resolved to commit suicide. So they bought
shrouds, and laying them in a convenient place prepared to cut their
throats. While they were grinding their razors some Tramps passing that
way stole the shrouds.

"Let us live, my friends," said one of the Legislators to the others;
"the world is better than we thought. It contains meaner thieves than
we."

The Belly and the Members

Some Workingmen employed in a shoe factory went on a strike, saying: "Why
should we continue to work to feed and clothe our employer when we have
none too much to eat and wear ourselves?"

The Manufacturer, seeing that he could get no labour for a long time and
finding the times pretty hard anyhow, burned down his shoe factory for
the insurance, and when the strikers wanted to resume work there was no
work to resume. So they boycotted a tanner.

The Piping Fisherman

An Editor who was always vaunting the purity, enterprise, and
fearlessness of his paper was pained to observe that he got no
subscribers. One day it occurred to him to stop saying that his paper
was pure and enterprising and fearless, and make it so. "If these are
not good qualities," he reasoned, "it is folly to claim them."

Under the new policy he got so many subscribers that his rivals
endeavoured to discover the secret of his prosperity, but he kept it, and
when he died it died with him.

The Ants and the Grasshopper

Some Members of a Legislature were making schedules of their wealth at
the end of the session, when an Honest Miner came along and asked them to
divide with him. The members of the Legislature inquired:

"Why did you not acquire property of your own?"

"Because," replied the Honest Miner, "I was so busy digging out gold that
I had no leisure to lay up something worth while."

Then the Members of the Legislature derided him, saying:

"If you waste your time in profitless amusement, you cannot, of course,
expect to share the rewards of industry."

The Dog and His Reflection

A State Official carrying off the Dome of the Capitol met the Ghost of
his predecessor, who had come out of his political grave to warn him that
God saw him. As the place of meeting was lonely and the time midnight,
the State Official set down the Dome of the Capitol, and commanded the
supposed traveller to throw up his hands. The Ghost replied that he had
not eaten them, and while he was explaining the situation another State
Official silently