The Omaha Acoubliesolt gives the fol­

lowing history of the origin of thlsptoduc

acni, which tbe London Spectator pro­

nounced to be the finest poem ever written

InAtomic.s :

"The.tarly .part of the war, ogie dark

&tnrdq njght, la the dada winter, there

died in the Commercial Hospital„ In Cis.

Owed, a young woman, over whose she'd

ooly two and twenty summers had passed.

She bad once been posmeseed of artanviabler

share of beauty, and bad been, es.abe her

self says, 'flattered and might for the

charms of the face;' bat shun upon her

fair brow was wheal that terribleword--

prostitute! . Once the pride of respectable

.parentage,'her first wrong step Wu the

small beginning of the 'same old story over

again,' which bas been only the life history

of thotaanis. Highly educated, and with

accomplishes; manners, she might have

shone in the best society. But the evil

hour that proved her ruin .was the door

Irom which won• out the innocence of

chikibocid, and having spent a younrikk

in disgrace and shame, the poor friendless

one died the melancholy death of brokers­

hearted outcast. Among her personal ef­

fects was found in manosCriPtt 'The Beau.

tiful Snow,' which was Immediately carried

to Rues B. Reed, a gentleman of culture

and literary taste, who was at that time

editor of the liTaUcaga Union, In the

columns of that paper, on the morning of

the day ;hallowing the girl's death, the poem

appeared in print for the fist time. When

the paper containing the poem came out

on Sunday morning, the body of the victim

bad not yet received burial. The attention

of Thomas Buchanan Read, one of the first

American poets, was so taken frith their

stirring pathos, that he immediatity follow.

ed the corpse to its final resting-place.—

Such are the plain facts eoncemisg her

whose 'Beautiful Snow' shall long be re­

membered as one of the brightest gems in

American literature."

Oh ! the wow, the beautiful snow !

Filling the sky and the earth below,

Over the hone-tops, over the street,

Over the heads of the people you meet,

Dancing,

Flirting,

Bklpplng along

Beautitul snow it can do nothing wrong,

Plying to kiss a fair lady's cheek,

Clinging to lips In a frolicsome freak ;

Beautiful snow from the heavens above,

Pure u an angel, gentle as love!

Oh ! the snow, the beautiful snow !

How the flakes gather and laugh as they gn

Whirling about in their maddening fuU,

It plays In its glee with every one—

Chasing,

Langhtng,

Hurrying by,

It lights on the face and sparkles the eye,

And the playing doge with a bark and a

bound,

Snap at the crystals that eddy wound ;

The town fe alive, and Its heart in a glow

To welcome the comfit's of beautiful wow.

How wildly the erowd goesawaytng along,

flat/Mg each other with humor sod song!

anw 'the ray sledges, like meteors pass by,

Bright fors moment, then lost to the eye!

fa

Swinging,

Dashing they go,

Over the crust of the beautiful mow—

Snow so pure when it falls from the sky,

As to make one regret to see it lie

To be trampled sud tracked by the thous­

sadltol-feK

Till it blends with the elth in the horrible

street.

Once I was pure as the mow, but I M—

ira like anow•flakes, from harren to bell;

Fell to be trampled u filth in the street ;

Fell to be scoffed, tobe spit on and be beat;

Pleading„

Cursing,

Dreading to die;

Belling my soul to whoever would buy;

Deallog in •bonne for a morsel of bread;

Hating the living, sad fearing the dead.

Merciful God! Have I fallen so low ?

And jet I was once like the beautiful saw

Once I was fair as the beautiful snow,

With an aye like s crystal, a heart like its

glow ;

Once I was loved forjay innocent true,

Flattered and sought for the chums of pty

- face.

Father,

Mother,

Sister, on,

God sad myself hove I Jost by my WI!

The veriest wretch tbat goes sbiserisig by

Will make s wide swoop leg I weeder too

nigh;

For all the bt on or above me,-.1 know

'Dares nothing no pare as the beautiful

snow..