"Now look here Prissie--I'm not narrow like some of these
pilgrims who came over with us. But I won't have my wife
intimating that a Roman Catholic or a Quaker should be allowed to
spread his heresies broadcast in this country. It's all right for
you and me to know something about those things, but we must
protect our children and those who have not had our advantages.
The only way to meet this evil is to stamp it out, quick, before
it can get a start. And it's just such so-called broadminded
thinkers as you that encourage these heretics. You'll be
criticizing the Bible next, I suppose."
Thus in early times did the pious Right Thinkers save the land
from Hellfire and Damnation; thus the great-grandfathers of
middle-western congressmen; thus the ancestors of platitudinous
editorial writers, Sitters on Committees, and tin-horn
prohibitionists.
Kennicott got up to cool his wrath and indignation with a drink
of water. He stumbled over a chair, reached for the jug, took a
drink, set the jug down, stumbled over the same chair, and
crawled back into bed. His expedition cost him the loss of all
bed covering; he gave up the fight.
"Aside from dragging my own private views over the coals of your
righteousness, did you and your friends find anything equally
pleasant and self-satisfying to discuss this
evening?"
"Eh--what's that? Why, yes, we did.
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