and easy. It circumvolved all affairs in an atmosphere of mystery;
it clouded all things with the dust and ashes of distrust. All
disappointment of place, of avarice, of incompetency or ambition, was
clearly attributable to it. It even permeated private and social life;
there were Rings in our kitchen and household service; in our public
schools, that kept the active intelligences of our children passive;
there were Rings of engaging, handsome, dissolute young fellows, who
kept us moral but unengaging seniors from the favors of the fair; there
were subtle, conspiring Rings among our creditors, which sent us into
bankruptcy and restricted our credit. In fact it would not be hazardous
to say that all that was calamitous in public and private experience
was clearly traceable to that combination of power in a minority over
weakness in a majority--known as a Ring.
Haply there was a body of demigods, as yet uninvoked, who should
speedily settle all that. When Smith of Minnesota, Robinson of Vermont,
and Jones of Georgia returned to Congress from these rural seclusions
so potent with information and so freed from local prejudices, it was
understood, vaguely, that great things would be done. This was always
understood. There never was a time in the history of American politics
when, to use the expression of the journals before alluded to, "the
present session of Congress" did not "bid fair to be the most momentous
in our history," and did not, as far as the facts go, leave a vast
amount of unfinished important business lying hopelessly upon its
desks, having "bolted" the rest as rashly and with as little regard to
digestion or assimilation as the American traveller has for his railway
refreshment.
In this capital, on this languid midsummer day, in an upper room of one
of its second-rate hotels, the Honorable Pratt C. Gashwiler sat at
his writing-table. There are certain large, fleshy men with whom the
omission of even a necktie or collar has all the effect of an indecent
exposure. The Hon. Mr. Gashwiler, in his trousers and shirt, was a sight
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