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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: never in their lives uttered a lie or stolen a penny. I was afraid
of Goodson. He was neither born nor reared in Hadleyburg. I was
afraid that if I started to operate my scheme by getting my letter
laid before you, you would say to yourselves, 'Goodson is the only
man among us who would give away twenty dollars to a poor devil'--
and then you might not bite at my bait. But heaven took Goodson;
then I knew I was safe, and I set my trap and baited it. It may be
that I shall not catch all the men to whom I mailed the pretended
test-secret, but I shall catch the most of them, if I know
Hadleyburg nature. [Voices. "Right--he got every last one of
them."] I believe they will even steal ostensible GAMBLE-money,
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
