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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"The Story of a Mine"

"He should have been here before.
Where is he? What was he doing?"
"He was snowed up on the plains. He is coming as fast as steam can carry
him; but he may be too late."
Carmen did not reply.
The lawyer lingered. "How did you find the great New-England Senator?"
he asked with a slight professional levity.
Carmen was tired, Carmen was worried, Carmen was a little
self-reproachful, and she kindled easily. Consequently she said icily:
"I found him A GENTLEMAN!"

CHAPTER XV
HOW IT BECAME UNFINISHED BUSINESS

The closing of the ---- Congress was not unlike the closing of the
several preceding Congresses. There was the same unbusiness-like,
impractical haste; the same hurried, unjust, and utterly inadequate
adjustment of unfinished, ill-digested business, that would not have
been tolerated for a moment by the sovereign people in any private
interest they controlled. There were frauds rushed through; there were
long-suffering, righteous demands shelved; there were honest, unpaid
debts dishonored by scant appropriations; there were closing scenes
which only the saving sense of American humor kept from being utterly
vile.


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