A man that sold whistles
capable of reproducing exactly the notes of the mocking-bird and the
guinea-pig set forth the durability of the invention. "Now, you see this
whistle, gentlemen. It is rubber, all rubber; and rubber, you know, enters
into the composition of a great many valuable articles. This whistle,
then, is entirely of rubber,--no worthless or flimsy material that drops
to pieces the moment you put it to your lips,"--as if it were not utterly
desirable that it should. "Now, I'll give you the mocking-bird, gentlemen,
and then I'll give you the guinea-pig, upon this pure _India_-rubber
whistle." And he did so with a great animation,--this young man with a
perfectly intelligent and very handsome face. "Try your strength, and
renovate your system!" cried the proprietor of a piston padded at one end
and working into a cylinder when you struck it a blow with your fist; and
the owners of lung-testing machines called upon you from every side to try
their consumption cure; while the galvanic-battery men sat still and
mutely appealed with inscriptions attached to their cap-visors declaring
that electricity taken from their batteries would rid you of every ache
and pain known to suffering humanity.
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