Among other places I went to was the public billiard-room, and on entering, my sympathies were immediately aroused by seeing a lad about thirteen or fourteen, with a very extensive flaming choker on, above which was a frightful large swelling.  Not being a medical man, I was very much puzzled when I saw the said swelling move about like a penny roll in a monkey’s cheek; presently the sympathy fled, and the puzzle was solved, as a shower of ’bacco juice deluged the floor.  Poor boy! it must have taken him an hour’s hard work to have got the abominable mass in, and it could only have been done by instalments:  the size it had reached would have broken any jaw to remove in the lump; but he seemed to have no idea of parting with his treasure, which, to do him justice, he rolled about with as much ease as if he had had a monkey-teacher before him from his cradle; nor did it prevent his betting away in a style that quite astonished a steady old gentleman like myself.

The State of Virginia, like all the other States of the Union, is undergoing the increasing pressure of democracy:[AJ] one of its features—­which is peculiarly obnoxious to the more sober-minded of the community—­is the new arrangement for the division of the electoral districts, and which goes by the name of “Gerymander.”  In the early days of the Republic, all divisions were made by straight lines, or as near straight as possible; but that fair and natural mode of division is not considered by the autocratic democracy as sufficiently favourable to their views; and the consequence is, that other divisions have been substituted, most irregular in shape, so as if possible to annihilate entirely the already weakened opposition.  This operation, my informant told me, acquired a kind of celebrity in Massachusetts some years ago; and, in the discussions upon the subject in their State legislature, one of the speakers is said to have compared some of these arbitrary divisions to a salamander which, in their outline they somewhat resembled.  The governor of the State was of the democratic party, and therefore supporting and encouraging these changes, and his name was “Gery;” so a wag interrupted the speaker, exclaiming, “Don’t say salamander; call it Gerymander,”—­by which name it has been known since that day.

I may here as well mention a little occurrence I witnessed, which, however pleasant it may have been to the democratic rowdies enacting it, must have been anything but agreeable to those operated upon.  A fire company was out trying its engine and hoses, and followed of course by a squad of the idle and unwashed.  Arrived at the market-place, they tried its range; that appeared satisfactory enough; but the idea seems to have struck the man who held the hose-end, that range without good aim was useless:  he accordingly looked round for a target, and a glass coach passing by at the time, it struck him as peculiarly suited for his experiment.  Two elderly females were inside, and a white Jehu on