“ The besom of reform has swept him out of office; and a worthier successor wears his dignity, and pockets his emoluments. ”
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850). copy citation

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“And here, some six months ago,—pacing from corner to corner, or lounging on the long-legged[7] stool, with his elbow on the desk, and his eyes wandering up and down the columns of the morning newspaper,—you might have recognized, honored reader, the same individual who welcomed you into his cheery little study, where the sunshine glimmered so pleasantly through the willow branches, on the western side of the Old Manse. But now, should you go thither to seek him, you would inquire in vain for the Locofoco Surveyor. The besom of reform has swept him out of office; and a worthier successor wears his dignity, and pockets his emoluments.
This old town of Salem—my native place, though I have dwelt much away from it, both in boyhood and maturer years—possesses, or did possess, a hold on my affections, the force of which I have never realized during my seasons of actual residence here.” source

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