eorgia. He was doing the ballyho oration in front of a side wall circus
in a mellifluous style that was just dragging the tar heels up to the
entrance.

"'It's a little better than the Ohio gag,' says he, 'but I've seen
better, at that. I had a good paying faro outfit in Cincinnati since I
met you, but the police got sore because I wouldn't cut the takings in
what they considered the right place, so they closed me up.'

"During the next five years I met Cap. in every section of the country,
and handling various propositions. In San Francisco I caught him in the
act of selling toy balloons on a street corner; in Chicago he was
disposing of old line life insurance with considerable effect; at a
county fair, somewhere in Iowa, I ran across him as he gracefully
manipulated the shells.

"But Cap. did not break permanently into the show business until he
coupled up with the McClintock in Milwaukee. Mac was an Irish
Presbyterian, and was proud of it; he came out of the Black North and
was the most acute harp, mentally, that I had ever had anything to do
with. The Chosen People are not noted for commercial density; but a Jew
could enter Mac's presence attired in the height of fashion and leave it
with only his shoe strings and a hazy recollection as to how the thing
was done.

"Now, when a team like Cap. and Mac took to pulling together, there just
naturally had to be something doing. They began with a small show under
canvas, and their main card was a twenty-foot boa-constrictor, which
they billed as 'Mighty Mardo.' Then they had a boy with three legs, one
of which they neglected to state was made of wood; also a blushing
damsel with excess embonpoint to the extent of four hundred pounds. With
this outfit they campaigned for one season; in the fall they bought a
museum in St. Louis and settled themselves as impresarios.

"Now, in my numerous meetings with Cap. I had never thought to ask his
name, so when I saw an 'ad' in the _Clipper_ stating that Sheldon &
McClintock was in need of a good full-toned lecturer that doubled in
brass, I just sat me down in my ignorance and dropped them a line. They
sent me a ticket to where I was sidetracked up in Michigan, and I
hurried down.

"'Oh, it's you, is it?' says Cap., as I piked into the ten by twelve
office and announced myself. 'Well, I've heard you throw a spiel and
think you'll do. But I didn't know that you played brass. What's your
instrument?'

"Now, I had a faint senti