hen they were young, the United States
Senate--

But no, neither of them could find a phrase big enough for their
meaning.

They merely repeated "as for the United States Senate--" and then shook
their heads and took long drinks of whiskey and soda.

Then, naturally, speaking of the rottenness of the federal government
had led them to talk of the rottenness of the state legislature. How
different from the state legislatures that they remembered as young
men! Not merely different in the matter of graft, but different, so Mr.
Newberry said, in the calibre of the men. He recalled how he had been
taken as a boy of twelve by his father to hear a debate. He would never
forget it. Giants! he said, that was what they were. In fact, the thing
was more like a Witenagemot than a legislature. He said he distinctly
recalled a man, whose name he didn't recollect, speaking on a question
he didn't just remember what, either for or against he just couldn't
recall which; it thrilled him. He would never forget it. It stayed in
his memory as if it were yesterday.

But as for the present legislature--here Mr. Dick Overend sadly nodded
assent in advance to what he knew was coming--as for the present
legislature--well--Mr. Newberry had had, he said, occasion to visit the
state capital a week before in connection with a railway bill that he
was trying to--that is, that he was anxious to--in short in connection
with a railway bill, and when he looked about him at the men in the
legislature--positively he felt ashamed; he could put it no other way
than that--ashamed.

After which, from speaking of the crookedness of the state government
Mr. Newberry and Mr. Dick Overend were led to talk of the crookedness
of the city government! And they both agreed, as above, that things
were worse than in Russia. What secretly irritated them both most was
that they had lived and done business under this infernal corruption
for thirty or forty years and hadn't noticed it. They had been too busy.

The fact was that their conversation reflected not so much their own
original ideas as a general wave of feeling that was passing over the
whole community.

There had come a moment--quite suddenly it seemed--when it occurred to
everybody at the same time that the whole government of the city was
rotten. The word is a strong one. But it is the one that was used. Look
at the aldermen, they said--rotten! Look at the city solicitor, rotten!
And as for the mayor hi