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will! we will!"] This is not the place to make comparisons between
ourselves and other communities--some of them ungracious towards us;
they
have their ways, we have ours; let us be content. [Applause.] I am
done. Under my hand, my friends, rests a stranger's eloquent recognition
of what we are; through him the world will always henceforth know what we
are. We do not know who he is, but in your name I utter your gratitude,
and ask you to raise your voices in indorsement."
The house rose in a body and made the walls quake with the thunders of
its thankfulness for the space of a long minute. Then it sat down, and
Mr. Burgess took an envelope out of his pocket. The house held its
breath while he slit the envelope open and took from it a slip of paper.
He read its contents--slowly and impressively--the audience listening
with tranced attention to this magic document, each of whose words stood
for an ingot of gold:
"
'The remark which I made to the distressed stranger was this: "You are
very far from being a bad man; go, and reform."'" Then he continued:--"We
shall know in a moment now whether the remark here quoted corresponds
with the one concealed in the sack; and if that shall prove to be so--and
it undoubtedly will--this sack of gold belongs to a fellow-citizen who
will henceforth stand before the nation as the symbol of the special
virtue which has made our town famous throughout the land--Mr. Billson!"
The house had gotten itself all ready to burst into the proper tornado of
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