The History of The Hen Fever Part 30

The engine has collapsed its boiler. There was altogether too much steam crowded on, and the managers were not all "up to snuff." The dead and wounded and dying are now scattered throughout New England and New York State chiefly, and their moans can occasionally be heard, though their groans of repentance come too late to help them.

They recklessly invested their twenties, or fifties, or hundreds, and, in some instances, their thousands of dollars, in this hum, without any knowledge of the business, and without any consideration whatever, except the single aim to keep the bubble floating aloft until they could realize antic.i.p.ated fortunes, on a larger or smaller scale, as the case might be. But the "cars have gone by," and they may now wait for another train. _Perhaps_ it will come!

Poor fellows! Poor, deluded, crazy, reckless dupes! You have had your fun, many of you, and you will now have the opportunity to reflect over the ruins that are piled up around you; while, for the time being, you may well exclaim, with the sulky and flunkey Moor,

"_Oth.e.l.lo's occupation's_ GONE!"

CHAPTER XLVI.

A MOURNFUL PROCESSION.

I was sitting before my comfortable library fire in midwinter, 1854, and had been reflecting upon the mutability of human affairs generally, and the uncertainty of Shanghae-ism more particularly, when I finally dropped into a gentle slumber in my easy-chair, where I dozed away an hour, and dreamed.

My thoughts took a very curious turn. I fancied myself sitting before a large window that opened into a broad public street, in which I suddenly discovered a mult.i.tude of people moving actively about; and I thought it was some gala-day in the city, for the throng appeared to be excited and anxious. "The people" were evidently abroad; and the crowds finally packed themselves along the sidewalks, leaving the wide street open and clear; and I could overhear the words "They're coming!" "Here they are!"

I looked out, and beheld an immense gathering of human beings approaching in a line that stretched away as far as the eye could reach,--a dense ma.s.s of moving mortality, that soon arrived, and pa.s.sed the window, beneath me. I was alone in the room, and could ask no questions. I could only see what occurred before me; and I noted down, as they pa.s.sed by, this motley PROCESSION, which moved in the following

=Order of March.=

ESCORT OF INDESCRIBABLES.

Hatless Aid. [Chief Marshal in Black.] Bootless Aid.

Police. TWO EX-MORMONS IN WHITE TUNICS. Police.

Calathumpian Band.

Whig {The "_Know Nothing Guards_," with guns} Democrat Office-holders. { enough for all useful purposes. } Expectants.

THE "INS." [COLLECTOR AND POSTMASTER.] THE "OUTS."

U.S. {The "National" Democracy, two deep,} U.S. Dist.

Marshal. { in one section. } Att'y.

BANNER.

Motto--"_We know of_ BURNS _that Russia Salve can't cure_."

"Aids to the Revenue." [MARSHAL.] Drawbacks on the Revenue.

_Kaleb Krushing._ [THE MAN WHO FAINTED IN MEXICO.] Jorge ah! Poll.

"_f.a.n.n.y Fern_,"

Flanked by a company of disappointed Publishers, twenty-four deep, in twelve sections.

BANNER.

Motto.--"_She's a brick!_"

Aids. [MARSHAL.] Aids.

President of the "N.E. Mutual Admiration" Hen Society.

Fat Marshal. [THE GREAT SHOW MAN.] Lean Marshal.

BAND, playing the "Rogue's March."

Marshal. GHOST OF JOICE HETH. Marshal.

Aids, {A Fejee Mermaid, astride} Aids, of Quaking Shakers. { the Woolly Horse. } The Happy Family.

Aids, { _Invited Guests._ } and Their readers { _The Three Historians_, } "admirers."

{ BURNHAM, PRESCOT, and BANCRAFT. }

Escort in the rear, with charged bayonets.

Police. { A _genuine_ "COCHIN-CHINA" Rooster, } Police.

{succeeded by the man who _knew_ him to be such!}

Marshal. {The entire United States American National } Marshal.

Pea Wilder. {Agricultural Society, in a one-horse buggy.} w. ESS king.

[The _good_ this a.s.sociation had accomplished was borne along by a stout "practical farmer," in a small thimble; the _records_ of its doings were inscribed on a huge roll of paper, 16,000 yards long, carried upon a truck drawn by twelve yoke of "pure" Devon oxen.]

BANNER.--Motto: "_Ourselves and those who vote for us._"

Aid, {An ex-U.S. Navy Agent who left that office } Aid, Naval store {without having made money out of his place!} U.S.

Keeper. { BANNER.--Motto: "_Poor, but honest._" }Sub-Treasurer.

{ The Ma.s.s. Hort. Improvement Society, } One hundred and {_en ma.s.se_, with several full bands of} Twenty-five twenty-five {music, on "seedling" accompaniments, } hundred and Marshals. {etc. } one gold-medal { BANNER. } seekers { Motto: "_Cuss the Concord Grape._" }

No { The man who voluntarily gave up his office under the } No Aids. { National government, _solus_, on horseback, with } friends.

{ BANNER.--Motto: "_Few die, and none resign._" }

{ "THE YOUNG 'UN," } The defunct { in his own barouche, drawn by four "superb } His New England { dapple-grey Shanghaes." } vanquished Hen Society. { BANNER.--Motto: }MUSIC.{ BANNER.--Motto: }Compet.i.tors.

{"_Who's afraid?_"} {"_Not this child!_"}

Police. { HEN MEN WHO HAD MISTAKEN THEIR CALLING, } Police.

{twenty-eight deep, in four hundred sections.}

Aids, { GRAIN MEN, _with their bills_, } Aids, 24 Constables { in seventy sections, } All in a row.

{ sixty-four deep. }

BAND, playing "_Hope told a flattering tale._"

{ The great-grandson of the man who set } Tree-venders { out an orchard of dwarf Pear-trees } with thumbs and { (in a barouche). He was 102 years } on their Horticulturists, { old, and believed he should see fruit } noses.