Sez I, "For instance durin' the Oncivil war it wuz changed to make Northern
men cheap bloodhounds and hunters."

"Yes," he said, "it seemed to be a case of necessity and economy."

"I know it," sez I; "men wuz cheaper than any other breed of bloodhounds
the slave-holders could employ to hunt men and wimmen with, and more
faithful."

"Yes," he said, "it wuz a case of clear economy."

And sez I: "The laws have been changed to benefit liquor dealers."

"Well, yes," he said, "it had been changed to enable whiskey dealers to
utilize the surplus liquor they import."

Sez he, gittin' kinder animated, for he wuz on a congenial and familar
theme, "Nobody, the best calculators in drunkards, can exactly calculate
how much whiskey will be drunk in a year; and so, ruther than have the
whiskey dealers suffer loss, the law had to be changed. And then," sez he,
growin' still more candid in his excitement, "we are makin' a powerful
effort to change the laws now so as to take the tax off of whiskey, so it
can be sold cheaper, and obtained in greater quantities by the masses. Any
such great laws would justify a change in the Constitution and the laws;
but for any frivolous cause, any trivial cause, madam, we male custodians
of the sacred Constitution stand as walls of iron before it, guarding it
from any shadow of change. Faithful we will be, faithful unto death."

Sez I, "As it has been changed, it can be agin. And you jest said I had
convinced you that Serepta's errents wuz errents of truth and justice, and