ur or their physical build. "As many men, so many minds,"--and
morals. Wrong, for practical purposes, is that which a man can not
cajole or compel his conscience to approve.

It so happened that I had a sense that to use my assessments for my
private financial profits would be wrong. Therefore, my private fortune
has been wholly the result of the opportunities which came through my
intimacy with Roebuck and such others of the members of my combine as
were personally agreeable,--or, perhaps it would be more accurate to
say, not disagreeable, for, in the circumstances, I naturally saw a side
of those men which a friend must never see in a friend. I could not help
having toward most of these distinguished clients of mine much the
feeling his lawyer has for the guilty criminal he is defending.

X

THE FACE IN THE CROWD

Except the time given to the children,--there were presently three,--my
life, in all its thoughts and associations, was now politics: at
Washington, from December until Congress adjourned, chiefly national
politics, the long and elaborate arrangements preliminary to the
campaign for the conquest of the national fields; at home, chiefly state
politics,--strengthening my hold upon the combine, strengthening my hold
upon the two political machines. As the days and the weeks, the months
and the years, rushed by, as the interval between breakfast and bedtime,
between Sunday and Sunday, between election day and election day again,
grew shorter and shorter, I played the game more and more furiously.
What I won, once it was mine, seemed worthless in itself, and worth
while only if I could gain the next point; and, when that was gained,
the same story was repeated. Whenever I paused to reflect, it was to
throttle reflection half-born, and hasten on again.

"A silly business, this living, isn't it?" said Woodruff to me.

"Yes,--but--" replied I. "You remember the hare and the hatter in _Alice
in Wonderland_. 'Why?' said the hare. 'Why not?' said the hatter. A
sensible man does not interrogate life; he lives it."

"H'm," retorted Woodruff.

And we went on with the game,--shuffling, dealing, staking. But more and
more frequently there came hours, when, against my will, I would pause,
drop my cards, watch the others; and I would wonder at them, and at
myself, the maddest of these madmen,--and the saddest, because I had
moments in which I was conscious of my own derangement.

I have often thought on the