nsible positions in the Government would be occupied
by the basest characters, who used their power only for fraud to enrich
themselves and their friends by robbing the people. They deceived the
masses by preaching purity. They were never punished. If they were
accused and brought to trial, the wealth they had stolen from the
government purchased their acquittal, and then they posed as martyrs.
The form of government was then, as now, a Federal Republic, but the
people had very little to do with it. They were merely the tools of
unscrupulous politicians. In those days a sensitively honest person
would not accept office, because the name politician was a synonym for
flexible principles. It was derogatory to one's character to seek
office."

"Was dishonesty more prominent in one party than another?" I asked,
thinking how very Americanish this history sounded.

"We, who look back upon the conditions of those times and view it with
dispassionate judgment, can perceive corruption in both political
parties. The real welfare of the country was the last thing considered
by a professional politician. There was always something that was to
benefit the people brought forward as a party issue, and used as a means
of working up the enthusiasm or fears of the people, and usually dropped
after the election.

"The candidate for election in those days might be guilty of heinous
crimes, yet the party covered them all, and over that covering the
partisan newspaper spread every virtue in the calendar. A stranger to
the country and its customs reading one of their partisan newspapers
during a political campaign, might conclude that the party _it_
advocated was composed of only the virtues of the country, and their
leader an epitome of the supremest excellence.

"Reading in the same paper a description of the opposing party, the
stranger might think it composed of only the degraded and disreputable
portion of the nation, and its leader the scum of all its depravity. If
curiosity should induce a perusal of some partisan paper of the other
party, the same thing could be read in its columns, with a change of
names. It would be the opposite party that was getting represented in
the most despicable character, and _their_ leader was the only one who
possessed enough honesty and talent to keep the country from going to
wreck. The other party leader was the one who was guilty of all the
crimes in the calendar. A vast number of people were ignora