o consequence, for they all had very
good colors already. Honest Stephen Roberts then rose, and said that
this was a subject with which he was not acquainted, but that if no one
could refute what Mr. Pullman had said, he should be obliged to vote
against the resolution.

"Then there was a pause. The cry of 'Question!' was heard. The ayes and
noes were called. The resolution was carried by eighteen to five. The
learned suppose that one-half of this stolen $4000 was expended upon the
colors, and the other half divided among about forty persons. It is
conjectured that each member of the Councilmen's Ring, which consists of
thirteen, received about forty dollars for his vote on this occasion.
This sum, added to his pay, which is twenty dollars per session, made a
tolerable afternoon's work.

"Any one witnessing this scene would certainly have supposed that _now_
the militia regiments of the City of New York were provided with colors.
What was our surprise to hear, a few days after, a member gravely propose
to appropriate $800 for the purpose of presenting the Ninth Regiment of
New York Infantry with a stand of colors. Mr. Pullman repeated his
objections, and recounted anew the generosity of the State Legislature.
The eighteen, without a word of reply, voted for the grant as before. It
so chanced that, on our way up Broadway, an hour after, we met that very
regiment marching down with its colors flying; and we observed that those
colors were nearly new. Indeed, there is such a propensity in the public
to present colors to popular regiments, that some of them have as many as
five stands, of various degrees of splendor. There is nothing about
which Councilmen need feel so little anxiety as a deficiency in the
supply of regimental colors. When, at last, these extravagant banners
voted by the corporation are presented to the regiments, a new scene of
plunder is exhibited. The officers of the favored regiment are invited
to a room in the basement of the City Hall, where city officials assist
them to consume $300 worth of champagne, sandwiches, and cold
chicken--paid for out of the city treasury--while the privates of the
regiment await the return of their officers in the unshaded portion of
the adjacent park.

"It is a favorite trick with these councilmen, as of all politicians, to
devise measures, the passage of which will gratify large _bodies_ of
voters. This is one of the advantages proposed to be gained by the