ears."

The sewing societies attached to the churches afforded a fine field for these "frolickers." He concluded after a little that he could not learn to sing, get a teacher with more influence over me. half an octave behind or ahead."

"unless I can I am always

Some of his amusements had a serious purpose, and indicate his taste for public affairs. Such were reports of supposed town meetings on subjects of current interest and the holding of a "Pie Poudre Court"-Judge Colfax presiding-an old English court, whose sentences were executed on the spot. In this court his associates were prosecuted in regular form for alleged social offences-a kind of play that demands more wit and invention than most genuine legal proceedings. Of greater consequence, however, was a mock Legislature, which met weekly in the evening, preparing its business between sessions. There was one member for each county in the State. Dr. Leonard B. Rush was Speaker; Colfax was "the gentleman from Jasper," Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Engrossing Clerk. Topics of current interest were considered and acted upon by this body with all the seriousness and decorum of a real legislative House. The member from Jasper was one of a select committee, to which was referred a bill taxing the professions for the support of education. The committee reported against it; but Colfax, in a minority report, argued its justice and expediency so convincingly that the bill passed. "The farmer pays a heavy sum yearly," said he, "on his real estate and his personal property; while the lawyer and the doctor, authorized by law to collect fees for their services, and in the highway to office and power, pay merely on their books, assessed at about one fourth of their cost. The contrast between the burdens of the two classes is obvious. These gentlemen fill all the departments of government, and lay grievous burdens on the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer-to pay interest on the State debt, the expenses of the counties, to keep up the roads, build school-houses, and support education-which they themselves hardly turn a finger to help carry."