carnival for which they had
not received invitations. They could not be expected so soon to forget
those elegant family entertainments of the olden time, when the
hospitable board, with its green covering, groaned under the weight of
gold and silver; when, instead of salads and pates in crockery
platters, the plates were of delicately enamelled pasteboard,
containing from one to ten diamonds each, or, perhaps, a king or queen
served up cold with mint sauce.

The Old Aristocracy! lineal descendants of the British cavaliers! I
should weep, my boy, over their possible extinction forever, were it
not that the assiduity of the London Prisoners' Aid Society, in sending
ticket-of-leave men to New York, promises to keep the species going.

Behold me, at the proper hour, suspended between the shoulders of three
or four fat citizens of America in the entrance-hall, and being thus
borne into the festive scene like a being too delicate to walk. This,
too, at the expense of only the linen "duster" which I had donned to
preserve my broadcloth from the dust in the dancing room, and which I
had the satisfaction of seeing distributed in ribbons around the necks
and bodies of a score of my neighbors, like so many charms to keep off
enchantments. The crowd, the management, and the number of guests with
umbrellas and top-boots, were all the subjects of ill-disguised sneers
among the old aristocracy of the capital who had not received
invitations.

And now I emerge into fountains of satin and mechlin cascades, with
numerous citizens of America up to their waists in the surf, and
looking about as comfortable as though bathing at Newport in full
dress. Yonder stands our Honest Abe, in sombre costume, like a funeral
procession standing on end to let something pass under it.

Leaning thoughtfully against the wall, my boy, I was gazing
meditatively upon this scene, and thinking how many of these fair
beings would be destroyed by railroad accidents on the way to their
homes in other cities--I was thinking of this, my boy, when I heard a
voice saying:

"How powerful is human instink! let a fire-bell ring, and at least half
of these manly beings would make a bust for the street to join their
native fire departmink. Let the hall-bell ring, and nearly all these
fair petticoats would involuntarily rush to 'tend the door. Such is
human instink."

Like one in a dream, I turned me where I stood and beheld the form of
Captain Villiam Brown, his le