met with Jordan Algrieve?

Another common species of the complaining bore are those who are
continually parading their bodily infirmities. For example, a man will
call on you, apparently for the express purpose of illustrating a most
interesting case of neuralgia. He comes into your office, perhaps, with
his head tied up in a handkerchief, and an expression of face as if he
had some time winked one eye very close, and had never since been able
to open it. Thinking himself an object worthy of study, he shows how the
darting pains vacillate between his eyes, invade his teeth, hold general
muster in his cheeks, take refuge in the back of his neck; and
demonstrates these points to you by applying his hands to the parts
designated, and uttering cries of feigned anguish to give effect to his
description. He informs you, as a piece of refreshing intelligence, that
it is devilish hard to bear, and enough to make a saint indulge in
profanity. When he has proceeded thus far, he may be taken with one of
his capricious pains, ducks his head between his knees, squeezes it with
his hands, and bawls out: 'O-h! Je-ru-sa-lem!' with a duration of sound
only limited by the capacity of his wind. He feels that he has a witness
to his sufferings, and wishes to make the most of it. When he gets
sufficiently easy, he tells you his experience with various remedies,
enumerates all the lotions, liniments, ointments, and other applications
he has used, with his opinion on the merits of each.

Another person will accost you on a bright day with a most saturnine and
wo-begone visage, informing you that he is in a terrible way, that his
food distresses him, and he can't any longer take comfort in eating. He
places his hand in the region of his stomach, remarks that he feels a
great load there, and makes the usual complaints of a dyspeptic. He is
pathetic over the fact that his physician has denied him fried oysters
and mince pie for evening lunch, and closes his observations by
exclaiming in a moralizing vein that 'such is life!'

A third individual has a throat disease, and, forgetful of his bad
breath, desires you to take a minute survey of his glottis, and inform
him of its appearance. Accordingly he opens his mouth and throws back
his head as if he were inviting you to an entertaining show.

These are but a tithe of the examples of people who exhibit in public
and at social gatherings their ills and ailments, accompanied with
dreary complainin