They have, in their
time, been tempted to unearth their treasures, and to invest in bubble
companies like the rest of the world; but there is a reaction here, the
Normans evidently thinking, like the old Colonnae, that a hole in the
bottom of the garden is about the safest place after all. And they have,
it is true, some other temptations which come to them with a cheap
press, such as '_la surete financiere_,' '_le moniteur des tirages
financiers_,' '_le petit moniteur financier_,' &c., newspapers whose
special business it is, to teach the people how to get rid of their
savings, we are speaking, of course, of the comparatively uneducated
agricultural population--the farmers, all through the district we have
come, especially near Vire and Falaise, being rich _proprietaires_ and
investing largely; and there are many other things in these half-penny
French newspapers which find their way into these remote corners of
France, which must make the cure sometimes regret that he had taught his
flock to read. In a little paper which lies before us, the first article
is entitled '_Le miroir du diable_;' then follows a long account of a
poisoning case in Paris, and some songs from a _cafe chantant_,
interspersed with illustrations of the broadest kind. But let us not be
too critical; we have seen many things in France which would startle
Englishmen, but nothing, we venture to say, more harmful in its
tendency, than the weekly broad-sheet of crime which is spread out over
our own land (to the number, the proprietors boast, of at least a
hundred thousand[53]), wherein John and Jane, who can only sign their
names with a cross, read in hideous cartoons, suggestions of cruelty and
crime more revolting than any the schoolmaster could have taught them.
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