IN NEW YORK. 



303 



fiercely at the skirmishers on your flank, whom he severely 

 anathematizes. The latter, also growing interested in you, 

 return his compliments and give you the assurance that you 

 are in the hands of a noted swindler, who will not leave you 

 until he gets your last penny. Your friend shakes his fist 

 and breathes defiance and devotion till your admiration is 

 unbounded. Being clad in verdure as well as in seedy cloth- 

 ing you do not observe Damon exchanging sly winks with 

 his apparent foes between his expletives. As yet you do not 

 know that they are all of one family. Boldly rescuing you 

 from the hands of your tormentors, Damon triumphantly 

 bears you onward, discoursing familiarly on surrounding 

 objects. The building is closed or he would take you through 

 the Tribune ofiice. Why, did he know Horace Greeley? 

 Intimate with him ; queer man was Old Greeley ! Anon, we 

 pass the Tribune's antipode, the Herald. He knows " Old Ben- 

 nett," too. We would go through there if it was'nt shut up ; 

 so we will have to forego the pleasure. You soon emerge into 

 Fulton Street, that paradise of cheap clothing stores. Elbow- 

 ing yourselves through the rival merchants thereof, your 

 escort takes you to the store and introduces you to the pro- 

 prietor. They have a private conversation which, in all 

 probability, has reference to your innocence and how far the 

 merchant can swindle you without exciting suspicions. Hav- 

 ing been away from the East so long that you hardly know 

 what honest prices should be, you do not know how much 

 you have been financially bled, neither do you observe your 

 companion getting his "price of blood" in the shape of a 

 heavy per cent, on the goods you have been buying. Gather- 

 ing up your purchases you depart for your hotel, pleased with 

 the deportment of New Yorkers in general toward strangers, 

 and of your friend in particular. 



Speaking in the first person, I will say this is no fancy 

 sketch, and that when I came to look over the purchases I 



