Mine host now mounts the stand to make the welcome announcement, that, the speeches being over, the eating entertainments are ready.  He hopes the friends of the candidates will repair to the tables, and help themselves without stint or restraint.  As they are on the point of rushing upon the tables, Colonel Mohpany suddenly jumps up, and arrests the progress of the group by intimating that he has one word more to say.  That word is, his desire to inform the bone and sinew of the constituency that his opponent belongs to a party which once declared in the Assembly that they-the very men who stand before him now-were a dangerous class unless reduced to slavery!  The Colonel has scarcely delivered himself of this very clever charge, when the tables, a few yards distant, are surrounded by promiscuous friends and foes, who help themselves after the fashion most advantageous.  All rules of etiquette are unceremoniously dispensed with,—­he who can secure most is the best diplomatist.  Many find their mouths so inadequate to the temptation of the feast, that they improve on Mr. Scranton’s philosophy by making good use of their ample pockets.  Believe us, reader, the entertainment is the essential part of the candidate’s political virtue, which must be measured according to the extent of his cold meats and very bad whiskey.

To carry out the strength of General Vardant’s principles, several of his opponent’s friends are busily employed in circulating a report that his barrel of whiskey has been “brought on” only half full.  A grosser slander could not have been invented.  But the report gains circulation so fast, that his meats and drinks are mischievously absorbed, and the demonstration of his unpopular position begins to be manifest.  The candidates, unflinching in their efforts, mix with the medley, have the benefit of the full exercise of free thought and action, hear various opinions upon “the Squire’s chances,” and listen to the chiming of high-sounding compliments.  While this clanging of merry jargon is at its highest, as if by some magic influence Romescos makes his appearance, and immediately commences to pit sides with Mr. M’Fadden.  With all Romescos’ outlawry, he is tenacious of his southern origin; and he will assert its rights against Mr. M’Fadden, whom he declares to be no better than a northern humbug, taking advantage of southern institutions.  To him all northerners are great vagabonds, having neither principles nor humanity in their composition; he makes the assertion emphatically, without fear or trembling; and he calls upon his friends to sustain him, that he may maintain the rights of the South.  Those rights Romescos asserts, and re-asserts, can only be preserved by southern men-not by sneaking northerners, who, with their trade, pocket their souls.  Northerners are great men for whitewashing their faces with pretence!  Romescos is received with considerable ‚clat.  He declares, independently, that Mr. Scranton too is no less a sheer humbug of the same stripe, and whose humbugging propensities make him the humble servant of the south so long as he can make a dollar by the bemeaning operation.  His full and unmeasured appreciation of all this northern-southern independence is here given to the world for the world’s good.  And he wants the world to particularly understand, that the old southerner is the only independent man, the only true protector of humanity!