Joe watched John's every gesture, and listened intently to every word. His
voice rang clear and strong through the great hall, and he was beginning
to be roused. He had gained a decided advantage in the success of his last
words, and as he gathered his strength for the real effort which was to
come, his cheek paled and his gray eyes grew brighter. He spoke out again
through the subsiding clamor.
"Now I say that the country is in danger. It is in very great danger, the
greatest danger that can threaten any community. The institutions of a
nation are like the habits of a man, except that they are harder to
improve and easier to spoil. We have got into bad habits, and if we do not
mend them they will take us to a more certain destruction than revolution,
famine, or war,--or all three together. It is easier to fight a thing that
has a head to it and a name, than a thing that is everywhere and has no
name, because no one has the courage to christen it.
"We are like a man who has grown from being a peddler of tape and buttons
to be the greatest dry-goods-man in his town, and then to being a great
dealer for many towns.
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