In The Night He Stole Her, Cut
Her Tail, Painted Her Legs White, Gave Her A "Blaze" On Her Face, Sold Her
For 100 Dollars, And Decamped, Sending A Note To The First Purchaser
Acquainting Him With The Particulars Of The Transaction.
"'Cute chap
that;" "A wide-awake feller;" "That coon had cut his eye-teeth;" "A smart
sell that;" were the comments made on this roguish transaction, all the
sympathy of the listeners being on the side of the rogue.
The stories related by Barnum of the tricks and impositions practised by
himself and others are a fair sample, so far as roguery goes, of those
which are to be heard in hotels, steamboats, and cars. I have heard men
openly boast, before a miscellaneous company, of acts of dishonesty which
in England would have procured transportation for them. Mammon is the idol
which the people worship; the one desire is the acquisition of money; the
most nefarious trickery and bold dishonesty are invested with a spurious
dignity if they act as aids to the attainment of this object. Children
from their earliest years imbibe the idea that sin is sin - only when
found out.
The breakfast bell rang, and a general rush took place, and I was left
alone with two young ladies who had just become acquainted, and were
resolutely bent upon finding out each other's likes and dislikes, with the
intention of vowing an eternal friendship. A gentleman who looked as if he
had come out of a ball-room came up, and with a profusion of bows
addressed them, or the prettiest of them, thus:
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