Congress recruited his pocket by the sale of his constituents;
and I was assured that public officers have often sold their
country at very moderate prices. Thousands sold their happiness
for a whim. Gilded chains were in great demand, and purchased
with almost any sacrifice. In truth, those who desired, according
to the old adage, to sell anything valuable for a song, might
find customers all over the Fair; and there were innumerable
messes of pottage, piping hot, for such as chose to buy them with
their birthrights. A few articles, however, could not be found
genuine at Vanity Fair. If a customer wished to renew his stock
of youth the dealers offered him a set of false teeth and an
auburn wig; if he demanded peace of mind, they recommended opium
or a brandy bottle.

Tracts of land and golden mansions, situate in the Celestial
City, were often exchanged, at very disadvantageous rates, for a
few years' lease of small, dismal, inconvenient tenements in
Vanity Fair. Prince Beelzebub himself took great interest in this
sort of traffic, and sometimes condescended to meddle with
smaller matters. I once had the pleasure to see him bargaining
with a miser for his soul, which, after much ingenious
skirmishing on both sides, his highness succeeded in obtaining at
about the value of sixpence. The prince remarked with a smile,
that he was a loser by the transaction.

Day after day, as I walked the streets of Vanity, my manners and
deportment became more and more like those of the inhabitants.
The place began to seem like home; the idea of pursuing my
travels to the Celestial City was almost obliterated from my
mind. I was reminded of it, however, by the sight of the same