to which he listened with great patience, and when I had done begged
me to consider him a friend. Once indeed he seemed on the point of
shedding tears of sorrow for my troubles; but his eyes resumed their
usual dryness. On the following day, his sympathy having no doubt
run out, he informed me, with great politeness of manner, that the
demand for his lodgings was more than equal to the supply.
'Perhaps,' he added, 'you can make it convenient to continue your
journey.'

"I was in the condition of an army unable to move for want of
supplies. It was no difficult matter to make a dozen or so of
political speeches, or to make a meeting split its sides with
laughter, or to tear the sophistries of an opponent into tatters,
but to be cheated out of one's money in a great city, and leave the
Astor to enter the Irving, or the more fashionable 'New York,' with
an empty pocket, though common among New Yorkers, was a feat I had
not learned to achieve."

The mischief of the matter was, that no sooner had I got rid of
General Fopp, than a man, whom I shall for convenience sake call the
great Captain Splinters, made my acquaintance. This man, of whom
many queer things were said over tea-tables, by people calling
themselves the aristocracy, plumed himself on being the greatest
politician Manhattan Island ever was blessed with. People of steady
habits differed in their views on this subject, some asserting that
the honor of the island would sustain no loss if he were made
Governor of New Jersey, or President of the Camden and Amboy
Railroad, in which latter capacity he would have ample means of
gratifying his ambition for mutilating legal voters. I had heard of
this man through the newspapers; he seemed, however, a much smaller