Transcriber Notes Obvious printer errors and missing punctuation fixed. Archaic and inconsistent spelling retained. The table of contents has been created and added by the transcriber. Italics are represented by underscores surrounding the _italic text_. Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bennett, Barnum, and Gerard. 1 The Fourth of July—General 2 Washington in Tears—The Decline of American Integrity and Patriotism. Mayor Daniel F. Tiemann’s 3 Forced Seduction of a Lady on Randall’s Island—Simeon Draper’s Lascivious Propensities—Most Damning Revelations. Advertisements. 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: STEPHEN H. BRANCH’S ALLIGATOR.] ---------------------------------------------------------------- Volume I.—No. 12.] SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1858. [Price 2 Cents. Bennett, Barnum, and Gerard. _Three precocious villains stripped to the skin.—Precious, and startling, and thrilling under-current revelations for the people.—Read! Read! Read!_ _Bennett’s_ daily urgence of the immediate creation of a Tax Payer’s Party is one of his old tricks, and is the detected burglar’s hoarse cry of stop thief. Bennett got me to introduce Alfred Carson as a Candidate for Mayor, just after his exciting Fire Report of 1850. I wrote several articles in favor of Carson for the Mayoralty, and Bennett published them, when lo! one rainy morning, I awoke, and opened the _Herald_, and the hypocritical old villain had another Candidate. I asked him if he intended to drop my old friend Carson, and he said no, but he thought he would try to bring another candidate into the field, just for a little fun, and that I could write about three editorials a week for Carson, and flatter him as much as I chose, and he would publish them. This was on Monday. On Wednesday, I caught him closeted with a formidable candidate for the Mayoralty, and on Saturday, he very cautiously introduced a third Candidate for the Mayor’s honors. As these were all wealthy men, and as Carson was very poor, and perceiving that Bennett unquestionably intended to sell Carson, and perhaps had already done so, I went to him in a towering rage, and charged him with treachery to myself and Carson. He smiled like Richard and Iago, and assured me that he should support Carson down to the last hour of the election. But I could not believe him; so I went to Carson, on Sunday morning, and wrote his famous declination of the Mayoralty, which rocked the parties of that day to their foundations with infinite delight, as every traffic