CHAP. ix. APPEALS TO " THE MILLIONS:' 171 



her. By that time, although Edward's doom was not 

 altogether sealed, still he knew, humanly speaking, 

 that his fate was inevitahly fixed, and that he had no 

 visible means of escape from his lamentable position. 



We have said that when Edward opened his exhi- 

 bition in Aberdeen, he expected that there would be 

 a large influx of visitors to see the collection of 

 objects in natural history, which he had made with 

 so much labour and difficulty. But there was no 

 rush whatever. The attendance was always very 

 small. The exhibition-room was for the most part 

 empty. Edward at first thought that he had fixed the 

 price too high. But he could remedy that defect. The 

 better classes had failed him ; now he would try the 

 working-people. He would call "the millions" to 

 his aid. Accordingly he reduced the entrance-price 

 to a penny. 



But "the millions" never came. So far as 

 Edward's collection was concerned, their minds 

 seemed as hard and impenetrable as the adaman- 

 tine houses in which they lived. Their hearts, he 

 thought, were made of their native granite. Still 

 he would make another effort. He now advertised 

 more widely than before, thinking that extended 

 publicity might prove successful. He had bills 

 printed by the thousand ; he employed sandwich- 

 men to carry them about, to distribute them in the 

 market, in the principal thoroughfares, at the gates 

 of the factories and principal working places, and 



