GROSS INCIVILITY. 35 



was excessive ; every seat was occupied, and the passage 

 from the door behind to the spot immediately beneath 

 the driver was choke-full of people, in the impossible po 

 sition of the winged heads poetically designated as che- 

 rubims they could not sit down, for there was not the 

 wherewithal for the restful accommodation. Men stood 

 on the steps behind, and others clung to their skirts, and 

 the Rowdies and Boh-hoys seemed to be the chief of the 

 Jehu's congregation. Immediately beneath the driver, 

 in the remote corner of the carriage, there sat an excess 

 ively nice-looking old gentleman (offering a wide con 

 trast to those called his equals), who, being unable to 

 resist the state of things any longer, knocked at the top 

 of the omnibus by the hole through which the driver re 

 ceives payment, and called the lord of the whip's atten 

 tion. Having been answered by a corresponding vibration 

 to prove that the desired attention was obtained, " Driv 

 er," said the nice, respectable old gentleman, " driver, 

 your carriage is fearfully crowded ; half New York seem 

 to have stood on my feet for the last twenty minutes ; I 

 have neither room nor air. How many more do you 

 mean to admit ? " In vain did the meek grey eyes of this 

 nice old man watch the hole above, through which the 

 money passed, for a consolatory reply. No sort of an 

 swer for a length of time was given ; at last a thundering 

 noise of knock-me-down-knuckles rattled on the roof 

 above, and a bearded chin (there was no room for more 

 of the face to which it belonged) thrust itself with consi 

 derable force into the hole, and, wagging its hirsute goat- 

 icity like the tail of a dog when shaking off the water, 

 a concentrated but nasal voice replied, " How many 

 more am I going to let in ? Just as many as I please ! " 

 The last of these words were widely divided, and they 



