almost ruined."

And I sez, "That must come from the inside, Josiah. It hadn't ort to
make you feel so."

And then we see all sorts of things to illustrate the games that these
old ruined folks used to play, and their religions they believed
in--idols, and clay altars, and things; and once, when I wuz a-tryin' to
look calm at the very meanest-lookin' idol that I ever laid eyes on,

Sez Josiah, "The folks that would try to worship such a lookin' thing as
that ort to be ruined."

And I whispered back, "If the secret things that folks worship to-day
could be materialized, they would look enough sight worse than this."
Sez I, "How would the mammon of Greed look carved in stun, or the beast
of Intemperance?"

"Oh!" sez he, "bring in your dum temperance talk everywhere, will you? I
should think we wuz in a bad enough place here to let your ears rest,
anyway."

"Wall," sez I, "then don't run down folks that couldn't answer back for
ten thousand years."

But truly we wuz in a bad place, if humbliness is bad, for them idols
did beat all, and then there wuz a almost endless display of amulets,
charms, totems, and other things that they used to carry on their
religious meetin's with, or what they called religion.