Midnight
_ J. G. WHITTIER . _ Every one is as God made him , and oftentimes A great deal worse . _ MIGUEL DE CERVANTES . _ Down Town -- Messrs. Flint & Snarle -- Tim , the Office Boy , and the pale Book-Keeper -- The Escritoire -- The Purloined Package -- Mr. Flint goes Home -- Midnight -- Miss Daisy Snarle -- The Poor Author . _ In one of those thousand and one vein-like streets which cross and recross the mercantile heart of Gotham , is situated a red brick edifice , which , like the beggar who solicits your charity in the Park , has seen better days . In the time of our Knickerbocker sires , it was an aristocratic dwelling fronting on a fashionable street , and `` Jeems , '' in green livery , opened the hall door . The street was a quiet , orderly street in those days -- a certain air of conscious respectability hung about it .