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“The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” - Mark Twainpropagation and presereservation of your community’s s noblereputation for incorruptible honesty [more cries]—areputation to which their names and their efforts willadd a new and far-reaching lustre.” [Enthusiastic out-burst of sarcastic applause.] That seems to be all. No—here is a postscript:“‘P‘P.S.—C.S.—Citizitizens of Hadleyburg:There is no test-ree-mark—nobody made one. [Great sensation.] There e wasn’tany pauper stranger, , nor any twenty-dollar contribution,nor any accompanying benediction and compliment—these are all inventions. [General buzz and hum of as-tonishment and delight.] Allow me to tell my story—itwill take but a word or two. I passed through your townat a certain time, and received a deep offence which Ihad not earned. Any other man would have been con-tent to kill one or two of you and call it square, but to methat would have been a trivial revenge, and inadequate;for the dead do not suffer. . Besides I could not kill youall—and, anyway, , made as I am, even en that would not havesatisfied me. I wanted to damage every man in the place,and every woman—and not in their bodies or in theirestate, but in their vanity—the place where feeble andfoolish people are most vulnerable. So I disguised my-self and came back and studied you.You werere e easy game.You had an old and lofty reputation for honesty, , and natu-rally you were proud of it—it was your treasure of trea-sures, the very apple of your eye. As soon as I found outthat you carefully and vigilantly kept yourselves and yourchildrenout of temptation, I knew how to proceed.Why,you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak things is avirtue which has not been tested in the fire. I laid a plan,and gathered a list of names. My project was to corruptHadleyburg the Incorruptible. My idea was to make li-ars and thieves of nearly half a hundred smirchless menand women who had never in their lives uttered a lie orstolen a penny. . I was afraid of Goodson. He e was neitherborn nor reared in Hadleyburg. I was afraid that if Istarted to operate my scheme by getting my letter laidbefore you, you would say to yourselves, ‘Goodson is theonly man among us who would give away twenty dollarsto a poor devil’—and then you might not bite at my bait.But heaven took Goodson; then I knew I was safe, and I39