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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"The Story of a Mine"

For seven
hours the old issues of party and policy were severally taken up and
dismissed in the old forcible rhetoric that had early made him famous.
Interruptions from other Senators, now forgetful of Unfinished Business,
and wild with reanimated party zeal; interruptions from certain Senators
mindful of Unfinished Business, and unable to pass the Roscommon bottle,
only spurred him to fresh exertion. The tocsin sounded in the Senate
was heard in the lower house. Highly-excited members congregated at
the doors of the Senate, and left Unfinished Business to take care of
itself.
Left to itself for seven hours, Unfinished Business gnashed its false
teeth and tore its wig in impotent fury in corridor and hall. For seven
hours the gifted Gashwiler had continued the manufacture of oil
and honey, whose sweetness, however, was slowly palling upon the
congressional lip; for seven hours Roscommon and friends beat with
impatient feet the lobby, and shook fists, more or less discolored, at
the distinguished Senator.


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