`` 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 of oyster-shops , and other establishments for the accommodation of a transitory diurnal multitude . But a more important change awaits the venerable town . An immense accumulation of musty prejudices will be carried off by the free circulation of society . A peculiarity of character , of which the inhabitants themselves are hardly sensible , will be rubbed down and worn away by the attrition of foreign substances . Much of the result will be good ; there will likewise be a few things not so good . Whether for better or worse , there will be a probable diminution of the moral influence of wealth , and the sway of an aristocratic class , which , from an era far beyond my memory , has held firmer dominion here than in any other New England town . '' The Old Year having talked away nearly all of her little remaining breath , now closed her Book of Chronicles , and was about to take her departure . But her sister detained her awhile longer , by inquiring the contents of the huge bandbox , which she was so painfully lugging along with her .
`` These are merely a few trifles , '' replied the Old Year , `` which I have picked up in my rambles , and am going XXXXX deposit , in the receptacle of things past and forgotten .
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