pposed, then, that the conduct of these intruders
excited no small indignation on the part of the majority. There were not
enough constables present to eject them, so the "citizens, without
distinction of party," took the law into their own hands; such Whigs as
were nearest incontinently laid hands on the rioters, and "passed them
out."

Reader, have you a clear idea of what this "passing out" is? I believe
the operation is occasionally practised in England, at theatres and
other places of public resort, when young gentlemen have got elevated,
and won't behave themselves. But, lest you should not be familiar with
it, I will endeavor to give you as much as I remember of a description
by one of our authors,[6] of the style in which the thing is managed.
The occasion represented is a public dinner, given to the Honorable Mr.
So-and-So, by his admirers; and the victim, a too daring-dun, who has
spoiled a fine period of the orator's--"If, fellow-citizens, I should be
doomed to retirement, I shall at least carry with me the proud
conviction that I have always acted as becomes an honest man,"--by
impertinently suggesting that "his small account for groceries has been
running four years."

"This was too much for the admirers of the honorable gentleman. 'Turn
him out!' 'Throw him over!' 'Hustle him out!'

"Pass him down!!

"Now when it is remembered that the unhappy man had established himself
at the very upper end of the room, in which five hundred of his
fellow-creatures were packed like damaged goods, it will be easily
imagined what a pleasant prospect he had before him.

"An assemblage of human beings has often been compared to a sea.
Dreadful, indeed, poor Muzzy, was the ocean on which thou wert doomed to
embark.

"PASS HIM DOWN!

"The call was answered by the elevation of Mr. Muzzy six feet in the
air. From this altitude he was let down into a vortex of strong-handed
fellows, who whirled him about horribly, and then transmitted him to a
more equable current, which pitched him forward at a steady rate towards
the door. Sometimes he landed among a party of quiet elderly gentlemen
over their wine, and the torrent seemed to be lulled; then again it
would return upon him with renewed violence, and bear him helplessly
along. At last he was caught up by two mighty billows in the shape of a
master butcher and baker, and impelled with fearful velocity through the
narrow straits of the door. On recovering his senses suffici