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tion. "This was the unkindest cut of all," and the young man gave way under it. Stunned by the heavy and quick-succeeding blows of fate, he staggered he knew not whither, and most unfortunately through the gates of the ferry, which instantly closed upon him. This immediately recalled him to a sense of his situation, and he attempted to return through the door-way, but such a proceeding encountered the decided opposition of the man of the ferry. The stranger was eloquent, and he poured forth a fervid torrent of words-he implored the ferryman by every tie, divine and human,―by all that links society together-by the confidence of man in man, to take his word that he had already paid his passage, and let him pass; this the man of the ferry undoubtedly remembered, but he was not legally bound to do so, and moreover, he also remembered the Catawaba bank bill, and peremptorily refused all re-admittance without a preliminary fourpence. The stranger finding words of no avail grew frantic, and attempted to force the passage vi et armis, but the man of the ferry pushed him back, at the same time unfeelingly exclaiming, "No you don't!" His cup of bitterness was now full to the brim and one drop over, but tears at length came to the relief of the sufferer, and he wept! The ferryman

"beheld the dew-drops start,

They didn't touch his iron heart,"

and the unfortunate finding all was of no use, dashed the tear from his eye, turned his back on the scene of his misery, and bent his way up Maidenlane. One consolation was left him amid all his wretchedness-the wind was now in his favor, and he proceeded without difficulty. On coming to the corner of Pearl-street he turned along, and the interesting, dyspeptic, thin young man was lost to my sight, perchance for ever.

"My tale draws fast to its tragical conclusion. I went over in the next boat, remained in Brooklyn that night, and returned the following morning. On arriving at the dock, I perceived that many people were congregated together, and also that another individual gathered in the fourpences. On inquiry I learnt that during the short interval of my absence, the man of the ferry-the author of so much misery, had been summoned to another world. The manner of his death was simply thus. After the boat had stopped running on the preceding evening, he wended his way, as was his wont, to a neighboring tavern, where he proceeded to "pour huge draughts of aqua-vitæ down," in a way that would have petrified any unsophisticated man to

behold. In this course he persevered for some time, and then to crown the whole, undertook, for a trifling wager, to swallow a pint of fourth-proof brandy at a draught. It was rather too much for him, but he had a thirst for distinction in that line; he attempted the feat and succeeded, though he immediately sunk upon the floor in a state of insensibility. The next morning when he awoke, he felt dry and feverish, and a pitcher of cold water happening unluckily to stand near, he proceeded to deluge his inward man with its contents. The result was such as might naturally have been expected under such circumstances. His inside being heated like a furnace, and no sooner had the cold water come in contact with it, than an immense quantity of steam was instantly generated; there being no safetyvalve, the unfortunate man, like an overcharged boiler, instantly exploded, and the animated mass, which, but a few short hours before, I had left full of fire and spirits, was shattered into a thousand pieces, and scattered over the floor of the porterhouse. Fortunately no lives, excepting his own, were lost by the explosion. A coroner's inquest was held on the body, and a verdict brought in that "the deceased came by his death in consequence of his ignorance of the power of steam."

The moral to be deduced from this event is obvious. Let no one who has had a predilection for ardent spirits and there are but too many who have such predilections-drink copiously or incautiously of cold water, lest the result be similar, and they too share the fate of the MAN OF THE FLY

MARKET FERRY.

EVILS OF EARLY RISING.

IT seems to be the laudable endeavor of a great portion of the present generation to prove their forefathers fools; this being the way in which they choose to evince their gratitude for the benefits they have derived from the labors of those who have gone before them. Accordingly, from the author of Devereux downwards, they are employed in running full tilt at what it is their pleasure to term "popular fallacies." Now, notwithstanding we can travel ten miles an hour quicker than those who lived before us, I, for one, cannot help thinking that our ancestors knew something; and am therefore particularly cautious of impugning, or even entertaining doubts of the soundness of any good old maxim that may seem to have received the sanction of wiser heads than I ever expect mine to become, even in these ready-made-knowledgedays. But there is one thing which has been much

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