The very thought of this civil service monster makes my blood
boil. I have said a lot about it already, but another instance of its
awful work just occurs to me.

Let me tell you a sad but true story. Last Wednesday a line of
carriages wound into Cavalry Cemetery. I was in one of them. It
was the funeral of a young man from my district-a bright boy that I
had great hopes of.

When he went to school, he was the most patriotic boy in the
district. Nobody could sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" like him,
nobody was as fond of waving a flag, and nobody shot off as many
firecrackers on the Fourth of July. And when he grew up he made
up his mind to serve his country in one of the city departments.
There was no way of gettin' there without passin' a civil service
examination. Well, he went down to the civil service office and
tackled the fool questions. I saw him next day -it was Memorial
Day, and soldiers were marchin' and flags flyin' and people
cheerin'.

Where was my young man? Standin' on the corner, scowlin' at the
whole show. When I asked him why he was so quiet, he laughed in
a wild sort of way and said: What rot all this is!"

Just then a band came along playing "Liberty." He laughed wild
again and said: "Liberty? Rats!"

I don't guess I need to make a long story of it.

From the time that young man left the civil service office he lost