Scroggs, too virtuous to be severely handled, was merely mentioned as
having been formerly a swindler, and a member of the Common Council.
Got to the polls; man with a blue flag urged me to go for Boggs; man
with a red flag said vote for Scroggs; man with a white flag with black
letters sung out "Go for Hoggs"--little boy pulled my coat tails and
whispered, "Vote for Noggs."
Man challenged my vote, took off my hat, held up my hand, and swore to
all sorts of things, told how old I am, where I get my dinners, and what
my washerwoman's name is; got mad and did a little extra swearing on my
own account, which was not "down in the bill;" marched up in a grand
procession of one, and poked my vote in the little hole.
The great excitement was on the liquor question; it was Noggs, and no
liquor shops, or Boggs, and a few liquor shops, Scroggs, and plenty of
liquor shops, or Hoggs, and every man his own liquor shop.
Voted for Hoggs, for I feel perfectly justified in taking an occasional
toddy, when all Wall street is perpetually "tight."
Noise on the corner, nigger boy playing big drum--candidates presented
themselves to the sovereign people for inspection.
Know Nothing man on a native jackass, cap of liberty on his head, and
his pantaloons made of the American flag, with the stripes running the
wrong way.
Independent candidate, who wants the Irish vote and Dutch suffrages,
entered, borne in a mortar hod, bare-footed, with a shillelagh in one
hand, a whiskey bottle in the other, a Dutch pipe in his mouth, and a
small barrel of beer strapped to his back.
Cold water man stood on a hydrant with the water turned on, and had his
pockets full of icicles.
Whiskey man brought in drunk on a cart by admiring friends, who besought
the crowd to do as he did, go it blind.
Special deputy, who wanted to be appointed policeman, was very active;
he arrested an apple-woman, knocked down a cripple, kicked a little boy,
looked the other way while his constituents were picking pockets, and
took a little match girl up an alley and boxed her ears for presuming to
show herself in the street without shoes and stockings,--motto on his
hat, "_sic itur ad astra_," Go it or you'll never be a star.
Irish woman, with a big bag of potatoes on her head, came up to
vote--she said Dennis was sick, (drunk) but as Mr. Hoggs had paid for
his vote, she had brought it herself, in order that it might not be
lost. She was, with difficulty, choked off by the heroic aspirant to the
civic star.
Whiskey man began to fall behind; messenger sent to Randall's Island,
and one to Blackwell's ditto, for aid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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