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196 in and find it occupied. But on that point it was idle to speculate. As well expect a simple congressman to drop into the Speaker's chair, leaving that functionary to dispose of his own corporeal dignity as best he could. Prescription, provided it be old enough, is the best of titles. What other has the new king of Great Britain and Ireland?

If it was shortly before schooltime, on one of those mornings when the weather seemed to be laying itself out to establish a record, the talk was likely to be of thermometers.

"My glass was down to nineteen below," one man would say, by way of starting the ball.

"Mine touched twenty at half-past six," the next one would remark.

And so the topic would go round, the mercury dropping steadily, notch by notch. As I said a week ago, winter was winter in those days. It may have occurred to me, sometimes, that the man who managed to speak last had a decided moral advantage over his rivals. He could save the honor