to roll-calls and do the legitimate party-voting, which appears
stereotyped in the regular list of Ashe, Bocock, Black, etc., we
should gain decidedly in working power. As things stand, the saddest
state prison I ever visit is that Representatives' Chamber in
Washington. If a man leaves for an hour, twenty "correspondents" may
be howling, "Where was Mr. Prendergast when the Oregon bill passed?"
And if poor Prendergast stays there! Certainly, the worst use you can
make of a man is to put him in prison!

I know, indeed, that public men of the highest rank have resorted to
this expedient long ago. Dumas's novel of _The Iron Mask_ turns on the
brutal imprisonment of Louis the Fourteenth's double. There seems
little doubt, in our own history, that it was the real General Pierce
who shed tears when the delegate from Lawrence explained to him the
sufferings of the people there--and only General Pierce's double who
had given the orders for the assault on that town, which was invaded
the next day. My charming friend, George Withers, has, I am almost
sure, a double, who preaches his afternoon sermons for him. This is
the reason that the theology often varies so from that of the
forenoon. But that double is almost as charming as the original. Some
of the most well-defined men, who stand out most prominently on the
background of history, are in this way stereoscopic men; who owe their
distinct relief to the slight differences between the doubles. All
this I know. My present suggestion is simply the great extension of
the system, so that all public machine-work may be done by it.

But I see I loiter on my story, which is rushing to the plunge. Let me
stop an instant more, however, to recall, were it only to myself, that
charming year while all was yet well. After the double had become a
matter of course, for nearly twelve months before he undid me, what a