"
"Now you mention the subject, I think I have observed," said I, "that
there is a great change in your countrymen in that respect. Formerly,
whenever you met an American, you had a dish of politics set before
you, whether you had an appetite for it or not; but lately I have
remarked they seldom allude to it. Pray to what is this
attributable?"
"I guess," said he, "they have enough of it to home, and are sick
of the subject. They are cured the way our pastry cooks cure their
'prentices of stealing sweet notions out of their shops. When they
get a new 'prentice they tell him he must never so much as look at
all them 'ere nice things; and if he dares to lay the weight of his
finger upon one on 'em, they'll have him up for it before a justice;
they tell him it's every bit and grain as bad as stealing from a
till. Well, that's sure to set him at it, just as a high fence does a
breachy ox, first to look over it, and then to push it down with its
rump; it's human natur'. Well, the boy eats and eats till he can't eat
no longer, and then he gets sick at his stomach, and hates the very
sight of sweetmeats arterwards.
"We've had politics with us, till we're dog sick of 'em, I tell you.
Besides, I guess we are as far from perfection as when we set out
a-rowin' for it. You may get purity of Election, but how are you to
get purity of Members? It would take a great deal of ciphering to
tell that.
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