taxes, he was not much concerned about that: he
had but little to be taxed, and his constituents had less. "I, or they,
as you see, are not very responsible on that score. By the God of
Moses, this licensed gambling was a sin and a curse, if it did support
seven or eight thousand people in the Charity Hospital every year: that
was the reason so many died there, the curse of God was on the place;
for the Scripture says, the 'wages of sin is death,' and I see this
Scripture fulfilled right here in that hospital, and the moral and
religious portion of my constituents so feel it, and I am bound to
represent them. And the d----d gamblers were no friends of mine or of
the Church."

There was one, a little dark-moustached Spaniard, who was listening and
peering at him, with eyes black and pointed as a chincapin, and,
murmuring softly in Spanish, turned and went away. "What did that
d----d black-muzzled whelp say?" Larry asked. "I don't understand their
d----d lingo." An unobtrusive individual in the background translated
it for him. He said: "He who strikes with the tongue, should always be
ready to guard with the hands!" "What in the h--- does he mean by
that?" asked Larry. "_Je ne sais pas!_" said one whom Larry remembered
to have seen in the tiger's den, and apparently familiar there, for he
had been on the wrong side of the table.

"I suppose they mean to shoot me." The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders
most knowingly. Larry grew pale, and walked from the lobby to his seat.
Here he knew he was safe. He laid his head in his palm, and rested it
there for many minutes. At last, he said sharply: "Let them shoot, and
be d----d."

The committee was announced. Larry, who was the chairman, and two from
the House, constituted this important committee. One of these loved
fun, and never lost an opportunity to have it. The meeting of the
committee soon took place, and the chairman insisted that the first
named on the part of the House should draft the bill. This was the wag.
He saw Larry was frightened, and peremptorily refused, declaring it was
the chairman's duty. "I do not wish to have anything to do with this
matter any way. It was a very useless thing, and foolish too, to be
throwing a cat into a bee-gum; for this was nothing else. This bill
will start every devil of those little moustached foreigners into fury:
they are all interested in these faro-banks. It is their only way of
making a living, and they are as vindictive as t