“Well, what was his reply?” I asked, as the editor hesitated.
“O, he has not yet informed me.”
American Humbugs.
Humbug is not necessarily synonymous with ignorance. So far from it, that doubtless a very perfect and successful man in the art of humbugging must be educated to his business.
The following true statement is a case in point: A physician of New York, now in excellent standing, who “rolls in riches,” and whose own carriage is drawn by a span of horses that Bonner once might have envied, was but a few years ago as poor as a church mouse, and as unknown as Scripture. He had graduated with honors in Transylvania University, opened an office in a country town, where his knowledge and talents were unappreciated, and which place he abandoned after a twelve months’ patient waiting for a practice which did not come. He had become poorer every month, and but for the kind assistance of early friends, must have perished of want.
“Either it is distressingly healthy here, or the good people are afraid to trust their lives and healths in the hands of an inexperienced physician,” he remarked to a friend to whom he applied for means for a new start elsewhere.
“And where will you try your luck next?” inquired his friend.
“In New York city.”
“In New York city?”
“Yes, and I shall there succeed,” he exclaimed, with great determination.