A SENATOR fell to musing1 as follows: "With the money which I shall
get for my vote in favour of the bill to subsidise cat-ranches, I
can buy a kit2 of burglar's tools and open a bank. The profit of
that enterprise will enable me to obtain a long, low, black
schooner3, raise a death's-head flag and engage in commerce on the
high seas. From my gains in that business I can pay for the
Presidency4, which at $50,000 a year will give me in four years - "
but it took him so long to make the calculation that the bill to
subsidise cat-ranches passed without his vote, and he was compelled
to return to his constituents5 an honest man, tormented6 with a clean
conscience.
