It's no more like Congress
or Parliament, than Marm Pugwash's keepin' room is like our State
hall. It's jist nothin'. Congress makes war and peace, has a say
in all treaties, confarms all great nominations of the President,
regilates the army and navy, governs twenty-four independent States,
and snaps its fingers in the face of all the nations of Europe, as
much as to say, who be you? I allot I am as big as you be. If you are
six foot high, I am six foot six in my stockin' feet, by gum, and
can lambaste any two on you in no time. The British can whip all the
world, and we can whip the British. But this little House of Assembly
that folks make such a touss about, what is it? Why jist a decent
Grand Jury. They make their presentments of little money votes, to
mend these everlastin' rottin' little wooden bridges, to throw a
poultice of mud once a year on the roads, and then take a 'blowin'
time' of three months and go home. The littler folks be, the bigger
they talk. You never seed a small man that didn't wear high heel
boots, and a high-crowned hat, and that warn't ready to fight most
any one, to show he was a man every inch of him.
"I met a member the other day, who swaggered near about as large as
Uncle Peleg. He looked as if he thought you couldn't find his 'ditto'
anywhere. He used some most particular educational words, genuine
jaw-breakers.
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