GREAT STATE PAPERS.
OUR LAWS AND PROCLAMATIONS.
BY HENRY CLEMENT HOLMES.
"Father," said my fourteen-year-old son, "Ted Nichols declared to-day that he had the Wilson tariff bill in his pocket. He said Mr. Wilson gave it to him to take to Ted's father, who is also from West Virginia, you know, to read, and say what he thought of it."
My son's tone had in it both incredulity and interest, and so I replied:
"I thought you had lived long enough in Washington not to be surprised at anything. Did not Senator Maybee read his speech to us the other evening, before he had delivered it in the Senate? And did we not, in the corridor of the State Department, recently meet the original Constitution of the United States coming down the granite staircase three steps at a bound? You and I helped pick up the bits of glass from the broken frame, which our friend Cochrane had dropped, greatly to his alarm, in carrying it from a closet to the library.
"It would be quite possible for Ted Nichols, or any other lad, to have the Wilson tariff bill in his pocket, provided he took it at the right time. If Mr. Wilson should give it to you to carry to your father for examination, while your father's opinion was wanted regarding a proposed change, you could readily carry it in your empty lunch-basket. But if he waited until his bill became a law, you would need to be pretty big and pretty strong to carry it far.