Digital heart book

" He kept an office for advertisers,
counselling, designing, acting as middleman with
printers and bill-stickers, for the inexperienced or
the uninspired: the dull haberdasher came to him for
ideas, the smart theatrical agent for his local
knowledge, and one and all departed with a copy of his
pamphlet, "How, When, and Where; or, The Advertiser's
Vade-Mecum." He had a tug chartered every Saturday
afternoon and night, carried people outside the Heads,
and provided them with lines and bait for six hours'
fishing, at the rate of five dollars a person. I am
told that some of them (doubtless adroit anglers) made
a profit on the transaction. Occasionally he bought
wrecks and condemned vessels; these latter (I cannot
tell you how) found their way to sea again under
aliases, and continued to stem the waves triumphantly
enough under the colours of Bolivia or Nicaragua.
Lastly, there was a certain agricultural engine,
glorying in a great deal of vermilion and blue paint,
and filling (it appeared) a "long-felt want," in which
his interest was something like a tenth.


Pages:
142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166