ports at two or three o'clock in the morning, and fill out the
speeches to suit themselves. I do remember some things that sounded
pretty bad,--about as bad as nitro-glycerine, for that matter. But I
don't believe they ever said 'em, when they spoke their pieces, or if
they said 'em I know they did n't mean 'em. Something like this, wasn't
it? If the majority didn't do something the minority wanted 'em to, then
the people were to burn up our cities, and knock us down and jump on our
stomachs. That was about the kind of talk, as the papers had it; I don't
wonder it scared the old women.

--The Member was wide awake by this time.

--I don't seem to remember of them partickler phrases, he said.

--Dear me, no; only levelling everything smack, and trampling us under
foot, as the reporters made it out. That means FIRE, I take it, and
knocking you down and stamping on you, whichever side of your person
happens to be uppermost. Sounded like a threat; meant, of course, for
a warning. But I don't believe it was in the piece as they spoke
it,--could n't have been. Then, again, Paris wasn't to blame,--as much
as to say--so the old women thought--that New York or Boston would n't
be to blame if it did the same thing. I've heard of political gatherings
where they barbecued an ox, but I can't think there 's a party in this
country that wants to barbecue a city. But it is n't quite fair to
frighten the old women. I don't doubt there are a great many people
wiser than I am that would n't be hurt by a hint I am going to give
them. It's no matter what you say when you talk to yourself, but when
you talk to other people, your business is to use words with reference
to the way in which those other people are like to understand them.
These pretended inflammatory speeches, so reported as to seem full
of combustibles, even if they were as threatening as they have been
represented, would do no harm if read or declaimed in a man's study
to his books, or by the sea-shore to the waves. But they are not so
wholesome moral entertainment for the dangerous classes. Boys must not
touch off their squibs and crackers too near the powder-magazine. This
kind of speech does n't help on the millennium much.

--It ain't jest the thing to grease your ex with ile o' vitrul, said the
Member.

--No, the wheel of progress will soon stick fast if you do. You can't
keep a dead level long, if you burn everything down flat to make it.
Why, bless your soul, if al