new order of things which was destined to turn out many a holder of fat
office, many a pat-riot overflowing with democratic patriotism, whose
devotion to the cause of the country was manifest in the tenacity with
which he clung to his place, were extremely anxious to devise ways and
means to keep the whigs at bay; and as the day drew near, when the
assembled Board of Aldermen should have their sitting at the City Hall,
various _dodges_ were proposed by the locos to out-vote the whigs, in
questions or decisions touching the distribution of places, and
appointment of men to fill the various stations of the new municipal
government.

"I have it--I've got it!" exclaimed a round and jolly alderman of a
democratic ward. "To-night the Board meets--we stand about eight and
eight--this afternoon, let two of us invite two of the whigs, Alderman
H---- and Alderman J----, out to a dinner at Harlem, get H---- and J----
tight as wax, and then we can slip off, take our conveyance, come in,
and vote the infernal whigs just where we want them!"

"Capital! prime! Ha, ha, ha!" says one.

"First rate! elegant! ha, ha, ha!" shouts another.

"Ha, ha! haw! haw! he, he, he!" roared all the locys.

"Well, gentlemen, let's all throw in a V apiece, to defray expenses; we,
you know, of course, must put the whigs _through_, and we must give them
a rouse they won't forget soon. Champagne and turtle, that's the ticket;
coach for four _out_ and two _in_. Ha, ha!--The whigs shall see the
elephant!"

Well, the purse was made up, the coach hired, and the two victims, the
poor whigs, were carted out under the pretence of a grand aldermanic
feast to Harlem, the scene of many a spree and jollification with the
city fathers, and other bon vivants and gourmands of Gotham.

Dinner fit for an emperor being discussed, sundry bottles of "Sham" were
uncorked, and their effervescing contents decanted into the well-fed
bodies of the four aldermen. Toasts and songs, wit and humor, filled up
the time, until the democrats began to think it was time that one of
them slipped out, took the carriage back to the city, leaving the other
to _fuddle_ the two whigs, and detain them until affairs at "the Tea
Room," City Hall, were settled to the entire satisfaction of the
democrats.

"Landlord," says one of the democrats, whom we will call Brown,
"landlord, have you any conveyance, horses, wagons, carriages or carts,
by which any of my friends could go back to town to