"Gentlemen," he says, blandly and with a pardonable thickness of utterance, "if my remarks should seem confused, attribute it to my position; I am not accustomed to public speaking on horseback. But, as Congress is now in session, I deem it a duty which I owe to my constituents, to give my views on—on—on the great Bill for the Protection of—"
"Huckleberries!" suggested a voice.
"Thank the gentleman from Ann-street," continued the speaker, in true parliamentary style, as he swayed to and fro, on top of the pump; "of the great Bill for the Protection of Huckleberries! Now, gentlemen," he continued, suddenly forgetting his huckleberries, "you know they beat Henry Clay this time by their infernal cry of Texas and Oregon; you know it!"
There was a frightful chorus, "We do! we do!"
"You know how bad we felt when we crossed Cayuga bridge,—Polk on top, and Clay under,—but, gentlemen, I have a cry for 1848 that will knock their daylights out of 'em. They shouted Texas and Oregon, and licked us; but in 1848 we'll give 'em fits with Clay and—Japan!"
"Clay and Japan!" was the chorus of the twenty young gentlemen.
"There's a platform for you, gentlemen! Clay and Japan! We'll give 'em annexation up to their eyes. Consider, gentlemen, the advantages of Japan! Separated from the continent by a trifling slip of water, known as the Pacific ocean. Japan may be considered in the light of a near neighbor. And then what a delicious campaign we can make, with Japan on our banner! Nobody I knows anything about her, and we can lie as we please, without the most remote danger of being found out. Isn't there something heart-stirring in the very word, Ja-pan? And then, gentlemen, we'll have 'em; for Japan ain't committed to any of the leading questions of the day, and we can make all sorts o' pledges to everybody, and—"
The orator, in his excitement, swayed too much to one side, and fell languidly from the pump into the arms of his enthusiastic friends; and, with three cheers for "Clay and Japan," the party of twenty young gentlemen went, in a staggering column, to a neighboring restaurant, where—it is presumable—a few bottles more put them, not only into the humor of annexing Japan, but all Asia in the bargain. Arthur and Barnhurst had observed this scene from the steps of the Astor.
"Do you know this is very absurd?" said Barnhurst, pettishly—"this walking about town all night?"
"Do you think so?" responded Dermoyne.