nd possibly refrains
from increasing expenses, or even shades them down about a dollar and a
half. Flushed with their victory, the innocent sovereigns return,
Cincinnatus-wise, to their plows, and the next session of the
legislature, relieved of that suspicionful scrutiny so galling to men of
spirit, proceeds to cut the purse-strings loose with a whoop.

Such a brief spasm had now seized the State. Expenses had doubled and
redoubled with a velocity which caused even hardened prodigals to view
with alarm. The number of commissions, boards, assistant inspectors, and
third deputy clerks was enormous, far larger than anybody realized. If
you could have taken a biological cross-section through the seat of
State Government, you would doubtless have discovered a most amazing
number of unobtrusive gentlemen with queer little titles and odd little
duties, sitting silent and sleek under their cover; their hungry little
mouths affixed last year to the public breast, or two years ago, or
twenty, and ready to open in fearful wailing if anybody sought to pluck
them off. In an aggregate way, attention had been called to them during
the gubernatorial campaign of the summer. Attacks from the rival stump
had, of course, been successfully "answered" by the loyal leaders and
party press. But the bare statement of the annual expenditures, as
compared with the annual expenditures of ten years ago, necessarily
stood, and in cold type it looked bad. Therefore the legislature met now
for an "economy session." The public was given to understand that every
penny would have to give a strict account of itself before it would
receive a pass from the treasury, and that public institutions, asking
for increased support, could consider themselves lucky if they did not
find their appropriations scaled down by a fourth or so.

The _Post's_ tax reform scheme went through with a bang. Out of loose
odds and ends of vague discontent, Queed had succeeded in creating a
body of public sentiment that became invincible. Moreover, this scheme
cost nothing. On the contrary, by a rearrangement of items and a
stricter system of assessment, it promised, as the _Post_ frequently
remarked, to put hundreds of thousands into the treasury. But the
reformatory was a horse of a totally different color. Here was a
proposal, for a mere supposititious moral gain, evanescent as air, to
take a hundred thousand dollars of hard money out of the crib, and
saddle the State with an a