after another, his lips snapping with metallic positiveness.

A member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations protested
against the course pursued in Santo Domingo.

"If I were making a world, Senator, I'd try to get along without putting
in any Santo Domingos, but as things stand, we must make her be
decent or let somebody else do it."

Another brings up the question of taxing incomes and inheritances.

"I favor them both," declared the President. "They are taxes on good
luck; bad luck is its own tax."

A statesman from the Pacific slope protests against Federal interference
in the school question.

"It is a local matter as you say, Senator, and yours is a 'Sovereign
State'--they all are till they get into trouble. If we should have war with
Japan, your State would speedily become an integral part of the Union."

A group of gentlemen now object to an aspirant for a Federal judgeship
on the ground that he has not a "judicial temperament."

"As I understand it," the President begins, "judicial temperament is
largely a fragrance rising from the recollection of corporate employment;
it is the ability to throw a comma under the wheels of progress and upset
public welfare; I am glad to learn that Mr. L---- has _not_ a 'judicial
temperament'; I shall send his name to the Senate to-day."