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Show OhI Shining Shoes. "In a democracy it is fitting that a man should sit on a throne to have his shoes polished or, to use a brighter, gayer word, shined. We are all kings, and this happy conceit of popular government gov-ernment is nicely symbolized by being, be-ing, for these shining moments, so many kings together, each on his similar sim-ilar throne and with a slave at his feet. The democratic idea suffers a little from the difficulty of realizing that the slave is also a king, yet gains a little from the fair custom of the livelier monarchs to turn from left foot to right and from right to left, so that, within human limbs, neither shoe, shall be undemocratically shined first." Ralph Bergengren, In the Century. |