eed more, I know,
you and your Honourable Henchmen or Hashmen. And instead of
canvassing and orating for Democracy's illustrious Candidate and
the Noble Cause, _mashallah!_ one ought to do a little
canvassing for Honesty and Truth among Democracy's leaders,
tuft-hunters, political stock-jobbers, and such like. O, for a
higher stump, my Boss, to preach to those who are supporting and
degrading the stumps and the stump-orators of the Republic!"

And is it come to this, you poor phantom-like dreamer? Think you a
Tammany Boss is like your atheists and attorneys and women of the
studio, at whom you could vent your ire without let or hindrance?
These harmless humans have no constables at their command. But his
Shamrag Majesty--O wretched Khalid, must we bring one of his myrmidons
to your cellar to prove to you that, even in this Tammany Land, you
can not with immunity give free and honest expression to your
thoughts? Now, were you not summoned to the Shamrag's presence to
answer for the crime of _lese-majeste_? And were you not, for your
audacity, left to brood ten days and nights in gaol? And what tedium
we have in Shakib's History about the charge on which he was arrested.
It is unconscionable that Khalid should misappropriate Party funds.
Indeed, he never even touched or saw any of it, excepting, of course,
that check which he returned. But the Boss was still in power. And
what could Shakib do to exonerate his friend? He did much, and he
tells as much about it. With check-boot in his pocket, he makes his
way through aldermen, placemen, henchmen, and other questionable
political species of humanity, up to the Seat of Justice--but such
detail, though of the veracity of the writer nothing doubting, we
gladly set aside, since we believe with Khalid that his ten days in
gaol were akin to the Boots and the Dowry in their motive and effect.

But our Scribe, though never remiss when Khalid is in a pickle, finds
much amiss in Khalid's thoughts and sentiments. And as a further
illustration of the limpid shallows of the one and the often opaque
depths of the other, we give space to the following:

"When Khalid was ordered to appear before the Boss," writes Shakib,
"such curiosity and anxiety as I felt at that time made me accompany
him. For I was anxious about Khalid, and curious to see this great
Leader of men. We set out, therefore, together, I musing on an
incident in Baalbek when we went out to meet the Pasha of