphere had been made so foul by the abominations of the election,
and the spirits of impurity had reigned so absolutely during the
canvass in behalf of common schools, that this immoral show was
suffered to parade without opposition.

The very commencement of this sacrilegious mockery of religion had
roused Seraphin's indignation, and he had retired from the balcony. His
father, however, had remained, coolly watching the procession as it
passed, and carefully noting Louise's remarks and behavior.

"What does that woman represent?" he asked. "A goddess of liberty, I
suppose?"

"Only in one sense, I think," replied the progressionist young lady.
"The woman wearing the crown symbolizes, to my mind, the enjoyment of
life. She typifies heaven upon earth, now that exact science has done
away with the heaven of the nex