Page:The ransom of Red Chief and other O. Henry stories for boys.djvu/90

72 What is this paraphernalia you speak of, Doc?' says the Mayor. 'You ain't a Socialist, are you?'

I am speaking,' says I, 'of the great doctrine of psychic financiering—of the enlightened school of long-distance, sub-conscientious treatment of fallacies and meningitis—of that wonderful indoor sport known as personal magnetism.'

Can you work it, Doc?' asks the Mayor.

I'm one of the Sole Sanhedrims and Ostensible Hooplas of the Inner Pulpit,' says I. 'The lame talk and the blind rubber whenever I make a pass at 'em. I am a medium, a coloratura hypnotist, and a spirituous control. It was only through me at the recent seances at Ann Arbor that the late president of the Vinegar Bitters Company could revisit the earth to communicate with his sister Jane. You see me peddling medicine on the streets,' says I, 'to the poor. I don't practice personal magnetism on them. I do not drag it in the dust,' says I, 'because they haven't got the dust.'

Will you treat my case?' asks the Mayor.

Listen,' says I. 'I've had a good deal of trouble with medical societies everywhere I've