I know more than one young man in past years who worked for the ticket and was just overflowin' with patriotism, but when he was knocked out by the civil service humbug he got to hate his country and became an Anarchist.
This ain't no exaggeration.

I have good reason for sayin' that most of the Anarchists in this city today are men who ran up against civil service examinations.

Isn't it enough to make a man sour on his country when he wants to serve it and won't be allowed unless he answers a lot of fool questions about the number of cubic inches of water in the Atlantic and the quality of sand in the Sahara desert?
There was once a bright young man in my district who tackled one of these examinations.
The next I heard of him he had settled down in Herr Most's saloon smokin' and drinkin' beer and talkin' socialism all day.

Before that time he had never drank anything but whisky.

I knew what was comm' when a young Irishman drops whisky and takes to beer and long pipes in a German saloon.