' "'Which the news is exhilaratin' an'
interestin',' I says; 'shake ag'in! If thar's one thin-I regyards
high, it's a scientist. Whatever partic'lar wagon-track do you-all
follow off, may I ask?' "It's then this old gent an' I la'nches into
a gen'ral discussion onder the head of mes'lancous business, I
reckons, an' lie puts it up his long suit, as he calls it, is `moral
epidemics.' He says he's wrote one book onto 'em, an' sw'ar:; he'll
write another if nobody heads him off; the same bein' on-likely. As
he sees how I'm interested, the old sport sets down an' lays it out
to me how sentiments goes in herds an' droves, same as weather an'
things like that. "'Oneday you rolls out in the mornin',' this old
gent declar's, `an' thar you reads how everybody commits sooicide.
Then some other day it's murder, then robbery, an' ag'in, the whole
round-up goes to holdin' them church meetin's an' gettin' religion.
Them's waves; moral epidemics,' he says.
"Which this don't look so egreegious none as a statement, neither,
an' so after pow-wowin' a lot, all complacent an' genial, I tells
the old gent he's got a good game, an' I thinks myse'f his system
has p'ints. At this, he admits he's flattered; an' then, as we're
gettin' to the ends of our lariats, we tips our sombreros to each
other an' lets it go at that.
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