One long and piercin shreek wuz heard thro that house, and wen the inmates rushed into the room they found me inanymate on the floor. The fatal paper lay near me, explainin the cause uv the catastrophe. The kind-hearted landlord, after feelin uv my pockets and diskiverin that the contents thereof wood not pay the arrearages uv board, held a hurried consultation with his wife as to the propriety uv bringin me to; he insisting that it wuz the only chance uv gittin what wuz back--she insistin that ef I was brung to I'd go on runnin up the bill, bigger and bigger, and never pay at last. While they was argooin the matter, pro and con, I happened to git a good smell uv his breath, wich restored me to consciousniss to-wunst, without further assistance. When in trouble my poetic sole alluz finds vent in song. Did ever poet who delited in tombs, and dark, rollin streams, and consumption, and blighted hopes, and decay, and sich themes, ever hev such a pick of subjects ez I hev at this time? The follerin may be a consolation to the few Dimokrats uv the North who have gone so far into copperheadism that they can't change their base:-- A WALE! In the mornin we go forth rejoicin in our strength--in the evenin we are bustid and wilt! Man born uv woman (and most men are) is uv few days, & them is so full uv trouble that it's skarsely worth while bein born at all. In October I waded in woe knee-deep, and now the waters uv afflickshun are about my chin. I look to the east, and Massychusets rolls in Ablishun. To the west I turn my eyes, and Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and Illinoy ansers Ablishun. Southward I turn my implorin gaze, and Maryland sends greetin--Ablishun. In New York we had em, for lo! we run a soljer, who fought valiantly, and we put him on a platform, wich stunk with nigger--yea, the savor thereof wuz louder than the Ablishun platform itself. But behold! the people jeer and flout, and say "the platform stinketh loud enough, but the smell thereof is _not_ the smell uv the Afrikin--it is of the rotten material uv wich it is composed, and the corrupshun they hev placed upon it"--and New York goes Ablishun. Slocum held hisself up, and sed, "Come and buy." And our folks bought him and his tribe, but he getteth not his price. NOO GERSEY--ABLISHUN!! Job's cattle wuz slain by murrain and holler horn and sich, and, not livin near Noo York, the flesh thereof he cood not sell. But Job hed suthin left--still cood he sell the hides and tallow! Lazarus hed sores, but he hed dorgs to lick them. Noo Gersey wuz the hide & tallow uv the Dimocrisy, and lo! that is gone. What little is left uv the Dimocrisy is all sore, but where is the dorg so low as to lick it! Noo Gersey wuz our ewe lamb--lo! the strong hand uv Ablishnism hez taken it. Noo Gersey wuz the Aryrat on wich our ark rested--behold! the dark waves uv Ablishnism sweep over it! Darkness falls over me like a pall--the shadder uv woe encompasseth me.