that house, and wen the
inmates rushed into the room they found me inanymate on the floor. The
fatal paper lay near me, explainin the cause uv the catastrophe. The
kind-hearted landlord, after feelin uv my pockets and diskiverin that
the contents thereof wood not pay the arrearages uv board, held a
hurried consultation with his wife as to the propriety uv bringin me to;
he insisting that it wuz the only chance uv gittin what wuz back--she
insistin that ef I was brung to I'd go on runnin up the bill, bigger and
bigger, and never pay at last. While they was argooin the matter, pro
and con, I happened to git a good smell uv his breath, wich restored me
to consciousniss to-wunst, without further assistance.

When in trouble my poetic sole alluz finds vent in song. Did ever poet
who delited in tombs, and dark, rollin streams, and consumption, and
blighted hopes, and decay, and sich themes, ever hev such a pick of
subjects ez I hev at this time? The follerin may be a consolation to the
few Dimokrats uv the North who have gone so far into copperheadism that
they can't change their base:--

A WALE!

In the mornin we go forth rejoicin in our strength--in the evenin we are
bustid and wilt!

Man born uv woman (and most men are) is uv few days, & them is so full
uv trouble that it's skarsely worth while bein born at all.

In October I waded in woe knee-deep, and now the waters uv afflickshun
are about my chin.

I look to the east, and Massychusets rolls in Ablishun.

To the west I turn my eyes, and Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and Illinoy
ansers Ablishun.

Southward I turn my implorin gaze, and Maryland sends greetin--Ablishun.
In New York we had em, for lo! we run a soljer, who fought valiantly,
and we put him on a platform, wich stunk with nigger--yea, the savor
thereof wuz louder than the Ablishun platform itself.

But behold! the people jeer and flout, and say "the platform stinketh
loud enough, but the smell thereof is _not_ the smell uv the Afrikin--it
is of the rotten material uv wich it is composed, and the corrupshun
they hev placed upon it"--and New York goes Ablishun.

Slocum held hisself up, and sed, "Come and buy." And our folks bought
him and his tribe, but he getteth not his price.

NOO GERSEY--ABLISHUN!!

Job's cattle wuz slain by murrain and holler horn and sich, and, not
livin near Noo York, the flesh thereof he cood not sell.

But Job hed suthin left--still cood he sell the hides and tallow!