men who spend four years in learning a trade not theirs, and are very
generally turned out before they have half learnt it; we are doing a
political business which will succeed fairly well just so long as we are
rich enough to provide funds for any amount of extravagance and keep
enough in our pockets to buy bread and cheese with afterwards. Just so
long.

"When we have been lanced here in Boston and the blood is running freely,
we can still cut a slice out of the West and use it like court-plaster to
stop the bleeding. Some day there will be no more slices to be had. It
will be a bad day in State Street."

This remark raised a laugh and a good deal of noise for a moment. But the
audience were soon silent again. Whether they meant to approve or
disapprove, they kept their opinions to themselves. Miss Thorn did not
comprehend the allusion, but she was listening with all her ears.

"You understand that," John went on. "Then understand it about the rest of
the country as well. Understand that we are all the time patching our
income with our capital; and it answers pretty well because there is a
good deal of capital and not so very many of ourselves, as yet. There will
be twice as many of us in a few years, and very much less than half as
much capital. Understand above all that we are getting into bad habits--
habits we should despise in a corporation, and condemn by very bad names
in any individual man of our acquaintance.

"And when you have understood it, look at matters as they stand. Look at
the incompetence of our public officers, look at our ruined carrying
trade, at those vile enactions of fools, and worse than fools, the
Navigation Laws of the United States, and tell me whether things are as