"I know it has talked."
"Did you ever hear it?"
"No, but my cousin did."
"Great Scott, man! you don"t know whether this is a Phonograph or a washing-machine; and I am certain it looks more like the latter. What are we going to do?"
He said he guessed we"d better give back the money and let them go.
"Yes, that would be a bright thing! Do you suppose I"d give back this money? Not much."
"Well, but we"ll have to. What can we do?"
"What can we do? Well sir, we"ve got to do something to entertain these people and hold their money, if you and I have to give them a double song and dance."
"My gracious, Johnston, I can"t dance!"
"But you have got to dance. I can"t dance either, but this is a "ground-hog case," and we"ve got to dance and sing too."
"I guess I"ll announce to them that you will favor them with a song and single clog, and then we will appear together."
As I stepped to the table I heard him say:
"I"ll take my hat and run!"
Then, stepping to the front, I said:
"Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you will be patient with us a few moments. The trouble is just this: We brought the Phonograph over here in an open wagon, and as the weather has been cold and damp, and we forgot to keep the thing blanketed, it took a severe cold, which seems to have settled on its lungs, rendering it unable to speak above a whisper. But with your kind indulgence we hope to doctor it up and be ready to give you a nice exhibition in a few moments."
Of course I expected our audience to laugh at and ridicule the idea of its taking cold, and was surprised that not a single person cracked a smile, but, on the contrary, every one seemed to gaze at the instrument with a look of sympathy.
When I returned to my partner, who was still trying to fix it, he was nervous and showed much agitation, and said:
"Oh, what a relief. I would have sunk through the floor if you had announced what you said you were going to."
"Do you think you can fix it?"
"It don"t look like it. Say, Johnston, suppose you deliver that lecture on Photography?"
"On Telegraphy, you mean."
"Oh yes, Telegraphy. Go ahead."
"But it won"t take three minutes to tell all I know about that."
"Well then, by Jove, we"ve got to give back the money."
"Not much! No giving back the money with me; and as I sold the tickets and have the cash, you can rely on that. You have got to do something to entertain these people. You can sing can"t you?"
"Indeed I can not."
"Can you whistle?"
"No, sir."
"Can you do anything? Can you speak a piece?"
"Johnston, if my life was at stake I couldn"t do a thing! ---- the old talking machine anyhow! I wish--"
"Say, I"ll tell you what we"ll do. I"ll announce to them that the Phonograph is too sick to talk, and will give them a choice of three things: Either a lecture on Phrenology or Telegraphy, or an imitation of a Yankee peddler selling his wares at auction; and the moment I say "auction" you look up and begin to laugh and clap your hands and say, "Johnston, give them the Yankee peddler; that"s the best of all.""
He agreed, and when I made the announcement he had no sooner carried out my instructions than the whole house cried as with one voice:
"Yes, yes, give us the Yankee peddler!"
Then I felt relieved and knew we had them. I then explained that Yankee peddlers usually carried handkerchiefs, sox, hosiery, shears, shoe-laces, suspenders, soap, pencils, pins, razors, knives, etc., and if some one of the crowd would name any article, I would go through the formality of selling it on the down east Dutch auction style.
A lad sitting near me on a front seat cried out:
"Here, Mister, play you are selling my knife," and reaching out and taking it in my hand, after making a few preliminary remarks, I began with the tw.a.n.g of the almost extinct down east Yankee, and in a high-pitched voice and at lightning speed, rattled off:
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, the first article I am going to offer for your inspection is a fine silver-steel blade knife with a mother-of-pearl handle, bra.s.s lined, round-joint tapped and riveted tip top and bottom a knife made under an act of Congress at the rate of thirty-six dollars per dozen there is a blade for every day in the week and a handle for your wife to play with on Sunday it will cut cast-iron steam steel wind or bone and will stick a hog frog toad or the devil and has a spring on it like a mule"s hind leg and sells in the regular way for--"
I then went on with my usual plan of selling, and introduced the endless variety of sayings and jokes which I had been two years manufacturing and collecting, and then went on through the whole list of Yankee notions, giving my full description of everything, to the great satisfaction of my audience and the surprise of my partner, who was in ignorance of the fact of my ever having been in the auction business.
I kept this up for over two hours and kept the crowd laughing almost constantly. This, I considered, was about as much as any show could do, and felt that I was not only ent.i.tled to their money, but that I had struck quite a novel way of utilizing my knowledge of auctioneering.
After closing the entertainment the people gathered around, and many of them wanted me to stay in the neighborhood and deliver a lecture the next night on Phrenology. But as we were billed at Elkhart for that date, it was impossible to do so. We remained over night with the school director, and the next morning he requested me to delineate the character of his son by an examination of his head.
I had always been interested in the study of human nature, and consequently had taken considerable pains to read up and post myself on Physiognomy. I had a fair knowledge of temperaments, and altogether was enabled to pa.s.s fair judgment on the lad. While I hadn"t the slightest knowledge of Phrenology, I was more or less familiar with the terms used by them, such as benevolence, veneration, firmness, self-esteem, approbativeness, caution, combativeness, ideality, etc., etc., and began at once to delineate the boy"s character.
When I placed my fingers on the front part of the boy"s head and looked wise, saying "large combativeness," the father said:
"Great Caesar! do you locate combativeness in the front of the head?"
"Who in thunder said it was in the front of the head?"
"But you put your fingers on the front part of the head."
"Yes, possibly so, but if I did my thumb was at the same time resting on the b.u.mp of combativeness. My gracious, any one knows where that is!"
This satisfied him, and the whole family were delighted with the boy"s prospects when I had finished.
We were then ready to leave, and when I asked how much our bill would be, he said he guessed two dollars would be about right, and then inquired what my charges would be for examining the boy"s head. I told him two dollars and a half was the usual price, but we"d call it square on our board bill. He said he thought it would be about right to call it even.
My partner thought it the most wonderful thing he had ever heard of that I should be able to jump up before that large crowd of people, as I did the night before, and conjure up such a lot of talk on notions, and he couldn"t see how I did it. He said he believed I was inspired.
On our return to Elkhart we divided our cash and dissolved partnership.