More from my favorite political observer and humorist, Mark Twain.
"Wm. Penn achieved the deathless gratitude of the savages by merely dealing in a square way with them-well, kind of a square way, anyhow-more rectangular than the savage was used to, at any rate. He bought the whole State of PA from them & paid for it like a man. Paid $40 worth of glass beads and a couple of used blankets. Bought the whole State for that! Why, you can't buy it's legislature for twice the money now."
"Tell a dog a joke and he never fails to wag his tail. I had a dog that would wag himself from one side of the road to the other whenever I introduced him to a politician."
"The New Political Gospel: Public office is private graft."
[President Cleveland's motto was "Public office is a public trust.]
"Vote: The only commodity that is peddleable without a license."
[Warning two young burglars who had stolen silverware from his new mansion, Stormfield:] "Don't you see where you're drifting? They'll send you from here down to Bridgeport [CT] jail, and the next thing you know you'll be in the United States Senate. There's no future left open to you."
"Senator: Person who makes laws in Washington when not doing time."
Seems that Mark Twain put politicians on about the same class level that I do.
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Tom
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