He was desperately in earnest, and it caused him to
swallow a great deal, and each time his Adam's apple would jump up.
"I'm going to read you a newspaper clipping," he began; and I
thought it was Judge Wollcott's injunction again, but it was a story
about one of our social leaders, Mrs. Alinson Pakenham, who has four
famous Pekinese spaniels, worth six thousand dollars each, and
weighing only eight ounces--or is it eighty ounces?--I'm not sure,
for I never was trusted to lift one of the wretched little brutes.
Anyhow, their names are Fe, Fi, Fo, and Fum, and they have each
their own attendant, and the four have a private limousine in which
to travel, and they dine off a service of gold plate. And here were
hundreds of starving strikers, with their wives, also starving; and
a couple of thousand other workers in factories and on ranches who
were in process of having their wages "deflated." The orator quoted
a speech of Algernon de Wiggs before the Chamber of Commerce,
declaring that the restoration of prosperity, especially in
agriculture, depended upon "deflation," and this alone; and suddenly
James, the carpenter with a religious streak, launched forth:
"Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that are
coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are
moth-eaten! Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust on it
shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as if it
were fire.
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