Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/313

 the half-dozen cleverest rogues to play a game of skittles with, bowling down every man who tries to stand up against their infernal tricks. Why, the vast fortunes thus accumulated, which have wrought such malign effects on the country, never could have been possible if the people of the North had used their brains and put their money into developing the country, in some degree, to an equal prosperity. It 's a devil's game they play, those dozen or two so-called 'money-kings,' and it is your own fault that you are tumbled down, like so many tenpins, by their heavy balls. The result is ruinous all the way down to your lowest classes. The greatest gambling-hell the world has ever seen has for its croupiers these great men, whose names you mention with bated breath. 'Financiers,' you call them; swindlers and gamblers they should be termed. All over the land bank-presidents, trustees, men in the highest offices of State and private trust, are tempted to their ruin and the ruin of their dependents through the accursed influence of these men, who have set up the golden calf in our midst and cast down the gods of our forefathers."

Though Margaret did not appear at dinner that evening, her headache did not prevent her from slipping out to see Sara Harden the moment the General departed for his club. She found