ight through? And as for 'pay,'
haven't you always been supplied with money enough to treat all doubtful
voters, and in fact to float them up to the polls in an ocean of
whiskey? I confess Tom, I am almost petrified with astonishment at
witnessing your present indifference to the alarming crisis in which our
country and our party are involved, and which nothing on earth can
avert, except our success at the coming election."

"Oh, tell that to the marines," said Tom. "We never yet had an election
that there wasn't a 'crisis,' and yet, whichever party gained, we
somehow managed to live through it, crisis or no crisis. In fact, my
curiosity has got a little excited, and I would like to see this
'crisis' that is such a bugaboo at every election; so trot out your
crisis--let us see how it looks. Besides, talking of pay, I acknowledge
the whiskey, and that is all. While I and my companions lifted you and
your companions into fat offices that enabled you to roll in your
carriages, and live on the fat of the land, we got nothing--or, at
least, next to nothing--all we got was--well--we got drunk! Now, Squire,
I will go for the other party this 'lection if you don't give me an
office."

"Give you an office!" exclaimed the "Squire," raising his hands and
rolling his eyes in utter amazement; "why, Tom, what office do you
want?"

"I want to be Alderman!" replied Tom, "and I can control votes enough to
turn the 'lection either way; and if our party don't gratefully remember
my past services and give me my reward, t'other party will be glad to
run me on their ticket, and over I go."

The gentleman of the "ring" saw by Tom's firmness and clenched teeth
that he was immovable; that his principles, like those of too many
others, consisted of "loaves and fishes;" they therefore consented to
put Tom's name on the municipal ticket; and the worst part of the story
is, he was elected.

In a very short time, Tom was duly installed into the Aldermanic chair,
and, opening his office on a prominent corner, he was soon doing a
thriving business. He was generally occupied throughout the day in
sitting as a judge in cases of book debt and promissory notes which were
brought before him, for various small sums ranging from two to five,
six, eight, and ten dollars. He would frequently dispose of thirty or
forty of these cases in a day, and as imprisonment for debt was
permitted at that time, the poor defendants would "shin" around and make
any sa