CHAPTER V.

WHICH TREATS OF HOW THE MAJOR FELL AMONG POLITICIANS AND OTHER NEW
YORK VAGABONDS.





HAVING paused a few moments to moisten his lips, for the day was
excessively warm, the Major spoke a few encouraging words to old
Battle, and resumed his story.

"If wisdom becometh the great, money is not to be despised by the
politician, I thought. So, having stocked my purse with not less
than two hundred dollars, I arrived safely in New York and put up at
the Astor House, an hotel in high favor with ex-secretaries and
dilapidated politicians, inasmuch as the worthy landlord accepts the
honor of their being guests of his house in satisfaction of his
bills. It was night when I arrived, and the splendor and strangeness
of everything around bewildered and confused me so much, that I
forgot to put the prefix of 'Major' to my name, when I registered it
in the big book. And this single omission had the effect of
consigning me to an attic room in the ninth story. Having intimated