of his missing letters, but dropping oil and honey as he mingled with
his brothers, was King of Misrule and Lord of the Unfinished Business.
Pretty Mrs. Hopkinson, prudently escorted by her husband, but
imprudently ogled by admiring Congressmen, lent the charm of her
presence to the finishing of Unfinished Business. One or two editors,
who had dreams of a finished financial business, arising out of
Unfinished Business, were there also, like ancient bards, to record with
paean or threnody the completion of Unfinished Business. Various unclean
birds, scenting carrion in Unfinished Business, hovered in the halls or
roosted in the Lobby.
The lower house, under the tutelage of the gifted Gashwiler, drank
deeply of Roscommon and his intoxicating claim, and passed the
half-empty bottle to the Senate as Unfinished Business. But, alas! in
the very rush, and storm, and tempest of the unfinishing business, an
unlooked-for interruption arose in the person of a great Senator whose
power none could oppose, whose right to free and extended utterance at
all times none could gainsay. A claim for poultry, violently seized by
the army of Sherman during his march through Georgia, from the hen-coop
of an alleged loyal Irishman, opened a constitutional question, and with
it the lips of the great Senator.
For seven hours he spoke eloquently, earnestly, convincingly. For seven
hours the old issues of party and policy were severally taken up and
dismissed in the old forcible rhetoric that had early made him famous.
Interruptions from other Senators, now forgetful of Unfinished Business,
and wild with reanimated party zeal; interruptions from certain Senators
mindful of Unfinished Business, and unable to pass the Roscommon bottle,
only spurred him to fresh exertion. The tocsin sounded in the Senate
was heard in the lower house. Highly-excited members congregated at
the doors of the Senate, and left Unfinished Business to take care of
itself.
Left to itself for seven hours, Unfinished Business gnashed its false
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