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and in the end succeeded in destroying all the inventions
that had been discovered for the preceding 271 years, a pe-
riod which was agreed upon by all parties after several years
of wrangling as to whether a certain kind of mangle which
was much in use among washerwomen should be saved or
no. It was at last ruled to be dangerous, and was just exclud-
ed by the limit of 271 years. Then came the reactionary civil
wars which nearly ruined the country, but which it would
be beyond my present scope to describe.

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