DEFINITION.--ADVERTISING CHARLATANS.--CITY IMPOSTORS.--FALSE NAMES.--"ADVICE FREE."--INTIMIDATIONS.--WHOLESALE ROBBERY.--VISITING THEIR DENS IN DISGUISE.--PASSING THE CERBERUS.--WINDINGS.--INS AND OUTS.--THE IRISH PORTER.--QUEER "TWINS," AND A "TRIPLET" DOCTOR.--A HISTORY OF A KNAVE.--BOOT-BLACK AND BOTTLE-WASHER.--PERQUISITES.-- PURCHASED DIPLOMAS.--"INSTITUTES."--WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER OF INFANTS.-- FEMALE HARPIES.--A BOSTON HARPY.--WHERE OUR "LOST CHILDREN" GO.--END OF A WRETCH. THE CITY CHARLATAN. A charlatan is necessarily an impostor. He is "one who prates much in his own favor, and makes unwarrantable pretensions to skill." He is "one who imposes on others; a person who assumes a character for the sole purpose of deception." Originally the charlatan was one who circulated about the country, making false pretensions to extraordinary ability and miraculous cures; but he is now located in the larger cities, and is the most dangerous and insinuating of all medical impostors. You will find his name in the cheapest daily papers. Name, did I say? No, never. Of all the charlatans advertising in the papers of this city there is but one who has not advertised under an assumed name. This is _prima facie_ evidence of imposition. Take up the daily paper,--the cheapest print is the one that the rabble patronize, a curse to any city,--and run your eye over the "_Medical Column_." Of the scores of this class advertising therein none dare publish his real name. There is one impudent fellow, who, while he assumes respectability, and under his true name, has an up-town office, and obtains something bordering on an honorable practice, runs the vilest sort of business, under an assumed name, on a public thoroughfare down town. These fellows usually advertise, "Advice Free." This is not on the modest principle, that, having no brains, they are scrupulous in not charging for what they cannot give, however; but this is to get the unsuspecting into their dens, for they are shrewd enough to perceive that whatever is "free" the rabble will run after. [Illustration: CONVINCING EVIDENCE OF INSOLVENCY.]