I did n't see no use mooley-cowin' around Mr. Dill; what I wanted was
for him to go so Elijah an' me could go on discussin'. Elijah thinks our
paper ought to come out strong now that we've got one an' he said he
would in confidence remark to me as he intended to say some very pointed
things soon. He says all the editors in the country know as the plans
an' the parties is all fixed up beforehand nowadays; the Republicans
say how many they'll have in each state an' then they never fail to have
'em an' that's a national disgrace for nobody ought to know beforehand
how a election is goin' to pan out for it would n't be possible if folks
was anyways honest. He says for a carefully planned an' worked up thing
a Republican victory is about the tamest surprise as this country ever
gets nowadays, an' yet we keep on gettin' them an' openin' our eyes over
'em every four years like they was somethin' new.

"I bu'st in then an' said as there was sure to come a change afore long
with prices goin' up like they is an' a reaction bound to drop in the
end. Elijah laughed then an' said he knowed well enough as when the
deluge come the Republicans would grab the Democrats an' hold 'em just
like that rich man who grabbed the clerk an' held him in front of him,
when they throwed that bomb at him in his office."

"At the--" cried Mrs. Lathrop, opening her eyes.

"Yes, the bomb was meant for him, but he held the clerk in front of him
so the clerk caught it all. That's what they call presence of mind, an'
as far as my observation 's extended, Mrs. Lathrop, the Republicans have
got full as much of it--they must have, for they both make money right
straight along an' I've observed myself as they always step out when a
crash comes an' let the Democrats in to do the economizin' till there's
enough money saved up to make it worth while for them to take hold again
which comes to much the same thing in the end. I tell you, Mrs. Lathrop,
I see after a little as it was n't no use talkin' to Elijah so I just
had to listen to him an' he really did kind of frighten me in the end.
Livin' with an editor an' readin' that book of Mr. Fisher's has opened
my eyes to a many new ideas. I've lived in a small town all my life but
I've got brains an' there's no use denyin' as a woman with brains can
apply 'em to the president just as easy as to the minister, once she
gets to thinkin' on the subject. This country is in a very bad way an'
it's all owin' to our bein'