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Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 6
Public Opinion and
Political Socialization
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
The six learning outcomes below are designed to help improve your understanding of this
chapter. After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
❑ Learning Outcome 1: Define public opinion, consensus, and divided opinion.
❑ Learning Outcome 2: Discuss major sources of political socialization, including the
family, schools, the media, and political events.
❑ Learning Outcome 3: Identify the effects of various influences on voting behavior,
including party identification, education, income, religion, race, and geography.
❑ Learning Outcome 4: Describe the characteristics of a scientific opinion poll, and list
some of the problems pollsters face in obtaining accurate results.
❑ Learning Outcome 5: Evaluate the impact of new technologies on opinion polling.
❑ Learning Outcome 6: Consider the effect that public opinion may have on the
political process.
 SUMMARY OVERVIEW
1. Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion
of the adult population. A consensus exists when a large proportion of the public appears
to express the same view on an issue. Divided opinion exists when the public holds
widely different attitudes on an issue. Sometimes, a poll shows a distribution of opinion
indicating that most people either have no information about an issue or are not interested
enough in the issue to form a position on it.
2. People’s opinions are formed through the political socialization process. Important
factors in this process are the family, educational experiences, peer groups, opinion
leaders, the media, and political events. The influence of the media as a socialization
factor may be growing relative to the influence of the family. Party identification is one
of the most important indicators of voting behavior. Voting behavior is also influenced by

68 Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
demographic factors, such as education, economic status, religion, race and ethnicity,
gender, and geographic region. Finally, voting behavior is influenced by election-specific
factors, such as perception of the candidates and issue preferences.
3. Most descriptions of public opinion are based on the results of opinion polls. The
accuracy of polls depends on sampling techniques. An accurate poll includes a
representative sample of the population being polled and ensures randomness in the
selection of respondents.
4. Problems with polls include sampling error, the difficulty in obtaining a truly
representative sample, the issue of whether responses are influenced by the phrasing and
order of questions asked, the use of a yes/no format for answers to the questions, and the
interviewer’s techniques. Many people are concerned about the use of push polls (in
which the questions “push” the respondent toward a particular candidate). “Polls” that
rely on self-selected respondents are inherently inaccurate and should be discounted.
5. Advances in technology have changed polling techniques over the years. During the
1970s, telephone polling became widely used. Today, largely because of extensive
telemarketing, people often refuse to answer calls, and nonresponse rates in telephone
polling have skyrocketed. Many poll takers also fail to include cell phone users. Due to
the difficulty of obtaining a random sample in the online environment, Internet polls
are often “nonpolls.” Whether Internet polling can overcome this problem remains to
be seen.
6. Public opinion affects the political process in many ways. The political culture provides a
general environment of support for the political system, allowing the nation to weather
periods of crisis. The political culture also helps Americans to evaluate their
government’s performance. At times, the level of trust in government has been relatively
high. At other times, the level of trust has declined steeply. Similarly, Americans’
confidence in government institutions varies over time, depending on a number of
circumstances. Generally, though, Americans turn to government to solve what they
perceive to be the major problems facing the country. In 2012, Americans ranked the
economy and unemployment as the two most significant problems facing the nation.
7. Public opinion also plays an important role in policymaking. Although polling data show
that a majority of Americans would like policy leaders to be influenced to a great extent
by public opinion, politicians cannot always be guided by opinion polls. This is because
the respondents often do not understand the costs and consequences of policy decisions
or the trade-offs involved in making such decisions. How issues are framed has an
important influence on popular attitudes.
 CHAPTER OUTLINE
In the United States and other democracies, people possess a variety of ways by which they can
communicate their opinions to government officials and others. In turn, officials recognize the
importance of public opinion, and often change policy (or have their positions bolstered) based on
public opinion. Although in some cases public opinion is clear and decisive, oftentimes it is
murky. In addition, the very policymakers who must also respond to it can shape public opinion;
i.e., government officials do play a role in political socialization and often shape public opinion
on a variety of issues.

Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Socialization 69
 What If … SCIENTIFIC OPINION POLLING HAD NEVER BEEN
INVENTED?
Today, opinion polls use representative random sampling in an effort to make
accurate predictions. Before the development of scientific polling, newspapers
carried predictions based on the latest betting odds. Researchers at the University
of Iowa created the Iowa Electronic Markets in an effort to compare the
outcomes of legalized betting to scientific polling. It turns out that the Iowa
electronic markets are a good predictor of election outcomes.
I. Defining Public Opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion
of adults. Private opinion becomes public opinion when an individual takes some type of
action to express an opinion to others publicly. We can look to the distribution of public
opinion to determine how divided the public is on any given issue. When there is general
agreement on an issue, there is said to be a consensus. When opinions are polarized
between two quite different positions, there is divided opinion.
II. How Public Opinion Is Formed: Political Socialization
Political socialization is the process by which individuals acquire political beliefs
and values.
A. Models of Political Socialization
The interactions an individual has with others have a major impact on the
formation of individual opinion.
B. The Family and the Social Environment
The importance of the family is paramount in the development of individual
opinion. Political attitudes begin to develop in children and the major influence
on these early values is the family.
 Politics and Social Media: ONE BILLION PEOPLE CAN’T BE WRONG
Facebook, My Space, You Tube and so many others have created a digital
generation with the Internet serving as a gateway to online and offline political
and civic commitment. Social media plays a major role in election campaigns
and raising awareness about political and social issues. Can Twitter predict who
is going to win an election? Some political scientists think so.
1. Education as a Source of Political Socialization. Educational influence
on political opinions is also important. Education introduces individuals
to ideas outside of the home and outside of the local community. These
new ideas may influence the individual to accept opinions that are
different from those of the parents.
2. Peers and Peer Group Influence. These also have an impact on opinion
formation. As people interact with others in school, or at work, or in
social activities, various values come into play. These values can
influence how opinions are formed.
3. Opinion Leaders’ Influence. Leaders, both formal and informal, also
tend to shape the opinions of the public. Formal leaders include political
leaders like the president, governors, and members of Congress. Formal
leaders make a conscious effort to shape the opinions of the public.
Informal leaders may not necessarily attempt to shape the political
opinions of the public, but they still exert an influence on opinion

formation. Examples of informal leaders are teachers, religious leaders,
and civic leaders.
C. The Impact of the Media
The media also play a significant role in the political socialization. The media
present information on important political topics. How topics are presented and
which topics are presented have a major impact on opinion formation.
1. Popularity of the Media. The influence of media has grown equal to
that of family. This trend may influence the public debate in the future.
2. The Impact of the New Media. To a certain extent, new forms of media
have supplanted newspapers and broadcast networks. It appears that talk
radio, cable news, and blogs strengthen the beliefs of their viewers rather
than change them. Social networking sites are organized around peer
groups rather than around political viewpoint and may have a moderating
influence on their participants.
D. The Influence of Political Events
Political events can produce a long-lasting impact on opinion formation. An
important example was the impact of the Great Depression on people who came
of age in that period. We call such an impact a generational effect. While it is
likely that the events of September 11, 2001 will play an important role in the
political socialization of young Americans, it is still unclear what this impact
will be.
1. Historical Events. These events cause voters to form lifelong
attachments to a party such as the Great Depression and the support for
Franklin Roosevelt or the Watergate break-in and the cynicism
toward government.
2. The Political Mood. There is a proposition that the public mood swings
in a more liberal direction when the federal government is successful and
in a conservative direction when there are perceived government failures.
The public appears to drift toward the left during a period of conservative
policies and to the right when more liberal policies are introduced.
III. Political Preferences and Voting Behavior
The candidates and political parties that individuals decide to support are influenced in
part by party identification and certain demographic and socioeconomic factors. Because
of the relationship between various groups and voting behavior, campaign managers
often target particular groups when creating campaign advertising.
A. Party Identification and Demographic Influences
Demographic traits exert a major influence over the development of
one’s opinion.
• Party Identification. With the possible exception of race, party ID has
been the most important determinant of voting behavior in national
elections. Family, peers, generational effects, the media, and assessments
of candidates and issues influence it. In the mid to late 1960s party
affiliation began to weaken and the percentage of the electorates who
identify as independents increased to about thirty percent of all voters.
1. Educational Achievement. The voting behavior of people with only a
high school education is quite close today to the electorate as a whole. In

the past, this group tended to favor the Democrats. For years, higher
education levels appeared to correlate with voting for Republican
candidates. Since 1992, however, voters with higher levels of education
have been voting increasingly Democratic, so that in the 2000 election,
these voters were nearly evenly divided between Al Gore and George W.
Bush. The reason seems to be that professionals (such as lawyers,
physicians, professors, etc.) are trending Democratic. Therefore, persons
with postgraduate degrees (necessary for many professionals) now often
vote Democratic. Businesspeople have remained strongly Republican,
however. Businesspeople are less likely to have postgraduate degrees,
which is why the population with only bachelors degrees continues to
appear to favor the Republicans.
2. Economic Status. Economic status and occupation appear to influence
political views. On issues of economic policy, individuals who have less
income tend to favor liberal policies, while individuals of the upper–
middle class favor conservative policies. On cultural issues the reverse
tends to be true. Those with less income are more conservative and those
with higher incomes are more liberal. Although there is no hard-and-fast
rule, normally the higher a person’s income, the more likely the person
will be to vote Republican. Manual laborers, factory workers, and
especially union members are more likely to vote Democratic.
3. Religious Denomination. Religious influence appears to have a
significant impact on the development of political opinions. For example,
the Jewish community is highly likely to vote for Democratic candidates.
Irreligious voters tend to be liberal on cultural issues, but to have
mixed stands on economic ones. A century ago, Catholics were often
Democrats and Protestants were often Republican, but little remains
of that tradition.
 Politics and Social Class: THE GROWING GAP
There may be a growing gap between socioeconomic classes in the United States.
Is there a growing class divide, fewer work opportunities, and the elite staying
within its own elite class? Is this creating a two-caste society?
4. Religious Commitment and Beliefs. The degree of religious
commitment, as measured by such actions as regular church attendance
is a major predictor of political attitudes among the Christian
denominations. Voters, who are devout, regardless of their church
affiliation, tend to vote Republican, while voters who are less devout are
more often Democrats. African Americans, who have been strongly
Democratic, are an exception to this trend. Evangelicals tend to be
cultural conservatives, but not necessarily economic conservatives.
5. Race and Ethnicity. In general, members of minority groups favor the
Democrats. African Americans do so by overwhelming margins.
Hispanics are voting Democratic by about two to one, though the Cuban-
American vote is strongly Republican. Asian Americans tend to support
the Democrats but often by narrow margins. However, Vietnamese
Americans are strongly Republican. Their anticommunist conservatism
originated with the communist victory in the Vietnam War. American
Muslims of Middle Eastern descent gave George Bush majority support

in 2000 based on shared cultural conservatism, but went heavily for John
Kerry in 2004 on the basis of civil liberties concerns.
6. The Hispanic Vote. In general, Hispanics favor Democratic candidates
over Republican candidates by 73 percent to 26 percent.
7. The Gender Gap. Key concept: gender gap, or the difference between
the percentage of women who vote for a particular candidate and the
percentage of men who vote for that candidate. Since 1980, women have
tended to give somewhat more support to Democratic candidates for
president, and men have given somewhat more support to the
Republicans. Women are more likely to oppose capital punishment and
the use of force abroad. They are also concerned about risks to the
environment and supportive of social welfare.
8. Geographic Region. The former solid Democratic South has crumbled
in national elections. Democrats tend to get support from the Northeast
and the West Coast. Republicans do well in the South, the Great Plains,
and the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps more important is residence—urban,
suburban, and rural. People in cities are typically liberal and Democratic,
while those who live in smaller communities tend to be conservative
and Republican.
B. Election-Specific Factors
1. Perception of the Candidates. The candidate who is more successful in
projecting an image that the public wants has a better chance of
winning the election. Typically, these traits have to do with character
(such as trustworthiness).
2. Issue Preferences. Although not as important as personality or image,
where a candidate stands on a given issue does have an impact on voters.
Economic issues are often the most important. Some voters may cast
votes based on their own economic interests, while others will vote based
on what is happening to the nation’s economy as a whole. In the last
several years, the Iraq war has emerged as a dominant issue, while
health care and immigration reform may also overshadow concerns
about the economy.
3. Perception of the 2012 Presidential Candidates.
IV. Measuring Public Opinion
A. The History of Opinion Polls
As early as the 1800s, the press conducted “straw polls.” Such polls are not an
accurate reflection of public opinion. The Literary Digest conducted the most
infamous of these in 1936. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in a landslide after the
poll conducted by the Digest had projected his defeat. The Digest’s sample was
not representative. In the 1930s, however, modern, relatively accurate polling
techniques were developed by George Gallup, Elmo Roper, and others. Survey
research centers were set up at several universities after World War II.
B. Sampling Techniques
1. The Principle of Randomness. A purely random sample will be
representative within the stated margin of error. For a poll to be random,
every person in the defined population has to have an equal chance of

being selected—the larger the sample of the population, the smaller the
margin of error. If a random sample, with a margin of error of plus or
minus 3 percent, reveals that 63 percent of the population favors a
reduction in spending for space exploration, then the actual number of
people favoring such a reduction is between 60 percent to 66 percent.
Making sure that your sample is random is a major task.
2. The Statistical Nature of Polling. Opinion poll numbers are reported as
specific numbers. Such precise figures can be misleading. It makes more
sense to consider the results of a particular question as a range of
numbers, not a single integer.
3. Sampling Error. Polling firms report the margin of error associated
with their results. Variations are called sampling errors. They follow
from the fact that the poll taker is examining a sample and not the
entire population.
Key concept: sampling error, or the difference between a sample’s
results and the true result if the entire population had been interviewed. It
can be dangerous if the sample is too small or if the polltakers do not
know how to correct for common biases in samples.
C. The Difficulty of Obtaining Accurate Results
Survey organizations usually interview about 1500 individuals to measure
national sentiment among roughly 200 million American adults. Their results
have a high probability of being correct—within a margin of three percentage
points—and they have had some notable successes in accurately predicting
election results.
1. Weighting the Sample. Polling firms correct for differences between the
sample and the public by adding extra “weight” to the responses of
underrepresented groups.
2. House Effects. A consistent difference in polling results between firms
is known as a house effect and is measured by comparing a firm’s results
with the average results of other poll takers. Some polling organizations
have ties to one of the major political parties and have house effects that
favor their parties.
3. How Accurate Are the Results? The major polling organizations have a
good record in predicting the outcome of presidential contests. It is more
difficult to conduct an accurate poll at the state level.
D. Additional Problems with Polls
1. Poll Questions. How a question is posed can affect the result. Yes/no
answers are a problem if the issue admits to shades of gray. Often,
people will attempt to please the interviewer.
2. Unscientific and Fraudulent Polls. Magazine or Web sites often solicit
responses from readers to unscientific polls. Other media outlets then
publicize the survey as if it were a scientific poll taken by reliable
pollsters such as Gallup or the New York Times. Consumers should
beware of these so-called polls. In some cases, they are designed to
deliberately mislead the public.
 2012 Elections: POLLING ACCURACY IN THE 2012 ELECTIONS

3. Push Polls. Push polls are not polls at all, but are attempts to spread
negative statements about a candidate by posing as a pollster and using
long questions containing information about the opposition. Both
candidates and advocacy groups use push polls.
V. Technology and Opinion Polls
A. The Advent of Telephone Polling
Telephone polling is far easier and less expensive than door-to-door polling, and
has become standard. (Years ago telephone polling could not be accurate because
many poor voters did not have phones.)
1. Telephone Polling Problems. In part because of its success, telephone
polling has now become problematic because so many entities conduct
“polls” and “market research.”
2. The Cell Phone Problem. Cell phone numbers are not included in
random-digit dialing programs.
B. Enter Internet Polling
1. How Representative Is the Internet? Harris, a widely respected polling
organization, has attempted to design Internet polls that assign weights to
respondents to achieve the equivalent of a random-sampled poll. Public
opinion experts argue that the Harris procedure violates the mathematical
basis of random sampling, but the Internet population is looking more
like the rest of America.
2. “Nonpolls” on the Internet. There are many unscientific straw polls on
the Internet. These nonpolls undercut the efforts of legitimate pollsters to
use the Internet scientifically.
VI. Public Opinion and the Political Process
A. Political Culture and Popular Opinion
Political culture can be described as a set of attitudes and ideas about the nation
and government. Certain shared beliefs about important values are considered the
core of American political culture. They bind the nation together despite its
highly diverse population. These values include liberty, equality, and property;
support for religion; and community service and personal achievement.
1. Political Culture and Support for Our Political System. General
popular belief that the presidential election of 2000 would be settled
fairly is an example of how a general sense of support for our political
system allows the nation to get through a crisis.
2. Political Trust. General levels of trust in government have gone up and
down. In the 1960s and 1970s, during the Vietnam War and Watergate
scandal, the level of trust in government declined steeply. Levels were
high right after 9/11 but have steadily declined since 2001.

B. Public Opinion About Government
It is clear that there is considerable ambivalence on the part of the public
regarding government and other national institutions. Recent data suggest that
trust in government peaked after 9/11 but fell back thereafter.
1. Confidence in Other Institutions. Confidence in the Supreme Court
also scores highly, while the media, Congress, labor unions, and business
come off more poorly.
2. The Most Important Problem. For a list of the nation’s most important
problems since 1983, see Table 6–2 of your textbook.
C. Public Opinion and Policymaking
If public opinion is important for democracy, then policymakers should be
responsive to public opinion. A groundbreaking study in the early 1990s suggests
that the national government is very responsive to the public’s demands. Policy
often changes in a direction consistent with public opinion; and when public
opinion changes dramatically, government policy is much more likely to follow
public attitudes.
1. Setting Limits on Government Action. Public opinion may be at its
strongest in preventing politicians from embracing highly unpopular
policies. To what degree should public opinion influence policymaking?
The general public believe that leaders should pay attention to popular
opinion, while policymakers themselves are less likely to believe this.
2. The Public versus the Policymakers. Polls indicate that whereas a
majority of the public feels that public opinion should have a great
deal of influence on policy, a majority of policy leaders hold the
opposite positions.
3. The Limits of Polling. There are differences of opinion between the
public and policymakers on this issue. Part of the difference stems from
one of the flaws of polling: poll questions largely ignore the context
within which most policy decisions take place; i.e., people are likely to
express opinions on many kinds of policies without being required to
consider the costs.
D. A Policy Example: Contraception Insurance
The Obama administration ruled that religious bodies such as churches that
opposed birth control in principle did not need to pay for health insurance plans
that covered contraception. Institutions such as hospitals and schools that
were owned or controlled by churches, however, would be required to
provide coverage.
1. The Controversy. Religious bodies, including the Catholic Church,
denounced the Obama decision. Defenders argued that exempting
religiously owned hospitals and schools from the mandate would
mean that employers could force their own religious principles on
their employees.
2. Public Opinion and the Controversy. It was unclear whether the
question posed was on religious freedom or whether the question was
about the right of women to adequate health care.

 Which Side Are You On? DO WE REALLY NEED TO SPEND MORE
MONEY ON SCHOOLS?
Is spending on schools already high enough or have school systems already
suffered too many cuts?
 Why Should You Care About … POLLS AND PUBLIC OPINION?
Successful political participation depends on knowing what fellow citizens are
thinking, and polls can give insight into this. Poll results flood news reports at
critical political times (such as elections), but not all polls are equally reliable. It
is important to consider the source and techniques of a poll before giving
credence to its results. The veracity of many polls has to be taken with a grain of
salt. For example, in many polls the samples are far from random and the
margins of error are much greater than published. How a question is phrased
can change the outcome dramatically, such as with “loaded questions.” False
precision represented by incredibly detailed results can also make
predictions difficult.
 E-mocracy: ONLINE POLLING AND POLL DATA
This feature provides information on polling organizations and links to
polling data.
 LECTURE LAUNCHERS
1. Ask students (who wish to volunteer) to analyze how they have been socialized
politically. Compare and contrast the socialization of students with different
backgrounds. What differences and similarities are there between these individuals?
2. A major concern for many Americans appears to be a lack of confidence in political
leaders and a decline in trust of government. An example of how big this problem has
become is the lack of participation in elections. Typically, only about half of the adult
population participates in presidential elections and even less in non-presidential
elections. However, we saw a change during the 2008 presidential election. The influence
of the media and media stars and the impact of the Internet, blogs, and YouTube created a
greater interest in politics and a larger voter turnout.
3. Voter turnout significantly increased in the 2008 presidential election, particularly among
the young. Ask students why they believe this election inspired the young people’s vote
and then to examine whether it continued in the 2012 presidential election. Why or
why not?
4. Ask students to identify in class their preconceived notions about opinion polling in
detail. Their beliefs, (correct and incorrect) about the nature of the process are the key to
explaining the actual science of measuring public opinion. Some students will say they do
not believe the polls. Others will say they do follow them but in class will not be able to
demonstrate that they understand the difference between reputable polls and mechanisms
that masquerade as polls. Once the mechanics of quality opinion polls have been
demonstrated and the myths debunked, ask students to discuss why accurate polling of
public opinion is important.

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5. Ask students to devise a way to measure public opinion on their campus with a topic like,
“Should the legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages be raised to twenty-five”? Would a
quota poll be accurate? How could a random sample be used?
6. In the text, we discovered the political preferences and voting behavior of the various
demographic groups in America. Based on recent shifts in the demographic profile of the
country as a whole, ask students to combine this information with what they now
understand about the voting behavior of groups and predict election outcomes for the
major parties based on party identification in 2012, 2022, and 2032. One suggestion for
task design is to assign students into small groups and have them chart the various
demographic groups. Students can then make predictions as to which groups will grow
and which will shrink in order to gather data to make their election predictions.
 IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. In a roundtable discussion with students, ask what role the social media played for each
of them in the 2012 election. How influential was Facebook or Twitter or YouTube?
2. Have students gather data from the 2012 election and analyze the results in class in terms
of gender, education, economics, race, and other demographic factors.
3. Break students into groups of four or five. Assign each group a news channel to watch re
“one specific story.” Have groups report back to class on what they learned about the
story in order to analyze how our media may or may not put its own “spin” on a story.
 KEY TERMS
agenda setting Determining which public-policy questions will be debated or considered.
consensus General agreement among the citizenry on an issue.
divided opinion Public opinion that is polarized between two quite different positions.
Fairness Doctrine A Federal Communications Commission rule enforced between 1949 and
1987 that required radio and television to present controversial issues in a manner that
was (in the commission’s view) honest, equitable, and balanced.
framing Establishing the context of a polling question or a media report. Framing can mean
fitting events into a familiar story or activating preconceived beliefs.
gender gap The difference between the percentage of women who vote for a particular candidate
and the percentage of men who vote for the candidate.
generational effect The long-lasting effect of the events of a particular time on the political
opinions of those who came of political age at that time.
house effect In public opinion polling, an effect in which one polling organization’s results
consistently differ from those reported by other poll takers.
media The channels of mass communication.
opinion leader One who is able to influence the opinions of others because of position,
expertise, or personality.

opinion poll A method of systematically questioning a small, selected sample of respondents
who are deemed representative of the total population.
peer group A group whose members share common social characteristics. These groups play an
important part in the socialization process, helping to shape attitudes and beliefs.
political socialization The process by which people acquire political beliefs and values.
political trust The degree to which individuals express trust in the government and political
institutions, usually measured through a specific series of survey questions.
public opinion The aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion of the
adult population.
sampling error The difference between a sample’s results and the true result if the entire
population had been interviewed.
socioeconomic status The value assigned to a person due to occupation or income. An upper-
class person, for example, has high socioeconomic status.
Watergate break-in The 1972 illegal entry into the Democratic National Committee offices by
participants in President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign.
 WEB LINKS
One of the most well-known of the many polling organizations: (http://www.gallup.com/)
A self-described nonpartisan fact tank that provides information on the issues, attitudes and
trends: (http://pewresearch.org/
An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion:
(http://www.pollingreport.com/)
A daily tracking poll of public opinion on a variety of issues:
(http://www.rasmussenreports.com/)
A summary of 2012 primary election polling results:
(http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/elections/)
 INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Bishop, Bill. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart.
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. PRINT. Jam-packed with polling data, Bishop’s book argues
that we have clustered into like-minded communities as never before. Results include political
polarization and an inability to understand Americans of different backgrounds or beliefs.
Fiorina, Morris P., with Samuel J. Adams and Jeremy C. Pope. Culture War? The Myth of a
Polarized America, 3rd ed. New York: Longman, 2010. PRINT. Fiorina and his colleagues use
polling data to argue that most Americans are politically moderate, even though our political
leaders are highly polarized. Topics include abortion, same-sex marriage, school prayer, and gun
control. A new chapter in this edition analyzes the 2008 elections.
Lakoff, George. The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics.
New York: Penguin, 2009. PRINT. Lakoff is one of the nation’s leading experts on framing and

other political thought processes. Lakoff’s liberal politics may annoy conservative readers, but his
theories are not dependent on his ideology.
Sniderman, Paul M., and Edward H. Stiglitz. The Reputational Premium: A Theory of Party
Identification and Policy Reasoning. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 2012. PRINT. Two political
scientists argue that the policy positions of the major political parties are more important in
making up voters’ minds than are the policies of individual candidates.
MEDIA RESOURCES
Purple State of Mind—A 2009 film, in which two old friends, college roommates, take different
political roads—one left, the other right. They meet again and explore their differences.
Wag the Dog—A 1997 film that provides a very cynical look at the importance of public opinion.
The film, which features Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, follows the efforts of a
presidential political consultant who stages a foreign policy crisis to divert public opinion from a
sex scandal in the White House.

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ILLINOIS STATE BUILDING.
The stories told at the Folk-Lore Society at their next gathering
were interesting. A delegate from Washington related tales of the
Puget Sound Indians; and Mr. Marlowe, as a picture of early Boston
superstitions, read the classic tale, by America’s early story-writer,
entitled, “The Devil and Tom Walker.” A Rhode Islander related a
story which was an historical picture of the early days of his own
State.
PUGET SOUND INDIANS.
The saddest sight in the streets of the young cities of Puget
Sound, is the remnant of the great tribes of Indians who once
possessed the land. These descendants of the ancient forest
kings and warriors come wandering from their reservations into
Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia in blankets and moccasins, in
yellow paint and rags.

They crouch down in the shadows of alley-ways and street
corners, and wonder at all the strange progress that is going on
around them. Every passer-by reminds them of their inferiority.
Or, borne into the noisy town on his little Cayuse pony, the
dusky pensioner of a vanishing race ambles his way along, amid
crowding vehicles and electric cars, and vaguely comprehends
that the steam whistle has forever drowned the war-whoop of
the old forest days.
Wherever he goes he sees the giant trees, two hundred feet
high, with trunks so large that a house might be made within
them, tumbling around him beneath the axe, the blasting
powder and fire. Even the stumps vanish as the domes and
spires and flagstaffs rise.
It is all going, the romantic and heroic barbarism; it will soon
be gone, and become a painter’s dream and a poet’s legend.
The old Snohomish tribe still lingers amid the valleys of the
snow-crowned mountains, as do the Spokanes and the Nez
Perces. The tribes of the Walla Wallas and Wallulas or Walloas
fall like leaves, bequeathing to the system which succeeds them
only their poetic names. The Yakimas still hold a considerable
territory, as do the Klickitats. But one fate awaits them all. Their
feet vanish wherever the white man builds his road.
The savage traits and evil dispositions of these Indian races
have long been the subject of sensational writing. Let us speak
of what was and is noble in them,—as a Schoolcraft or a
Longfellow would see them. If the new country is filled with
legends of their ignorance and barbarism, it is also full of
beautiful stories of their gratitude, fidelity, and benevolence.
“Why does not the wonderful city of Seattle in some way
pension the daughter of old Seattle, the chief?” I once asked a
wealthy ex-mayor of that city. “She is a beggar in the streets.”
“Oh,” said the millionnaire, “it would do her no good. She
would give it all away to her own people. Give her fifty dollars

to-day, and she would have nothing to-morrow.”
The reply gave me a feeling of respect for poor old Angeline,
the rag-picking princess of Seattle.
WOMAN’S BUILDING.
Among the homesteading pioneers, there came to the great
timber lands a New England family by the name, we will say, of
Brewster, as it is a good one. The young people had a battle
with the great pines and firs and the bears, and with a clearing.
They had a rich aunt in old Massachusetts; and as young
Brewster was her favorite, she decided to come and make her
home with him.
She was a benevolent old lady, such as are to be found in all
the village churches of New England. Her first concern, upon
arriving in the new country, was to find a way to invest a part of
her money in missionary enterprises.

She saw an Indian graveyard in the trees. Then she met some
Flatheads, and was at once happy in the thought that a special
providence had directed her here, as a pioneer in a mission
field.
She secured as a first pupil an Indian by the name of Curley.
Finding that he and his family lived in a tent of skins, she
thought that she would build for him a house, and promised him
that she would go and visit him when it was completed.
“What kind of a house would you like to have, Curley?” she
asked, one day after he had been especially teachable.
“Oh, a white house like the Great Father’s at Washington.”
“Aunt Boston” gave Curley one hundred dollars to build a
white house, and he rode away delighted, on his little Cayuse
horse.
Weeks passed; Christmas came, and good Aunt Boston
thought that she would ride over to the reservation and surprise
Curley in the new white house, which she had not yet seen. The
thought greatly pleased her, as Curley had told her that he was
raising a Cayuse colt as a present for her.
So she set out on Christmas morning in a mountain wagon.
The air was clear and warm, for the Puget Sound atmosphere is
an almost continuous springtime. The tops of the giant firs were
filled with sunlight instead of snow. Here and there a deer
bounded across the way.
She came at last to a clearing, and saw the white house.
There was no mistaking it. Close by was a tent of skins, which
she took to be the former habitation of Curley. She rode up to
the white house. The window was open.
The rattle of the wheels had caused a commotion in the
interesting place. A pretty Cayuse colt put his head out of the
window of the white house, and Curley at the same time
opened the fold of the tent.

Aunt Boston was quite outdone in her plan of benevolence.
Curley had made the white house a stable for her colt, and was
as happy as she in his plans of benevolence and charity.
An Episcopal missionary recently told me, to his own
disadvantage, the following story, which illustrates the same
generous trait in the Puget Sound Indians:—
“There once came to the mission station on a visit an old
Christian Indian, and he continued to make the mission his
home. In my early work in the territory I had lived with him,
and had found him very brotherly and benevolent. He had
shared everything with me.
“A month or more passed, and as he gave me no hint of
departure, and did nothing toward the support of himself or the
cause, I said to him,—
“‘Mountain Pine, you have been here two moons; how much
longer do you intend to stay?’
“‘It may be one week, it may be one month, it may be one
year, it may be one life.’
“‘But, Mountain Pine, the Good Book says that if a man do not
work, neither shall he eat.’
“Mountain Pine rose slowly, and drew his blanket around him.
He raised his arm and pointed to the chapel.
“‘Do you wah-wah over there?’
“‘Yes, you know, Mountain Pine, there is where I worship.’
“‘Brother, you wah-wah over there. You came a stranger to
me in my cabin. I say, “You have half; you may stay one week,
you may stay one moon, you may stay one year, you may stay
one life. I hunt and give you half my venison.” I come to your
cabin. You say, “How long you stay?” You say, “You go work!”’
“‘You wah-wah over there. You heap wah-wah, but you no
good!’

“He drew his blanket closer around him, and majestically
strode out of the house, and I never saw Mountain Pine again.”
The favorite chiefs of the early settlers were Seattle and Pat
Keanim, of the Snoqualmees. Seattle was appointed chief by a
territorial governor, but Pat Keanim had the heart of his people.
He espoused the cause of the pioneers and fought for them,
and though often distrusted, was true in the dark days of the
war. He had a poetic and really beautiful face.
The hop harvest in the Puyallup valley yearly gathers the
Indians there, as they used to meet, according to the old
legend, in the happy valley of the Olympic mountains. The
harvest begins in August, and lasts a month.
The days are bright, and at night the moon hangs clear over
the waters. Working people, young and old, Indians, Chinese,
white people, black people, every one desiring much money for
light work, congregate here.
All is gay and happy. The nights are festivals. Hither the
Indians come on Cayuse horses and in canoes. Their boats fill
the harbors. And here the dying races renew their primitive life.

CHINESE THEATRE.
THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER
A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep
inlet winding several miles into the interior of the country from
Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp, or
morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on
the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water’s edge,
into a high ridge, on which grow a few scattered oaks of great
age and immense size. It was under one of these gigantic trees,
according to old stories, that Kidd, the pirate, buried his
treasure. The inlet allowed a facility to bring the money in a
boat secretly, and at night, to the very foot of the hill. The
elevation of the place permitted a good look-out to be kept, that
no one was at hand; while the remarkable trees formed good
landmarks by which the place might easily be found again. The
old stories add, moreover, that the devil presided at the hiding
of the money, and took it under his guardianship; but this, it is

well known, he always does with buried treasure, particularly
when it has been ill gotten. Be that as it may, Kidd never
returned to recover his wealth,—being shortly after seized at
Boston, sent out to England, and there hanged for a pirate.
About the year 1727, just at the time when earthquakes were
prevalent in New England, and shook many tall sinners down
upon their knees, there lived near this place a meagre, miserly
fellow of the name of Tom Walker. He had a wife as miserly as
himself; they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat
each other. Whatever the woman could lay hands on she hid
away; a hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure
the new-laid egg. Her husband was continually prying about to
detect her secret hoards, and many and fierce were the conflicts
that took place about what ought to have been common
property. They lived in a forlorn-looking house, that stood alone,
and had an air of starvation. A few straggling savin-trees,
emblems of sterility, grew near it; no smoke ever curled from its
chimney; no traveller stopped at its door. A miserable horse,
whose ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron, stalked
about a field where a thin carpet of moss, scarcely covering the
ragged beds of pudding-stone, tantalized and balked his hunger,
and sometimes he would lean his head over the fence, look
piteously at the passer-by, and seem to petition deliverance
from this land of famine. The house and its inmates had
altogether a bad name. Tom’s wife was a tall termagant, fierce
of temper, loud of tongue, and strong of arm. Her voice was
often heard in wordy warfare with her husband; and his face
sometimes showed signs that their conflicts were not confined
to words. No one ventured, however, to interfere between
them: the lonely wayfarer shrunk within himself at the horrid
clamor and clapper-clawing, eyed the den of discord askance,
and hurried on his way, rejoicing, if a bachelor, in his celibacy.
One day that Tom Walker had been to a distant part of the
neighborhood, he took what he considered a short cut
homewards, through the swamp. Like most short cuts, it was an

ill-chosen route. The swamp was thickly grown with great
gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high,
which made it dark at noon-day, and a retreat for all the owls of
the neighborhood. It was full of pits and quagmires, partly
covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often
betrayed the traveller into a gulf of black smothering mud; there
were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the tadpole,
the bull-frog, and the water-snake, and where trunks of pines
and hemlocks lay half drowned, half rotting, looking like
alligators sleeping in the mire.
Tom had long been picking his way cautiously through this
treacherous forest,—stepping from tuft to tuft of rushes and
roots which afforded precarious footholds among deep sloughs;
or pacing carefully, like a cat, along the prostrate trunks of
trees,—startled now and then by the sudden screaming of the
bittern, or the quacking of a wild duck, rising on the wing from
some solitary pool. At length he arrived at a piece of firm
ground, which ran out like a peninsula into the deep bosom of
the swamp. It had been one of the strongholds of the Indians
during their wars with the first colonists. Here they had thrown
up a kind of fort which they had looked upon as almost
impregnable, and had used as a place of refuge for their squaws
and children. Nothing remained of the Indian fort but a few
embankments gradually sinking to the level of the surrounding
earth, and already overgrown in part by oaks and other forest
trees, the foliage of which formed a contrast to the dark pines
and hemlocks of the swamp.
It was late in the dusk of evening that Tom Walker reached
the old fort; and he paused there for a while to rest himself. Any
one but he would have felt unwilling to linger in this lonely
melancholy place,—for the common people had a bad opinion of
it from the stories handed down from the time of the Indian
wars, when it was asserted that the savages held incantations
here, and made sacrifices to the Evil Spirit. Tom Walker,

however, was not a man to be troubled with any fears of the
kind.
He reposed himself for some time on the trunk of a fallen
hemlock, listening to the boding cry of the tree-toad, and
delving with his walking-staff into a mound of black mould at his
feet. As he turned up the soil unconsciously, his staff struck
against something hard. He raked it out of the vegetable mould,
and lo! a cloven skull with an Indian tomahawk buried deep in
it, lay before him. The rust on the weapon showed the time that
had elapsed since this death-blow had been given. It was a
dreary memento of the fierce struggle that had taken place in
the last foothold of the Indian warriors.
“Humph!” said Tom Walker, as he gave the skull a kick to
shake the dirt from it.
“Leave that skull alone!” said a gruff voice.
Tom lifted up his eyes, and beheld a great black man, seated
directly opposite him on the stump of a tree. He was
exceedingly surprised, having neither seen nor heard any one
approach, and he was still more perplexed on observing, as well
as the gathering gloom would permit, that the stranger was
neither negro nor Indian. It is true, he was dressed in a rude
half-Indian garb, and had a red belt or sash swathed round his
body; but his face was neither black nor copper color, but
swarthy and dingy and begrimed with soot, as if he had been
accustomed to toil among fires and forges. He had a shock of
coarse black hair, that stood out from his head in all directions,
and he bore an axe on his shoulder.
He scowled for a moment at Tom with a pair of great red
eyes.
“What are you doing in my grounds?” said the black man,
with a hoarse growling voice.
“Your grounds?” said Tom, with a sneer; “no more your
grounds than mine,—they belong to Deacon Peabody.”

“Deacon Peabody be damned,” said the stranger, “as I flatter
myself he will be, if he does not look more to his own sins and
less to his neighbors’. Look yonder, and see how Deacon
Peabody is faring.” Tom looked in the direction that the stranger
pointed, and beheld one of the great trees, fair and flourishing
without, but rotten at the core, and saw that it had been nearly
hewn through, so that the first high wind was likely to blow it
down. On the bark of the tree was scored the name of Deacon
Peabody. He now looked round, and found most of the tall trees
marked with the name of some great men of the colony, and all
more or less scored by the axe. The one on which he had been
seated, and which had just been hewn down, bore the name of
Crowninshield; and he recollected a mighty rich man of that
name, who made a vulgar display of wealth, which it was
whispered he had acquired by buccaneering.
“He’s just ready for burning!” said the black man, with a growl
of triumph. “You see I am likely to have a good stock of
firewood for winter.”
“But what right have you,” said Tom, “to cut down Deacon
Peabody’s timber?”
“The right of prior claim,” said the other. “This woodland
belonged to me long before one of your white-faced Yankee
race of rascals put foot upon the soil.”
“And pray, who are you, if I may be so bold?” said Tom.
“Oh, I go by various names. I am the Wild Huntsman in some
countries; the Black Miner in others. In this neighborhood I am
known by the name of the Black Woodsman. I am he to whom
the red men devoted this spot, and now and then roasted a
white man by way of sweet-smelling sacrifice. Since the red
men have been exterminated by you white savages, I amuse
myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and
Anabaptists. I am the great patron and prompter of slave-
dealers, and the grand master of the Salem witches.”

“The upshot of all which is, that, if I mistake not,” said Tom,
sturdily, “you are he commonly called Old Scratch.”
“The name at your service!” replied the black man, with a
half-civil nod.
Such was the opening of this interview, according to the old
story, though it has almost too familiar an air to be credited.
One would think that to meet with such a singular personage in
this wild lonely place, would have shaken any man’s nerves; but
Tom was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted, and he had
lived so long with a termagant wife, that he did not even fear
the devil.
It is said that after this commencement, they had a long and
earnest conversation together, as Tom returned homewards.
The black man told him of great sums of money which had been
buried by Kidd the pirate, under the oak-trees on the high ridge
not far from the morass. All these were under his command and
protected by his power, so that none could find them but such
as propitiated his favor. These he offered to place in Tom
Walker’s reach, having conceived an especial kindness for him;
but they were to be had only on certain conditions. What these
conditions were, may be easily surmised, though Tom never
disclosed them publicly. They must have been very hard, for he
required time to think of them, and he was not a man to stick at
trifles where money was in view. When they reached the edge
of the swamp, the stranger paused.
“What proof have I that all you have been telling me is true?”
said Tom.
“There is my signature,” said the black man, pressing his
finger on Tom’s forehead. So saying, he turned off among the
thickets of the swamp, and seemed, as Tom said, to go down,
down, down, into the earth, until nothing but his head and
shoulders could be seen, and so on, until he totally disappeared.

When Tom reached home he found the black print of a finger
burnt, as it were, into his forehead, which nothing could
obliterate.
The first news his wife had to tell him was the sudden death
of Absalom Crowninshield, the rich buccaneer. It was announced
in the papers, with the usual flourish, that “a great man had
fallen in Israel.”
Tom recollected the tree which his black friend had just hewn
down, and which was ready for burning. “Let the freebooter
roast,” said Tom; “who cares!” He now felt convinced that all he
had heard and seen was no illusion.
He was not prone to let his wife into his confidence; but as
this was an uneasy secret, he willingly shared it with her. All her
avarice was awakened at the mention of hidden gold, and she
urged her husband to comply with the black man’s terms, and
secure what would make them wealthy for life. However Tom
might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil, he was
determined not to do so to oblige his wife; so he flatly refused,
out of the mere spirit of contradiction. Many and bitter were the
quarrels they had on the subject; but the more she talked, the
more resolute was Tom not to be damned to please her. At
length she determined to drive the bargain on her own account,
and if she succeeded, to keep all the gain to herself. Being of
the same fearless temper as her husband, she set off for the old
Indian fort toward the close of a summer’s day. She was many
hours absent. When she came back she was reserved and sullen
in her replies. She spoke something of a black man whom she
had met about twilight, hewing at the root of a tall tree. He was
sulky, however, and would not come to terms; she was to go
again with a propitiatory offering; but what it was she forbore to
say. The next she set off again for the swamp, with her apron
heavily laden. Tom waited and waited for her, but in vain:
midnight came, but she did not make her appearance; morning,
noon, night returned, but still she did not come. Tom now grew

uneasy for her safety; especially as he found she had carried off
in her apron the silver tea-pot and spoons, and every portable
article of value. Another night elapsed, another morning came;
but no wife. In a word, she was never heard of more.
A FAMILY OF BERBERINES IN THE STREET OF CAIRO, MIDWAY.
What was her real fate nobody knows, in consequence of so
many pretending to know. It is one of those facts that have
become confounded by a variety of historians. Some assert that
she lost her way among the tangled mazes of the swamp, and
sunk into some pit or slough; others, more uncharitable, hinted
that she had eloped with the household booty, and made off to
some other province; while others assert that the Tempter had
decoyed her into a dismal quagmire, on top of which her hat
was found lying. In confirmation of this, it was said a great
black man, with an axe on his shoulder, was seen late that very

evening coming out of the swamp, carrying a bundle tied in a
check apron, with an air of surly triumph.
The most current and probable story, however, observes that
Tom Walker grew so anxious about the fate of his wife and his
property that he set out at length to seek them both at the
Indian fort. During a long summer’s afternoon, he searched
about the gloomy place, but no wife was to be seen. He called
her name repeatedly, but she was nowhere to be heard. The
bittern alone responded to his voice, as he flew screaming by;
or the bull-frog croaked dolefully from a neighboring pool. At
length, it is said, just in the brown hour of twilight, when the
owls began to hoot and the bats to flit about, his attention was
attracted by the clamor of carrion crows that were hovering
about a cypress-tree. He looked, and beheld a bundle tied in a
check apron, and hanging in the branches of the tree, with a
great vulture perched hard by, as if keeping watch upon it. He
leaped with joy, for he recognized his wife’s apron, and
supposed it to contain the household valuables.
“Let us get hold of the property,” said he, consolingly to
himself, “and we will endeavor to do without the woman.”
As he scrambled up the tree, the vulture spread its wide
wings, and sailed off screaming into the deep shadows of the
forest Tom seized the check apron, but, woful sight! found
nothing but a heart and liver tied up in it.
Such, according to the most authentic old story, was all that
was to be found of Tom’s wife. She had probably attempted to
deal with the black man as she had been accustomed to deal
with her husband; but though a female scold is generally
considered a match for the devil, yet in this instance she
appears to have had the worst of it. She must have died game,
however, from the part that remained unconquered. Indeed, it is
said Tom noticed many prints of cloven feet deeply stamped
about the tree, and several handfuls of hair, that looked as if
they had been plucked from the coarse black shock of the

woodsman. Tom knew his wife’s prowess by experience. He
shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the signs of a fierce
clapper-clawing. “Egad,” said he to himself, “Old Scratch must
have had a tough time of it!”
Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property by the loss
of his wife; for he was a little of a philosopher. He even felt
something like gratitude toward the Black Woodsman, who he
considered had done him a kindness. He sought, therefore, to
cultivate a further acquaintance with him, but for some time
without success: the old black legs played shy, for whatever
people may think, he is not always to be had for calling for; he
knows how to play his cards when pretty sure of his game.
At length, it is said, when delay had whetted Tom’s eagerness
to the quick, and prepared him to agree to anything rather than
not gain the promised treasure, he met the black man one
evening in his usual woodman dress, with his axe on his
shoulder, sauntering along the edge of the swamp, and
humming a tune. He affected to receive Tom’s advance with
great indifference, made brief replies, and went on humming his
tune.
By degrees, however, Tom brought him to business, and they
began to haggle about the terms on which the former was to
have the pirate’s treasure. There was one condition which need
not be mentioned, being generally understood in all cases
where the devil grants favors; but there were others about
which, though of less importance, he was inflexibly obstinate.
He insisted that the money found through his means should be
employed in his service. He proposed, therefore, that Tom
should employ it in the black traffic, that is to say, that he
should fit out a slave ship. This, however, Tom resolutely
refused; he was bad enough in all conscience, but the devil
himself could not tempt him to turn slave-dealer.
Finding Tom so squeamish on this point, he did not insist
upon it; but proposed instead that he should turn usurer,—the

devil being extremely anxious for the increase of usurers,
looking upon them as his peculiar people. To this no objections
were made, for it was just to Tom’s taste.
“You shall open a broker’s shop in Boston next month,” said
the black man.
“I’ll do it to-morrow, if you wish,” said Tom.
“You shall lend money at two per cent. a month.”
“Egad, I’ll charge four!” replied Tom Walker.
“You shall extort bonds, foreclose mortgages, drive the
merchant to bankruptcy—”
“I’ll drive him to the devil,” cried Tom, eagerly.
“You are the usurer for my money!” said the black legs, with
delight. “When will you want the rhino?”
“This very night.”
“Done!” said the devil.
“Done!” said Tom Walker. So they shook hands, and struck a
bargain.
A few days’ time saw Tom Walker seated behind his desk in a
counting-house in Boston. His reputation for a ready moneyed
man, who would lend money out for a good consideration, soon
spread abroad. Everybody remembers the days of Governor
Belcher, when money was particularly scarce. It was a time of
paper credit. The country had been deluged with government
bills; the famous Land Bank had been established; there had
been a rage for speculation; the people had run mad with
schemes for new settlements, and for building cities in the
wilderness; land-jobbers went about with maps of grants, and
townships, and Eldorados, lying nobody knew where, but which
everybody was ready to purchase. In a word, the great
speculating fever which breaks out every now and then in the
country, had raged to an alarming degree, and everybody was

dreaming of making sudden fortunes from nothing. As usual,
the fever had subsided; the dream had gone off,—and the
imaginary fortunes with it,—the patients were left in doleful
plight, and the whole country resounded with the consequent
cry of “hard times.”
At this propitious time of public distress did Tom Walker set
up as a usurer in Boston. His door was soon thronged with
customers. The needy and the adventurous, the gambling
speculator, the dreaming land-jobber, the thriftless tradesman,
the merchant with cracked credit,—in short, every one driven to
raise money by desperate means and desperate sacrifices,—
hurried to Tom Walker. Thus Tom was the universal friend of the
needy, and he acted like “a friend in need,”—that is to say, he
always exacted good pay and good security. In proportion to the
distress of the applicant was the hardness of his terms. He
accumulated bonds and mortgages, gradually squeezed his
customers closer and closer, and sent them at length dry as a
sponge from his door.
In this way he made money hand over hand, became a rich
and mighty man, and exalted his cocked hat upon ’Change. He
built himself a vast house out of ostentation, but left the greater
part of it unfinished and unfurnished out of parsimony. He even
set up a carriage in the fulness of his vain-glory, though he
nearly starved the horses which drew it; and as the ungreased
wheels groaned and screeched on the axle-trees, you would
have thought you heard the souls of the poor debtors he was
squeezing.
As Tom waxed old, however, he grew thoughtful. Having
secured the good things of this world, he began to feel anxious
about those of the next. He thought with regret on the bargain
he had made with his black friend, and set his wits to work to
cheat him out of the conditions. He became, therefore, all of a
sudden, a violent church-goer. He prayed loudly and
strenuously, as if Heaven were to be taken by force of lungs.

Indeed, one might always tell when he had sinned most during
the week, by the clamor of his Sunday devotion. The quiet
Christians who had been modestly and steadfastly travelling
Zionward, were struck with self-reproach at seeing themselves
so suddenly outstripped in their career by this new-made
convert. Tom was as rigid in religious as in money matters; he
was a stern supervisor and censurer of his neighbors, and
seemed to think every sin entered up to their account became a
credit on his own side of the page. He even talked of the
expediency of reviving the persecution of Quakers and
Anabaptists. In a word, Tom’s zeal became as notorious as his
riches.
Still, in spite of all this strenuous attention to forms, Tom had
a lurking dread that the devil, after all, would have his due. That
he might not be taken unawares, therefore, it is said he always
carried a small Bible in his coat pocket. He had also a great folio
Bible on his counting-house desk, and would frequently be
found reading it when people called on business; on such
occasions he would lay his green spectacles on the book to
mark the place, while he turned around to drive some usurious
bargain.
Some say that Tom grew a little crack-brained in his old days,
and that, fancying his end approaching, he had his horse new
shod, saddled, and bridled, and buried with his feet uppermost;
because he supposed that at the last day the world would be
turned upside down,—in which case he should find his horse
standing ready for mounting, and he was determined at the
worst to give his old friend a run for it. This, however, is
probably a mere old wives’ fable. If he really did take such a
precaution, it was totally superfluous; at least so says the
authentic old legend, which closes his story in the following
manner:
On one hot afternoon in the dog-days, just as a terrible black
thunder-gust was coming up, Tom sat in his counting-house in

his white linen cap and India silk morning-gown. He was on the
point of foreclosing a mortgage, by which he would complete
the ruin of an unlucky land-speculator, for whom he had
professed the greatest friendship. The poor land-jobber begged
him to grant a few months’ indulgence. Tom had grown testy
and irritated, and refused another day.
“My family will be ruined, and brought upon the parish,” said
the land-jobber.

MASONIC TEMPLE.
“Charity begins at home,” replied Tom; “I must take care of
myself in these hard times.”
“You have made so much money out of me,” said the
speculator.

Tom lost his patience and his piety. “The devil take me,” said
he, “if I have made a farthing!”
Just then there were three loud knocks at the street door. He
stepped out to see who was there. A black man was holding a
black horse, which neighed and stamped with impatience.
“Tom, you’re come for!” said the black fellow, gruffly. Tom
shrunk back, but too late. He had left his little Bible at the
bottom of his coat pocket, and his big Bible on the desk, buried
under the mortgage he was about to foreclose. Never was
sinner taken more unawares. The black man whisked him like a
child astride the horse, and away he galloped in the midst of a
thunder-storm. The clerks stuck their pens behind their ears,
and stared after him from the windows. Away went Tom Walker,
dashing down the streets, his white cap bobbing up and down,
his morning-gown fluttering in the wind, and his steed striking
fire out of the pavement at every bound. When the clerks
turned to look for the black man he had disappeared.
Tom Walker never returned to foreclose the mortgage. A
countryman who lived on the borders of the swamp, reported
that in the height of the thunder-gust he had heard a great
clattering of hoofs and a howling along the road, and that when
he ran to the window he just caught sight of a figure, such as I
have described, on a horse that galloped like mad across the
fields, over the hills and down into the black hemlock swamp
toward the old Indian fort; and that shortly after a thunder-bolt
fell in that direction, which seemed to set the whole forest in a
blaze.
The good people of Boston shook their heads and shrugged
their shoulders, but had been so much accustomed to witches
and goblins and tricks of the devil in all kinds of shapes from the
first settlement of the colony, that they were not so much
horror-struck as might have been expected. Trustees were
appointed to take charge of Tom’s effects. There was nothing,
however, to administer upon. On searching his coffers, all his

bonds and mortgages were found reduced to cinders. In place
of gold and silver, his iron chest was filled with chips and
shavings; two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his half-
starved horses; and the very next day his great house took fire
and was burnt to the ground.
Such was the end of Tom Walker and his ill-gotten wealth. Let
all griping money-brokers lay this to heart. The truth of it is not
to be doubted. The very hole under the oak-trees, from whence
he dug Kidd’s money, is to be seen to this day; and the
neighboring swamp and old Indian fort is often haunted in
stormy nights by a figure on horseback, in a morning-gown and
white cap, which is doubtless the troubled spirit of the usurer. In
fact, the story has resolved itself into a proverb, and is the
origin of that popular saying, prevalent throughout New
England, of “The Devil and Tom Walker.”
THE OLD SMOKE CHAMBER.
A PICTURE OF THE MOUNT HOPE LANDS, AND THEIR LEGENDS.
That the old Royall house was haunted had long been a
legend in the Mount Hope lands. Nearly all of the old houses in
this part of New England were haunted, or supposed to be. A
house without its ghost lore would have been regarded in old
colony days as a place of but little interest. Did not evil spirits
tempt all good people, and frighten all wrong-doers? And what
a colorless family that must have been to have been wholly
neglected by the ghost-world! All old women had their ghost-
stories, and not a few claimed that the “Prince of the Power of
the Air” had made them, or some of their antique relatives, a
special visit. There seems to have been few good spirits in those
lively and dramatic old times. The Puritan imagination had no
fairy-land, or Hebraic or mediæval angels. The telling of ghost-
stories to children was held to be a very wholesome and pious
occupation, but the relation of fairy tales would have been a sin.
No historian has overdrawn these colonial superstitions. Witches

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American Government and Politics Today Essentials 2013 â€“ 2014 17th Edition Bardes Solutions Manual

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American Government and Politics Today Essentials 2013 â€“ 2014 17th Edition Bardes Solutions Manual