"We point with the finger of scorn--" reads the clerk in a great voice.
"That's the stuff!" respond the faithful, shaking hands one with another.
"Order!" scream the bouncers and police. They desire to hear the platform. It is the hinge on which liberty hangs. It is the brass idol of politics.
"And the peace, prosperity and general happiness of the American people will ever remain dear to the party which saved the union and now reaches a fraternal hand across the bloody chasm!" So reads the clerk.
"That's what! We win on that! They can't answer to that!"
"We demand a free ballot and a fair count!"
"No more bulldozing!" exclaims the bouncer who has heard the plank.
"We guarantee to the sovereign electors of the First district, and to the whole population of the nation a reform of the civil service and an entire abolition of the spoils system."
"I suppose," says the bouncer, "that things is going on too open in Washington."
The reading ceases.