BROUGHAM AND WALLACE 455 



.60 ; he had to fiddle away for ten or twelve seconds 

 at the abacus. In the brocade-shop of Laon-Kai-Fook ct 

 Co. I bought 3^ yards of goods at $1.60 a yard. It was 

 easy for me to say $5.20 at once, and I laid that amount 

 on the counter ; but the clerk doubtfully shook his head, 

 and going at the abacus, in a short while evolved the same 

 sum total. Yet he will do intricate sums in interest and 

 discount as readily as he does the 3 + 10. The abacus 

 spoils his mental arithmetic as many books destroy the 

 memory ; but it averages well. 



Xow, the moral of all this is tliat the Chinaman rides 

 his horse much as he does his figuring — not by under- 

 standing the animal and the Avork to be done, but by the 

 use of a sort of equine abacus. If the pony shies, he has 

 to rattle out the best thing to do by a mechanical process, 

 or get "rattled" himself. His intuitions, his horse-sense 

 are nil. What wonder he is no rider ! 



Which last phrase reminds me of the old story that 

 John Brougham is said to have once told on Lester Wal- 

 lack, in payment for some practical joke by the latter. 

 It was at an actors' dinner, and in his after-dinner speech 

 Brougham said that he had lately had a dream. " I had 

 died,"" said he, " and was laboriously plodding up towards 

 the gates of Paradise, foot-sore and weary, along the dusty 

 highway, with a lot of other pilgrims, all manifestly from 

 among the lowly in station, when I heard the sound of 

 wheels behind me and the blare of a horn ; and, turning, 

 I saw coming towards me a fine crimson coach and four 

 spanking bays, the leaders cantering and the wdieelers on 

 a strong, square trot, as stylish as you please. Stepping 

 aside, to my surprise I perceived Lester Wallack on the 

 box, tooling the team in a masterly manner ; and as he 

 passed, heedless of my shout of recognition, flicking a fly 

 from his off-leader s nia'h ear with the nonchalance of an 



