From the Minutes

An orator, afflicted with atrophy of the organ of common sense, rose in his place in the halls of legislation and proudly pointed to his Unblotted Escutcheon. However, when he noticed what he presumed to be the finger of scorn directed at it, the Unblotted Escutcheon turned black with rage.

Seeing the Unblotted Escutcheon change color, the orator became convinced that the darkening was the result of his own misdeeds showing through the whitewash. Overcome with mortification, he fell dead on the floor. His colleagues, witnessing the orator's collapse and interpreting it as another case of atrophy of the organ of common sense, resolved that whenever they adjourned out of fatigue, it would be done in respect for the memory of the man who had so often made them weary.