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: is; but at last, when the Rev. Mr. Burgess rose and laid his hand on
the sack, he could hear his microbes gnaw, the place was so still.
He related the curious history of the sack, then went on to speak in
warm terms of Hadleyburg's old and well-earned reputation for
spotless honesty, and of the town's just pride in this reputation.
He said that this reputation was a treasure of priceless value; that
under Providence its value had now become inestimably enhanced, for
the recent episode had spread this fame far and wide, and thus had
focussed the eyes of the American world upon this village, and made
its name for all time, as he hoped and believed, a synonym for
commercial incorruptibility. [Applause.] "And who is to be the
 The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |