fearful attack of chronic Legislature. Even when the active symptoms of
this dread malady have subsided, the effects linger, and the consequent
suffering is excruciating. One of the direst of the effects of the last
attack is a dreadful bill--not a bile--which has caused a utilization
sewage company to appear upon her body corporate. It is almost
impossible for sister cities to understand the torments of such an
affliction. Nobody can now clear away their own dirt--Councils, Board of
Health, or any body else. If rooms are swept, the sewage company must
take up the dust; if a pig-pen or a stable needs cleaning, the company
must do it; if the lady of a house throws the slops out of her breakfast
cups, the company must carry them away; if a man knocks the ashes from
his cigar, he must save them for the company; if, anywhere in the city,
a foul word is spoken, the company must have the benefit of it. Even the
birds in the squares must not cleanse their nests without a printed
permit from the company. If a bedstead is cleaned, the company must have
the bugs. Only one dirty thing is safe from this all-powerful
corporation, and that is the legisiative delegation from the city. If
the refuse matter were taken from that, there would be nothing left. It
has been proposed that the Legislature itself should be purified; but
this idea is Utopian, PUNCHINELLO fears. If Niagara were squirted
through its halls, the water would be dirtied, but the halls would not
be cleansed. Alas, poor city! Trampled under the heels of the
aristocratic HONG and PENNY BUNN, what is there to hope for it?

But all has not been told. There are about eight hundred thousand
inhabitants in the place. Some twenty thousand of these owe small sums
for unpaid taxes, averaging about nine and a quarter cents to a man. To
collect these sums, an army of seventy-two thousand able-bodied men, at
salaries of one thousand dollars per annum, has been commissioned by the
PENNY BUNN Legislature.