UNANIMOUS ACTION

Davies Herkimer, the noted political economist, said of modern politics in an address on reform that he recently delivered:

“Modern politics are entirely too tricky. The average candidate when he enters the political struggle lets plain dealing go by the board. What, then, is the result? The result is something altogether worthless, something that reminds me of a Western clergyman.

“This clergyman was very fond of cider. His congregation, meeting secretly last autumn, decided that it would surprise him with a hogshead of the beverage he loved and arranged to hold a surprise party at the manse, each guest to bring a demijohn of cider and to empty it into a huge hogshead in the garden. The party duly came off. The guests brought their demijohns, emptied them into the hogshead and feasted afterward in the manse on apples, nuts and gingerbread.

“At the height of the feasting the clergyman host was told of the full hogshead that stood without the door, and, overjoyed, the good man said to his servant:

“‘Jane, take a pitcher, fill it at the hogshead, and bring it in that we may sample it.’

“The maid withdrew into the darkness and soon returned with a pitcher brimming with—clear water!

“Each tricky guest had filled his demijohn at the pump, thinking that amid so much cider his aqueous contribution would escape unnoticed. But this trickery, like the trickery of modern politics, had been a little too unanimous.”