Page:Traveler from Altruria, Howells, 1894.djvu/271

Rh "Isn't it a perfect shame?" Mrs. Makely demanded. "I think some of you gentlemen ought to say something! What will Mr. Homos think of our civilization if we let such interruptions go unrebuked!"

She was sitting between the banker and myself, and her indignation made him laugh more and more. "Oh, it serves him right," he said. Don't you see that he is hoist with his own petard? Let him alone. He's in the hands of his friends."

The Altrurian waited for the tumult to die away, and then he said gently: "I don't understand."

The old farmer jerked himself to his feet again: "It's like this: I paid my dolla' to hear about a country where there wa'n't no co'perations, nor no monop'lies, nor no buyin' up cou'ts; and I ain't agoin' to have no allegory shoved down my throat, instead of a true history, noways. I know all about how it is here. Fi'st, run their line through your backya'd, and then kill off your cattle, and keep kerryin' on it up from cou't to cou't, till there ain't hide or hair on 'em left—"

"Oh, set down, set down! Let the man go on! He'll make it all right with you," one of the