Keep your eye on Slocum,
She's all right!
Her skies are clear and full of cheer,
And all her prospects bright.
As pointing more specifically to the incubus of Potts, there was
this:--
"Lots of people are saying that we have met our Waterloo. They forget
that Waterloo was a _victory_ as well as a defeat. Two men met it, and
the name of one was Wellington. Look it up in your encyclopaedia."
But the faction of Potts, it should be noted, saw no reason to be
impressed by a vaunting so vague. It had not tempered its hopefulness.
Its idol was jubilant, careless as a schoolboy, babbling but sober. The
_Banner_ still challenged the world with its page-wide line: "Potts
Forever! Potts the Coming Man!"
Certain hopeful souls among the opposition had taken counsel how they
might cause Potts to fall by means of strong drink. They had observed
that the mill-race was still significantly uncovered. But to all
invitations, all cunning incitements to indulgence, Potts was urbanely
resistant. Conscious that a river of strong waters rippled at his feet,
freely to be partaken of did he choose, it is true that his face showed
lines of restraint, a serene restraint, like unto that which the great
old painters limned so beautifully upon the face of the martyr.
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