rs' convention
met the other day in Boston, and that in their longest session the
attention did not flag.

Wiseman.--Yes; I see that speeches were made on the beneficial use of
fermented liquors. The announcement was made that during the year 8,910,823
barrels of the precious stuff had been manufactured. I suppose that while
the convention was there Boston must have smelt like one great ale-pitcher.
The delegates were invited to visit the suburbs of the city. Strange that
nobody thought of inviting them to visit the cemeteries and graveyards,
especially the potter's field, where thousands of their victims are buried.
Perhaps you are in sympathy with these brewers, and say that if people
would take beer instead of alcohol drunkenness would cease. But for the
vast majority who drink, beer is only introductory to something stronger.
It is only one carriage in the same funeral. Do not spell it b-e-e-r, but
spell it b-i-e-r. May the lightnings of heaven strike and consume all the
breweries from river Penobscot to the Golden Horn!

Quizzle.--I see, governor, that you were last week in Washington. How do
things look there?

Wiseman.--Very well. The general appearance of our national capital never
changes. It is always just as far from the Senate-chamber to the White
House; indeed, so far that many of our great men have never been able to
travel it. There are the usual number of petitioners for governmental
patronage hanging around the hotels and the congressional lobbies. They are
willing to take almost anything they can get, from minister to Spain to
village postmaster. They come in with the same kind of carpet-bags, look
stupid and anxious for several days, and having borrowed money enough from
the member from their district to pay their fare, take the cars for home,
denouncing the administration and the ungratefulness of republics.

I think that the two houses of Congress are the best and most capable of
any almost ever assembled. Of course there is a dearth of great men. Only
here and there a Senator or Representative you ever before heard of.
Indeed, the nuisances of our national council in other days were the great
men who took, in making great speeches, the time that ought to have been
spent in attending to business. We all know that it was eight or ten
"honorable" bloats of the last thirty years who made our chief
international troubles.

Our Congress is made up mostly of practical every-day men. They have no
spee