I believe
they can not. I believe they do their duty like men. As one man I
resisted, because I belong to the press, and therefore am not mortal.
Who ever heard of a journalist getting a bargain? With Spartan firmness
I turned a deaf ear to the persuasive music of the propagandist, and
entered where hope is all before. I was not staggered by a welcome from
all the Presidents of the United States, Fitz-Greene Halleck, General
Hooker, and Gratz Brown. These personages are rather woodeny and red
about the face, as though flushed with victories of the platform or the
table, but I recognize their fitness in a menagerie. What athlete has
turned more somersaults than some of these representative men? What lion
has roared more gently than a few of these sucking doves? Barnum's tact
in appropriately grouping curiosities, living and dead, is too well
known to require comment. Passing what Sam Weller would call "a reg'lar
knock-down of intellect," I took my seat high in the air amid a dense
throng of my fellow-creatures, and realized how many people it takes to
make up the world. What did I see? I saw double. I beheld not one ring
but two, in each of which the uncommon variety of man was disporting in
an entertaining manner.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169