Why have a legislature when Colonel Paul Varney was so efficient!
The legislature was a mere sop to democratic prejudice, to pray over
it heightened the travesty. Suppose there were a God after all? not
necessarily the magnified monarch to whom these pseudo-democrats prayed,
but an Intelligent Force that makes for righteousness. How did He, or
It, like to be trifled with in this way? And, if He existed, would not
His disgust be immeasurable as He contemplated that unctuous figure in
the "Prince Albert" coat, who pretended to represent Him?

As the routine business began I searched for Krebs, to find him
presently at a desk beside a window in the rear of the hall making notes
on a paper; there was, confessedly, little satisfaction in the thought
that the man whose gaunt features I contemplated was merely one of those
impractical idealists who beat themselves to pieces against the forces
that sway the world and must forever sway it. I should be compelled to
admit that he represented something unique in that assembly if he had
the courage to get up and oppose House Bill 709. I watched him narrowly;
the suggestion intruded itself--perhaps he had been "seen," as the
Colonel expressed it. I repudiated it. I grew impatient, feverish; the
monotonous reading of the clerk was interrupted now and then by the
sharp tones of the Speaker assigning his various measures to this or
that committee, "unless objection is offered," while the members moved
about and murmured among themselves; Krebs had stopped making notes; he
was looking out of the window. At last, without any change of emphasis
in his droning voice, the clerk announced the recommendation of the
Committee on Judiciary that House Bill 709 ought to pass.

Down in front a man had risen from his seat--the felicitous Mr.
Truesdale. Glancing around at his fellow-members he then began to
explain in the impressive but conversational tone of one whose counsels
are in the habit of being listened to, that this was merely a little
measure to remedy a flaw in the statutes. Mr. Truesdale believed in
corporations when corporations were good, and this bill was calculated
to make them good, to put an end to jugglery and concealment. Our great
state, he said, should be in the forefront of such wise legislation,
which made for justice and a proper publicity; but the bill in question
was of greater interest to lawyers than to laymen, a committee composed
largely of lawyers had recommended it