"You cannot fail to see," said Mr. Handy, "that we must all make our fortunes, if the government is only true to its word; and who can doubt it will be true? We start comparatively with nothing, I may say, speaking of myself--absolutely with nothing. We shall make a large issue of paper, predicated upon the deposits; we shall accommodate everybody, as the Secretary desires--of course, not forgetting our friends, and more particularly ourselves:--we shall pay, in this way, our stock purchases. You may run up a square of warehouses on the Basin; I will join you as a partner in the transaction, give you the plan of operations, furnish architectural models, supply the funds, et cetera, et cetera. We will sell out the buildings at a hundred per cent. advance before they are finished; Fog here will be the purchaser. We have then only to advertise in the papers this extraordinary rise of property in Quodlibet--procure a map to be made of our new city; get it lithographed, and immediately sell the lots on the Exchange of New York at a most unprecedented valuation. My dear sir, I have just bought a hundred acres of land adjoining the Borough, with an eye to this very speculation. You shall have an interest of one-half in this operation at a reasonable valuation--I shall want but a small profit, say two hundred per cent.--a mere trifle--in consideration of my labors in laying it off into streets, lanes, and alleys;--and if there is any convenience in it to you--although I know you are a moneyed man--you have only to make a proposal for a slice of accommodation--just drop a note now and then into the discount box. You understand. The Secretary will be delighted, my dear sir, to hear of our giving an accommodation to you. But there's one thing, Mr. Grant, I must not forget to remark--the Secretary, in fact, makes it a sort of _sine qua non_--you must come out a genuine--declare yourself a Whole Hog--and go for Flam in the fall elections. The Secretary expects, you know," and as he said this he laid his finger significantly upon his nose, "that the accommodation principle--is to be measurably--extended--in proportion to the--Democracy--of the applicants. You understand?--a word to the wise--that's all. It couldn't be expected, you perceive, that we, holding the deposits, should be quite as favorable to the Whigs, who rather charge us with experimenting on the currency--you know--and who, in fact, don't scruple to say that our banking system will be a failure--it couldn't be expected we should be as bountiful to them as to those who go with us in building up this concatenation--tweedle dum and tweedle dee, you know, betwixt you and me;--but it's made a point of--and has its effect on ulterior expectations--you understand. The long and the short is, without being mealy-mouthed, we must prefer the old Hero's friends;--but, after all, that's a small matter:--be a Democrat, and go for Flam!"