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It is a long time since any one has made a Boston audience listen
to those opinions. You did it surprisingly well; that sentence about
protection was a masterpiece. I wish you were one of us."
"It is of no use arguing with you," said John. "If it were, I could make a
Democrat of you in an afternoon."
"I make a pretty good thing of arguing, though," answered the other. "It's
my trade, you see, and it is not yours. You lay down the law; it is my
business to make a living out of it."
"I wish I _could_ lay it down, as you say, and lay it down according
to my own ideas," said John. "I would have something to say to you
railroad men."
"As for that, I should not care. Railroad law is stronger than iron and
more flexible than india-rubber, and the shape of it is of no importance
whatever. So long as there is enough of it to work with, you can twist it
and untwist it as much as you please."
John laughed.
"It would simplify matters to untwist it and cut it up into lengths," he
said.


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