“I wish to explain that I am here to introduce these microscopes, and that I have orders to place them with every drug and jewelry store in your city. The price will be from two to three dollars, and if you wish them after I am gone you can get them from your local dealers at those figures. “I am going to sell them tonight, however, for the purpose of introduction, and for the small sum of twenty-five cents; and with every microscope that is sold I will give one of these valuable Look-Backs, free of charge. The first man who passes me up a quarter gets a pair of these valuable articles. Thank you, sir; you break the ice, and for the rest of your life you will be thanking me.” The quarters began to roll in, and my local talent was kept busy in helping me keep track of the people in the crowd who wanted to be customers. They had already helped me out in “looking backward,” but the musician I had sent for a loaf of bread must have forgotten me, since he never returned. Of course, I never actually attempted to do the trick, but used the patter to interest the crowd, and if asked for it would make some comical excuse which would raise a laugh. The “Look-Backs” cost me fifty cents per dozen and the microscopes fifty-eight. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VII. THE MUSEUM SCHEME AND THE SIX WIDOWS—TRAVELING WITHOUT PAYING RAILROAD FARE—LIVING ON FREE LUNCHES—AT A LOW EBB—THE ANIMATED CHOCOLATE DROP—OLD AUNTIE FROM SMOKY ROW—THE CORN DOCTOR—THE EXCITED MOB—NOT ONLY BROKE, BUT DEAD-BROKE—THE LETTER FROM HOME—GETTING OUT OF TOWN. Of course, it would take up too much time to tell of all my wanderings and my numerous ups and downs. My idea is not to give more than one experience with any particular line of business, and in that show just how I worked, and indicate about what was my percentage of profit. I worked off the stock of goods sent me C. O. D. by my friend, the professor, bought a number of other stocks on my own account, and covered considerable territory. If my success was great, however, my personal expenses were large. I was not naturally an extravagant man, had not very well remembered the lessons of economy, and wealth did not accumulate in my hands as rapidly as the reader might suppose. One morning I woke up with nothing special on my hands, and just three hundred dollars in my pockets. Impelled by what was probably a whim to start in some permanent business, I went to the town of Marshall, Georgia, on a prospecting tour. I saw no opening there which impressed me favorably, until, while I was waiting undecided what to do, I met the manager of a theatrical company which had just stranded in a neighboring city.