re cradled on
a peak; and thereafter, wherever his wanderings may take him, and
whether into Congress, Cabinet, or White House, he travels always
downhill. It is this to account for that benignant urbanity, the
inevitable mark of a Southern man, which teaches him faith in you as
corollary of completest confidence in himself. It is a beautiful, even
though an unreasonable trait, and as such the admiration of Richard
recorded it.

Those others, not Southern, educated to a notion of office as a
pedestal, were inclined to play the turkey cock and spread their tails a
trifle. Since that sort of self-conceit never fails to transact itself
at the expense of the spectator, Richard looked upon it with no favor,
and it drew from him opinions, not of compliment, concerning those by
whom it was exhibited. It set him to comparisons which ran much in
Southern favor.

After Congressmen and Cabinet men, Richard studied Washington itself.
The common condition--speaking now of residents, and not of those who
were mere sojourners within the city's walls--he found to be one of
idleness, the common trait an insatiable bent for gossip. Government was
the sole product of the place, the one grist ground at those mills. No
one was made to labor more than six hours of the twenty-four. And the
term labor meant no more than one-tenth its definition in any other
town. Wherefore, even those most engaged of the citizenry had leisure to
settle the world's most perplexing concerns, and they generously devoted
it to that purpose.

Nor were they abashed by any insignificance of their personal estate.
Familiarity does not breed contempt, it breeds conceit. Those who dwell
close to the hub of government, even though they build departmental
fires, sweep departmental floors, and empty departmental waste baskets,
from nearness of contact and a daily perusal of your truly great, come
at last to look upon themselves as beings of tremendous importance--and
all after the self-gratulatory example of the thoughtful fly on the
chariot wheel in the fable. The least of them beholds a picture of the
government in every looking-glass into which he peers.

Storri talked with Mr. Harley; Mr. Harley talked with Senator Hanway.
These conferences were of Credit Magellan; in particular they had
concern with the overthrow of Northern Consolidated. Congress had been
in session ten days when Senator Hanway, one morning, asked Richard to
call that evening at nine.

"There