THE FATE OF ICIODORUM. 219 
wall built up so high that no one could see out of 
the town, and then to have the top so beset with 
broken bottles that no one could climb over. A 
few of the extreme devotees of the Issoire idea 
wanted the surplus devoted to destroying the 
roads to Clermont, that all danger from the flood 
of cheap goods with which that city stood always 
ready to overwhelm Issoire would be removed 
forever. One of the Council even wished to use it 
for the permanent closing of all the city gates; for, 
as he said, “if we are good citizens we will have 
nothing to do with abroad.” 
But the private secretary of the mayor remarked 
that altogether too much had been said of this 
matter of surplus revenue. “It is a good deal 
easier,’ he remarked sagely, “to manage a sur- 
plus than a deficit.” Then the mayor said: “It 
is much better to have too much money than too 
little. That is what constitutes prosperity. I 
wouldn’t mind having a little surplus myself.” 
Then the Council laughed, and each one thought 
of what he could do with his share of the surplus, 
while they discussed some plans which looked 
toward an equitable distribution of it in places 
where it would do the most good. 
The workman Jacques, who was now a member 
of the Council, and who had been selected as the 
opposition candidate for mayor, rose and said: 
“This octroi stuff is all nonsense. It is a tax to 
make things higher, and it comes out of our 
pockets. That is why we are so poor. The 
mayor says that it is collected from the Clermont 
merchants. The mayor lies. What does a Cler- 
