hominy, and the James, Chickahominy, and the James,
solemn voices from the Wilderness, solemn voices from the Wilderness,
and triumphant shouts from and triumphant shouts from
the Shenandoah, from Petersburg, the Shenandoah, from Petersburg,
and the Five Forks, mingled and the Five Forks, mingled
with the wild acclaim of with the wild acclaim of
victory and the sweet chorus of victory and the sweet chorus of
returning peace." returning peace."

CALVIN ROSS SHELBY. JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD,
Arlington, Va.,
May 30,1868.

"Of these three passages, rightly thought by Calvin Ross Shelby's
audience the most telling of his speech, the first and second are
unmistakably plagiarisms of ideas, while the third, differing from its
original in but one telltale, damning word, is shameless, flat-footed
theft. Either of the first two offences committed singly might be
unconscious; conjoined they betray deliberation; united with the third
they 'smell to heaven.' It is high time for the voters of this
congressional district to ask themselves the question. Shall we vote
for a thief?"

"Well, sir, well?" exploded Bowers at last.

Shelby tossed the paper aside with a laugh.

"It's well done."

"Well done!" Bowers dropped one of his infrequent oaths. "Have you
nothing else to say?"

"Yes; it's true, more or less."

"You admit it?"

"Keep cool. It was this way: I was pressed for time when I prepared my
speech,--you know that,--and it occurred to me to adapt one or two of
Garfield's illustrations. I've studied him some, and he said many
things that fit in nowadays as well as they ever did. Plenty of
speakers quarry there I guess. I honestly meant to give him the credit
of that soldier business in my peroration, but somehow the quotation
marks were lost in the shuffle. There was but one chance in a thousand
that anybody would notice."

"Somebody did," growled Bowers, and spat our his mangled cigar.

"Yes; I ran against a man with a memory."

"It wasn't on the square, Ross. It'll hurt you."

Shelby eyed him shrewdly.

"You read speeches in Washington that I wrote," he reminded.

"That's different. Lots of congressmen do that,--even senators.
They're not posted on everything."

"No," Shelby agreed, with an irony too subtle for Bowers; "they
certainly are not.