"That baby I spoke of will grow up, produce corn, cotton, cattle or copper, maybe--but the net result of his life will be to enrich the rich. If, by any means--industry, opportunity, invention, speculation, dishonesty, chance or inheritance--he gets on top, then the workers will be working for him by the same law. The fact remains that every dollar's worth of betterment in the country increases the value of city property one dollar, without effort to the owner. A city is an artesian well. Take it from me, Thompson, a man of your ability ought to make connections and get your little tin pail under." Chapter V "_A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome._" Thompson sat in his room alone, meditating on Mitchell, statesman and Political Economist. On the table lay his letter of introduction and his bad "Souvenir" dollar. "The meeting will please come to order!" he said, rapping the table smartly. "The Gentleman from Montana has the floor." "I move you, Mr. Chairman," said the Gentleman from Montana, "that the letter of introduction be laid upon the table, and that this House do now go into Committee of putting the other fellows in the Hole." No objection being heard, this was done. Steve stared at the tabled letter with a puzzled frown. "Gentlemen, the Chair awaits your pleasure," he announced, at last. "Have you any suggestions to make?" The Gentleman from Montana again obtained recognition. "Mr. Speaker, I see here present an ex-member, my _alter ego_, Mr. Reuben Rubber-Neck, who once parted with six months' wages on another man's game. Mr. Rubber-Neck is a graduate of the celebrated and expensive school of Experience, of which it is written that a large and influential class will learn of no other. As an ex-Member, he is entitled to the privilege of the floor. I, for one, would like to have his counsels at this juncture." Thus appealed to, Mr. Rubber-Neck got stumblingly to his feet with a gawky and timid demeanor. "Mr. Chairman, it is not a theory but a hell of a condition that confronts us," he said, uncertainly. "I think that we should use the letter so providentially er--um--provided to make friends with the mammon of righteousness. Two heads are proverbially better than one, if one _is_ an Expert. It behooves us, for the sake of the near and dear kinsmen, the Mark brothers, that we should so bear ourselves toward our generous hosts as to make them feel that they have entertained a devil unawares. Avenge now the innumerable wrongs of me and my likes. Before deciding on our line of action, however, I should like to hear from a learned gentleman in our midst, whose brain is ever fertile in expedients. I refer to the only one of us who has been through college--in at the front door and out the back. I call on the representative of the class of Naughty-naughty!" He sat down amid vociferous cries of "Hear! Hear!"