"A little reflection, however, produced a second thought. If I were
as invulnerable as Virgil's witch, I could survive the process of
initiation, for then I could enchant the faithful, who were
politicians whose metal had been hardened in the furnaces of the
custom-house, and had passed enactments, which they enforced with
great rigor, that no country-made politician should be admitted
unless he could drink and stand sober under thirty-two brandy
cobblers per day, and was able to treat each member to his daily
ration of an equal number, for the space of two weeks.

"Promising my companion that I would profit by his valuable hint, we
turned into Duane Street, and, after groping our way up one of its
wet and narrow alleys, halted at the cellar-door of a dilapidated
little house that seemed to have been ignominiously crammed in
between two dead walls and left for an owl roost. I was never
wanting in courage, as my companions in Mexico can assert, but I
confess that a sort of shaky sensation came over me just then. This
was observed by my companion, who hoped I would not be alarmed,
since the place we had arrived at was nothing more than the
celebrated locofoco 'nest number three,' the members of which had
their head quarters at Tammany Hall and the Irving House, and were
very respectable men, and good working politicians. A less
inquisitive man than a citizen of Cape Cod is acknowledged to be,
could not have failed to discover the artifice. But my enthusiasm
carried away my discretion; and, after descending six slippery
steps, we came to a door upon which my companion gave two loud
knocks, and placed his ear to the crevice. Mutterings, in a tongue
very like the Tuscan, were interspersed with loud swearings, which
were in turn diffused with curious whisperings. Another loud knock,
and a peremptory demand from my companion, and the door was