`` With all my heart , '' replied the Old Year , who had already been tormented half to death with squabbles of this kind . `` I care not if the navies of Whig or Tory , with their interminable brawls about Banks and the Sub-Treasury , Abolition , Texas , the Florida War , and a million of other topics , -- which you will learn soon enough for your own comfort , -- I care not , I say , if no whisper of these matters ever reaches my ears again . Yet they have occupied so large a share of my attention , that I scarcely know what else to tell you . There has indeed been a curious sort of war on the Canada border , where blood has streamed in the names of Liberty and Patriotism ; but it must remain for some future , perhaps far distant Year , to tell whether or no those holy names have been rightfully invoked . Nothing so much depresses me , in my view of mortal affairs , as to see high energies wasted , and human life and happiness thrown away , for ends that appear oftentimes unwise , and still oftener remain unaccomplished . But the wisest people and the best keep a steadfast faith that the progress of Mankind is onward and upward , and that the toil and anguish of the path serve to wear away the imperfections of the Immortal Pilgrim , and will be felt no more , when they have done their office . '' `` Perhaps , '' cried the hopeful New Year , -- `` perhaps I shall see that happy day ! '' `` I doubt whether it be so close at hand , '' answered the Old Year , gravely smiling . `` You will soon grow weary of looking for that blessed consummation , and will turn for amusement -LRB- as has frequently been my own practice -RRB- to the affairs of some sober little city , like this of Salem . Here we sit on the steps of the new City Hall , which has been completed under my administration ; and it would make you laugh to see how the game of politics , of which the Capitol at Washington is the great chess-board , is here played in miniature . Burning Ambition finds its fuel here ; here Patriotism speaks boldly in the people 's behalf , and virtuous Economy demands retrenchment in the emoluments of a lamplighter ; here the Aldermen range their senatorial dignity around the Mayor 's chair of state , and the Common Council feel that they have liberty in charge . In short , human weakness and strength , passion and policy , Man 's tendencies , his aims and modes of pursuing them , his individual character , and his character in the mass , may be studied almost as well here as on the theatre of nations ; and with this great advantage , that , be the lesson ever so disastrous , its Liliputian scope still makes the beholder smile . '' `` Have you done much for the improvement of the City ? '' asked the New Year . `` Judging from what little I have seen , it appears to be ancient and timeworn . '' `` I have opened the Railroad , '' said the elder Year , `` and half a dozen times a day , you will hear the bell -LRB- which once summoned the Monks of a Spanish Convent to their devotions -RRB- announcing the arrival or departure of the cars . Old Salem now wears a much livelier expression than when I first beheld her . Strangers rumble down from Boston by hundreds at a time . New faces throng in Essex Street . Railroad-hacks and omnibuses rattle over the pavements .
There is a perceptible increase XXXXX oyster-shops , and other establishments for the accommodation of a transitory diurnal multitude .
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