door behind its noble self, very seldom
attempts to put back anything that it has taken from Nature's shelves.
It grabs all it can and moves on. But the moving-on is nearly finished
and the grabbing must stop, and then the Federal Government will have to
establish a Woods and Forests Department the like of which was never
seen in the world before. And all the people who have been accustomed to
hack, mangle, and burn timber as they please will object, with shots and
protestations, to this infringement of their rights. The nigger will
breed bounteously, and _he_ will have to be reckoned with; and the
manufacturer will have to be contented with smaller profits, and _he_
will have to be reckoned with; and the railways will no longer rule the
countries through which they run, and they will have to be reckoned
with. And nobody will approve of it in the least.

Yes; it will be a spectacle for all the world to watch, this big,
slashing colt of a nation, that has got off with a flying start on a
freshly littered course, being pulled back to the ruck by that very
mutton-fisted jockey Necessity. There will be excitement in America when
a few score millions of "sovereigns" discover that what they considered
the outcome of their own Government is but the rapidly diminishing
bounty of Nature; and that if they want to get on comfortably they must
tackle every single problem from labour to finance humbly, without
gasconade, and afresh. But at present they look "that all the to-morrows
shall be as to-day," and if you argue with them they say that the
Democratic Idea will keep things going. They believe in that Idea, and
the less well-informed fortify themselves in their belief by curious
assertions as to the despotism that exists in England. This is pure
provincialism, of course; but it is very funny to listen to, especially
when you compare the theory with the practice (pistol, chiefly) as
proven in the newspapers. I have striven to find out where the central
authority of the land lies. It isn't at Washington, because the Federal
Government can't do anything to the States save run the mail and collect
a Federal tax or two. It isn't in the States, because the townships can
do as they like; and it isn't in the townships, because these are bossed
by alien voters or rings of patriotic homebred citizens. And it
certainly is not in the citizens, because they are governed and coerced
by despotic power of public opinion as represented by their