There is a story which comes in here by way of illustration. An old lady had a case in court which was going slowly. She desired more speed, and asked an old man, who was supposed to know everything, how she could accelerate the matter. "Give your lawyer twenty francs." "What! will the grave and great man take twenty francs? Would he not throw the money in my face and feel so insulted that he would throw up my case?" "He might, but I can tell you how to know whether he will take the gratuity or not. When you come into his presence observe his mouth. If it runs up and down his face don't offer it to him, for he would not take it. But if his mouth runs across his face offer it with confidence. Every man in Switzerland whose mouth is cut crosswise the face will accept a gratuity." It so happened that in sailing up the lake the question of piracy came up,--it grew out of a discussion of the charges at the various hotels--when Tibbitts broke in with that calm confidence that distinguishes the young man:-- "I have been giving the matter of piracy most serious consideration, its rise, decline and fall. Formerly piracy was everywhere on the high seas. Adventurous spirits manned vessels which were built, armed and sent out by wealthy corporations, their business being to capture merchant vessels, cut the throats of the male passengers and crew and confiscate the property. In those halcyon days money was gold and silver, and the pirates after capturing a rich prize sailed their vessels to some point on the Spanish main, where there was a convenient cove, captured a Spanish village, murdered the men, and made such love to the women that they very soon preferred the picturesque villains to their virtuous but common-place and insipid (because honest) husbands. And there they lived; gaily dancing fandangos and boleros, under the shade of palms, to the soft pleasings of the lute, till the money was spent (by the way I never could see how they spent money in such places after they had killed all the shop-keepers and saloon men) and then they sailed sweetly out to be a scourge of the seas once more. "It was a pleasant thing to be a pirate in those days. "The first blow this industry received was the invention of sight draft, by which money could be transmitted. The pirate who seized drafts couldn't forge the names necessary to their collection, to say nothing of the risk of presenting himself at a bank in London to collect them. [Sidenote: PIRACY ON LAKE ERIE.]