aring--such cross-firing,
crooked joking, and slang jibes, never before was seen in such perfect
medley. In calmer moments, even the hard-fisted, iron-hearted,
unterrified and never-washed democracy would have shed a few blushes
over it. Old democracy was nowhere--Young America was triumphant; his
sprouts were up and coming.

"'Clear the way there!' I exclaimed, raising my voice to a point.
'Mr. Smooth will walk in, and himself present his card to the
General.' The crowd looked amazed,--begun to give way. 'Mr. Smooth,
citizens,' continued I, motioning as if it were my intention to
speechify, 'is something of a body--don't stand none of your small
fritters. Mr. Smooth--like the principles of his party--was intended
for cutting a figure in the world; he will unmask aristocracy, whip
creation, and demonstrate the truth of manifest destiny.' Then they
all shouted a fashionable hee-haw, by which they hoped to drive me off
the track; but it was no go. 'Clar the way,' says I, 'or I'll split
the crowd like a thousand of bricks!' I accompanied the word with a
terrible look, at which they filed right and left as I chased square
up to the inner door, where stood a stiff sort of person, whose
clothes had grown on him--so tight were they. Surprised at my sudden
approach, he first gave many nervous winks and blinks, and then added
the silly airs of my Lord Spoonbill's menial, who, with hair buttered
and powdered, knew but the servilities of flunkeyism. 'Is the General
at home?' I demanded, adding before he had time to answer, that if he
had a spare lucifer I'd have no objection to taking a smoke with
him. With the consequence of a sleepy congressman, he inquired if my
business with the General was special. He seemed to have the keeping
of the General, much after the fashion of a keeper who guards the wild
animal of a menagerie.

"'You must send up your card: it's a question whether he is out of his
morning gown and slippers, however!' Here the man looked doubtingly at
the card, then gave his head a significant shake.

"'General ain't got so mighty big since he moved from New Hampshire?'
I inquired, as the fellow hesitated and again viewed me from the
extreme points. 'Now, Uncle Sam, to you I would say a word, hoping, in
the spirit of a very good christian, that it may be received as
wholesome advice. You, Sam, are forgetting that fame which should
reflect us in future ages; you, Sam, are assisting those who would lay
sullied hand