THE GLEAM
Any City (opening his eyes, as if waking from sleep). What a dream I have had! No, I believe it was what the seers of old would call a vision, for a light seemed to be with me always. (Picks up tax paper and opens it.) Well, dream or vision, I have learned a lesson. I will follow the gleam! By the gleam I see my path—I will cut off my hand before I cut one cent from this school appropriation! By the light of the gleam I will follow the path—I will give more, and more, and more, that my children may be educated in the knowledge and practice of Democracy. By the gleam I shall reach the goal—the democratic education of every soul in America. Only by thus following the gleam may I make certain that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.