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From the Easy Chair — Volume 01 by George William Curtis
page 50 of 133 (37%)
to go in right away. The committee made for the hall, and the chairman
followed. He knew nothing of Sly nor of the people who had named him,
and he knew nobody else whom he could propose for the place. Honestus
felt very much as a leaf might feel upon the fall at Niagara, and in
the next moment the chairman of the meeting was asking him if the
committee were ready to report. The chairman of the committee bowed.
The chairman of the meeting said that the report would now be made.
Honestus stated that he was instructed to report the name of Sly. The
meeting roared. There was some thumping by the chairman, and Honestus
heard only the name of Sly and "by acclamation," and a whirlwind of
calls upon "Sly!" "Sly!" "Speech!" "Speech!" The next moment Sly, with
a large diamond pin, was upon the platform thanking and promising, and
the meeting was stormily cheering and adjourning _sine die_.

Honestus walked quietly home, perceiving that the result of his
practical effort to discharge the primary duties of a citizen was that
Sly, one of the most disreputable and dishonest of public sharks, had
been nominated by a committee of which he was chairman, and that the
whole weight of the name of Honestus was thrown upon the side of
rascality with a diamond pin. And he reflected that in politics, as
elsewhere, it is necessary to begin as early in preparation for action
as the rascals.

Yet he did not lose his faith, nor suppose that popular government is
a cheat and a snare, because he had been involuntarily made the
instrument of knaves. Honestus understands that good government is one
of the best things in the world, and he knows that good things of that
kind are not cheap. He is willing to pay the price, and the price is
the trouble to ascertain who Sly is, and the time to do his part in
defeating Sly. For Honestus knows that if he does not rule, Sly will.
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